In today's first reading we continue listening to Paul defending himself against false accusations of dishonesty and insincerity. Paul felt this need to defend himself, not for his own sake or to assuage some wounded pride, but in order to defend God's work in him and the mission which he received from Christ. In his conversion experience, he has learned that he cannot rely on himself or his own behaviour in order to win salvation: salvation is God's totally free gift to us in Christ. Thus Paul affirms: "Our sole credit is from God" (2Cor 3:6). The word "credit" here is sometimes, probably more accurately, translated as "qualifications" or "sufficiency". In any case, Paul is reaffirming the liberating truth of Christ against his old life stance that he could be sufficient in himself if he kept every letter of the Law. In several places in his letters he returns to this theme of his own inadequacy. Yet his sense of inadequacy is not an unwarranted self-rejection, for his recognition of his own personal inadequacy is intimately linked with a deep and positive recognition of God as the source of all adequacy and ability.