2 Corinthians 2:12-3:6

“Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.” (2 Corinthians 2:14)

Paul breaks off a travel narrative at Troas, where an open door meant nothing to him because Titus was not there, and the interruption becomes the letter's central image. God leads us in triumphal procession: the picture is a Roman triumph with incense burning along the route, and Paul places himself not among the victors but among those led in it. The fragrance that rises is Christ himself, and it is read two ways by two sets of people, life to those being saved and death to those perishing, which is why Paul asks who is sufficient for these things. Chapter 3 then answers the Corinthian demand for credentials. Other teachers arrive carrying letters of recommendation; Paul says the congregation itself is his letter, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on human hearts. The allusion to Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 sets up the contrast that governs the rest of the chapter, a ministry of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, since the letter kills and the Spirit gives life.

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