3
1 Are
we beginning again
to commend
ourselves? Or do
we need, as
do some, letters
of commendation to
you or from
you?
2 You
are our letter,
written in our
hearts, known
and read by all
men,
3 being
revealed that you
are a letter
of Christ, served
by us, written
not with ink,
but with the
Spirit of the
living God; not
in tablets of
stone, but in
tablets that are
hearts of flesh.
4 Such
confidence we have
through Christ
toward God,
5 not
that we are
sufficient of
ourselves to
account anything
as from ourselves;
but our
sufficiency is
from God,
6 who
also made
us sufficient as
servants of a
new covenant, not
of the letter
but of the
Spirit. For the
letter kills, but
the Spirit gives
life.
7 But
if the service
of death, written
engraved on stones,
came with glory,
so that the
children of Israel
could not
look steadfastly on
the face of
Moses for the
glory of his
face, which was
passing away,
8 won’t
service of the
Spirit be with
much more glory?
9 For
if the service
of condemnation
has glory, the
service of
righteousness exceeds much
more in glory.
10 For most
certainly that
which has been
made glorious has
not been made
glorious in this
respect, by reason
of the glory
that surpasses.
11 For
if that
which passes away
was with glory,
much more that
which remains is
in glory.
12 Having
therefore such a
hope, we use
great boldness of
speech,
13 and
not as Moses,
who put a
veil on his
face so that
the children of
Israel wouldn’t look steadfastly
on the end
of that which
was passing away.
14 But
their minds were
hardened, for
until this very
day at the reading
of the old
covenant the same
veil remains,
because in Christ
it passes away.
15 But
to this day,
when Moses is read,
a veil lies
on their heart.
16 But
whenever someone turns
to the Lord,
the veil is
taken away.
17 Now
the Lord is
the Spirit; and
where the Spirit
of the Lord
is, there is
liberty.
18 But
we all,
with unveiled face seeing
the glory of
the Lord as
in a mirror,
are transformed
into the same
image from glory
to glory, even
as from the
Lord, the Spirit.