---
title: 2 Corinthians 3:6
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-corinthians-3-6/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-corinthians-3-6.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 2 Corinthians 3:6
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 2 Corinthians 3:6

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

## JW Usage

The Watchtower restricts the new covenant to "spiritual Israel" — the 144,000 anointed. On this reading, 2 Corinthians 3:6 ("he has made us adequately qualified to be ministers of a new covenant, not of a written code, but of spirit") applies only to the anointed class. The great crowd of other sheep are not parties to the new covenant but merely "benefit" from it — alien residents blessed by their association with the anointed, but not themselves sealed by its promises.

## Protestant Usage

Put Paul's words alongside Jeremiah's prophecy they echo. The new covenant promise in Jeremiah 31:33-34 says "they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," and its stated purpose is "I will forgive their error, and their sin I will remember no more." If you are excluded from the covenant, you are excluded from the forgiveness the covenant provides. Every human needs that forgiveness, and Paul applies "ministers of a new covenant" to "us" — the plain referent of Paul's letter to the Corinthian church, not a limited anointed subset.
The question to ask gently: "2 Corinthians 3:6 says Paul and his companions are ministers of the new covenant. Jeremiah 31:34 says the covenant includes everyone 'from the least to the greatest.' Matthew 26:27-28 has Jesus saying 'drink from it, all of you — this means my blood of the covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins.' If the forgiveness-of-sins covenant is only for 144,000, where is the great crowd's forgiveness? A covenant you are outside of is not better news than the old covenant — it is worse news."

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The New Covenant Includes All Believers](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/new-covenant-anointed-only.md) — Jeremiah 31:34 / Hebrews 8:11 — 'From the Least to the Greatest' [Salvation]
- [Ministers of a New Covenant](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/new-covenant-2cor3-direct-mediation.md) — 2 Corinthians 3:6, 18 — Paul's 'us' has no asterisk [Salvation]