2 Corinthians 3:6 - Homiletics

The ministry of the letter and the ministry of the spirit.

"The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Notice—

I. The twofold MINISTRY . "Ministers... not of the letter, but of the spirit." What does this mean? Not the two dispensations, the Mosaic and the Christian; for both alike had "letter" and "spirit." Nor does it mean a double interpretation of the Scripture, the literal and the spiritual It means, I think, the word and the thought, the sentence and the sentiment. Christianity has both "letter" and "spirit." If it had no "letter," it would be unrevealed, a thought shut up in the mind of God; if it had no "spirit," it would be but a hollow sound. The words point to two distinct methods of teaching Christianity.

1 . The technical method . Who are the technical teachers?

2 . The spiritual . What is it to be a minister of the "spirit"? He is a man more alive to the grace than the grammar, to the substance than the symbols of revelation. He is a man who has a comprehensive knowledge of those eternal principles that underlie all Scriptures, and has a living sympathy with those eternal elements.

II. The twofold RESULTS . "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

1 . The result of the technical ministry. It "killeth."

2 . The result of the spiritual ministry. "The spirit giveth life." "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." "The spirit giveth life"—life to the intellect, conscience, sympathies, the whole soul.

CONCLUSION . How little of this soul-life we have in congregations! Creed-life, sect-life, Church-life, we have in abundance; hut where is soul-life, the life of holy love, earnest inquiry, independent action, spiritual freedom in relation to all that is Christlike and Divine?