2:14 But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession 1 in Christ 2 and who makes known 3 through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place. 2:15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing – 2:16 to the latter an odor 4 from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? 5 2:17 For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, 6 but we are speaking in Christ before 7 God as persons of sincerity, 8 as persons sent from God.
3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we? 9 3:2 You yourselves are our letter, 10 written on our hearts, known and read by everyone, 3:3 revealing 11 that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, 12 written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets 13 but on tablets of human hearts.
3:4 Now we have such confidence in God through Christ. 3:5 Not that we are adequate 14 in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy 15 is from God, 3:6 who made us adequate 16 to be servants of a new covenant 17 not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
1 tn Or “who always causes us to triumph.”
2 tn Or “in the Messiah.”
3 tn Or “who reveals.”
4 tn The same Greek word (ὀσμή, osmh) translated “odor” here (in relation to the stench of death) has been translated “fragrance” in 2:14 and in the next phrase of the present verse. The word itself can describe a smell or odor either agreeable or disagreeable depending on the context (L&N 79.45).
5 sn These things refer to the things Paul is doing in his apostolic ministry.
7 tn The participle καπηλεύοντες (kaphleuonte") refers to those engaged in retail business, but with the negative connotations of deceptiveness and greed – “to peddle for profit,” “to huckster” (L&N 57.202). In the translation a noun form (“hucksters”) has been used in combination with the English verb “peddle…for profit” to convey the negative connotations of this term.
8 tn Or “in the presence of.”
9 tn Or “persons of pure motives.”
10 tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply (“No, we do not”) which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ at the end, “do we?”
13 tn That is, “letter of recommendation.”
16 tn Or “making plain.”
17 tn Grk “cared for by us,” an expression that could refer either to the writing or the delivery of the letter (BDAG 229 s.v. διακονέω 1). Since the following phrase refers to the writing of the letter, and since the previous verse speaks of this “letter” being “written on our [Paul’s and his companions’] hearts” it is more probable that the phrase “cared for by us” refers to the delivery of the letter (in the person of Paul and his companions).
18 sn An allusion to Exod 24:12; 31:18; 34:1; Deut 9:10-11.
19 tn Or “competent.”
20 tn Or “competence.”
22 tn Or “competent.”
23 sn This new covenant is promised in Jer 31:31-34; 32:40.