Paul has just said that the same message is a "savour of death unto death" to some and a "savour of life unto life" to others. That thought stops him. Who could ever be equal to a work with eternal results like that? Barnes reads it as an exclamation of trembling: "Who is worthy of so important a charge? Who can undertake it without trembling?" Gill offers three ways to read it: who can explain why the gospel has such different effects, who is fit to preach it, or who can make it succeed. His answer to each is the same: no one in himself, but God alone.

Paul answers in the next lines. First he says what kind of minister he is: "we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God," but speak "as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God" (2 Corinthians 2:17). Then he gives the full answer: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves ... but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). The answer is that no one is sufficient alone, but God makes His servants sufficient.

Matthew Henry notes that in ancient triumphs "abundance of perfumes and sweet odours were used," which helps explain Paul's picture of being led in triumph while spreading a fragrance (2 Corinthians 2:14). Barnes and Gill both point out that Jewish teachers used similar language about the Law of Moses, calling it a savour of life to some and a savour of death to others. The Greek word for "sufficient" is hikanos, meaning competent or fit for a task. Paul uses the same idea again a few lines later when he says "our sufficiency is of God" (2 Corinthians 3:5).

This question shows how seriously Paul took the message he carried. The gospel is never neutral. Barnes calls the ministry a work "whose influence must be felt either in the eternal salvation, or the eternal ruin of the soul." Paul does not answer that weight with self-confidence or with despair. He answers it with God. Matthew Henry puts it this way: "The work is great, and of ourselves we have no strength at all; all our sufficiency is of God."

Gill adds that results belong to God too. Echoing Paul's earlier words (1 Corinthians 3:6), he writes, "Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but it is God alone that gives the increase." The question humbles the messenger and lifts up the God who sends him.