3:16
When we turn to the Lord the veil is removed. It is our rebellion against God that blinds our minds. When we end that rebellion we see things differently. This applies most of all at the point of conversion, but also at other points in our Christian life. Whenever we insist on seeing things our way we actually don't see things at all.
3:17
We rebel against God thinking we are defending our freedom, but in reality it is only when we end our rebellion that we find true freedom. But what does it mean to say the Lord is the Spirit or spirit? The answer probably comes from Pharisaic teaching. The words of the Law were the letter of the Law, the spirit was the true meaning of the Law. Paul is saying that Jesus is the true meaning of the Law. It is only in Christ that we see the meaning of the Law.
3:18
The primary problem of the Corinthian church, demonstrated both in 1 Corinthians and dealt with most directly in 2 Corinthians, was judging themselves by the world’s standards, and acting like the world. This is an utterly foolish thing to do, and Paul urges them to become “fools”, ie to forget the world’s way of judging things and not to be afraid to be despised or looked down upon by the church. This is a problem that today’s church faces, and it occurs in various guises. On the one hand there are those who want to be “woke”. This involves supporting wrong causes, eg the sin-affirming churches who go along with the LGBT agenda, and supporting causes in the wrong way, eg adopting the victimhood approach to genuine problems like racism. It also applies to churches thinking that adopting more professional or more gimmicky approaches. Of course, wisdom is needed in all these, for one can easily go to the other extreme. Eg a church being as out of date as possible and thinking that is holiness, or failing to address genuine problems. However, the key issue that Paul was addressing here was that of pride and a wrong sort of glory.
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