2 Corinthians 3:5 - Exposition

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves. He here reverts to the question asked in 2 Corinthians 2:16 . He cannot bear the implication that any "confidence" on his part rests on anything short of the overwhelming sense that he is but an agent, or rather nothing but an instrument, in the hands of God. To think anything as of ourselves. He has, indeed, the capacity to form adequate judgments about his work, but it does not come from his own resources ( ἀφ ̓ ἑαυτῶν ) or his own independent origination ( ἐξ ἑαυτῶν ); comp. 1 Corinthians 15:10 . But our sufficiency. Namely, to form any true or right judgment, and therefore to express the confidence which I have expressed. Is of God. We are but fellow workers with him ( 1 Corinthians 3:19 ).