2 Corinthians 3
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
Do we seem to be again attempting to put ourselves in the right? or have we need, as some have, of letters of approval to you or from you?
2 You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by everyone.
You yourselves are our letter, whose writing is in our heart, open for every man's reading and knowledge;
3 It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
For you are clearly a letter of Christ, the fruit of our work, recorded not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in stone, but in hearts of flesh.
4 Such confidence before God is ours through Christ.
And this is the certain faith which we have in God through Christ:
5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.
Not as if we were able by ourselves to do anything for which we might take the credit; but our power comes from God;
6 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.
Who has made us able to be servants of a new agreement; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter gives death, but the Spirit gives life.
7 Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory,
For if the operation of the law, giving death, recorded in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the eyes of the children of Israel had to be turned away from the face of Moses because of its glory, a glory which was only for a time:
8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
Will not the operation of the Spirit have a much greater glory?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of righteousness!
For if the operation of the law, producing punishment, had its glory, how much greater will be the operation of the Spirit causing righteousness?
10 Indeed, what was once glorious has no glory now in comparison to the glory that surpasses it.
For the glory of the first no longer seems to be glory, because of the greater glory of that which comes after.
11 For if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which endures!
For if the order which was for a time had its glory, much more will the eternal order have its glory.
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
Having then such a hope, we keep nothing back,
13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was fading away.
And are not like Moses, who put a veil on his face, so that the children of Israel might not see clearly to the end of the present order of things:
14 But their minds were closed. For to this day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant. It has not been lifted, because only in Christ can it be removed.
But their minds were made hard: for to this very day at the reading of the old agreement the same veil is still unlifted; though it is taken away in Christ.
15 And even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
But to this day, at the reading of the law of Moses, a veil is over their heart.
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
But when it is turned to the Lord, the veil will be taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there the heart is free.
18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
But we all, with unveiled face giving back as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord who is the Spirit.
