'Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills but the Spirit gives life.'

'The written code kills, but the Spirit gives life'. St Paul is making a rather bold distinction – a brave distinction really, because he is saying that the old written law of Moses is destructive, while the new law of Christ gives life. This would certainly be shocking to Jews, who had absolute reverence for the traditional laws laid down in the first five books of the Old Testament.

Why should St Paul say that the old written code of Moses kills? It's because the law was imposed on the Israelites from outside. They were not required to think about it – they just had to obey it. Eventually every aspect of life came, to be covered by the Jewish law in great detail, and all you had to do was look it up in the Scriptures. In other words it was an automatic, almost mindless code of conduct that left no room for thought or feeling. And, of course, the reason the Israelites kept the law was fear – fear of the wrath of God and what he might do, not only to individuals but to the whole Israelite nation if the laws were not obeyed.

St Paul contrasts this with the new covenant given by God through Jesus Christ. Christ's law is not mindless and automatic because his followers have been given the Holy Spirit, which makes Christians a different kind of people. The Spirit brings the love of God down to earth and spreads it among those who are faithful to Christ For Christians the law is not imposed from outside, and they do not have to look it up in the Scriptures; it is written in their hearts and minds, so that they will want to obey the law instinctively.

Jesus always preached the importance of the ten commandments, but he added an extra one: 'A new commandment I give you, that you love one another'. So all those old complicated Jewish laws about how to live every moment of your life have been replaced by one that ought to guide us in everything we do.

Does that mean that the Jewish laws were all wrong? Well, no. They were right at the time – right for an unsettled, wandering people who needed a strong code of behaviour in order to live disciplined lives. It was always God's intention that the Israelites should become a settled nation, living ordered lives in the land he had chosen for them, and eventually becoming so influential that they – would bring all other nations to God. That plan failed, not because God got it wrong but because the Israelites found it impossible to obey God and live the sort of life that he intended. They ignored God's messengers, the Prophets. They ended up dispersed, exiled from their country and almost completely powerless. That is what St Paul is thinking of when he says that the written law kills.

God's new covenant was different in two vital ways. First, he sent his Son to become a man and to provide a living example of how life should be lived. Secondly, when his Son returned to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit as a perpetual inspiration and guide.

The first law came down on stone tablets; the second law came down with Jesus Christ. But the second law is much more permanent because the Holy Spirit will always be present to keep it in the hearts and minds of Christians. And because it is in hearts and minds it is a living law. We obey it, not because we think something terrible disaster will happen to us if we don't, but because we want to be reunited with Christ in heaven. When we accept that covenant and its laws we enter a new kind of life. So, in St Paul's words, the Spirit gives life.

What St Paul is trying to do in this Epistle is to persuade the Church at Corinth out of its old ways and into a new Christian way of thinking. And his message is still needed today, because so many people who would call themselves Christians have still not grasped the point St Paul is making. You will still hear people who are undergoing some hardship or suffering say: 'I did something wrong and now God is punishing me'.

That's the old Jewish way of thinking. It's very hard to get out of the habit of believing that God has a scale of punishments which he inflicts when we do wrong. Steal something and your house will be burgled. Fail to help someone when they need it and someone you love will fall ill. That is the law that kills, because it reduces you to a constant state of fear – fear of the unknown, fear of the unpredictable. It is a wholly negative way of life.