2 Corinthians 3
1 Are we starting to speak well of ourselves again? Or do we need to have some letter of recommendation for you, or from you, as some people do?
DO we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 You are our letter, written in our experience with you, that everybody reads and knows about.
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 You demonstrate that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us; not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not written on stone slabs but in our living experience as human beings.
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 We have total confidence before God through Christ.
And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that we would consider ourselves able to do this on our own—it's God who gives us this capacity!
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 He also gave us the ability to be ministers of a new agreement, based not on the letter of the law, but on the spirit. The letter of the law kills, but the spirit gives life.
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
7 However, the old way of relating to God, written in letters carved in stone, ended in death, even though it came with God's glory—so much so that the Israelites couldn't even bear to look at Moses' face because it shone so brightly, even though the glory was fading.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 If that was so, shouldn't the new way of relating to God in the Spirit come with even greater glory?
How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 If the old way that condemns us has glory, the new way that makes us right with God has so much more glory!
For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For the old that was once glorious has no glory at all in comparison with the incredible glory of the new.
For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
11 If the old that is fading away had glory, the new that continues has so much more glory.
For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
12 Since we have such a confident hope, we are truly bold!
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 We don't have to be like Moses, who had to put on a veil to cover his face so the Israelites wouldn't be dazzled by the glory, even though it was fading away.
And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
14 In spite of that, they had a hard, stubborn attitude. For right up until today when the old agreement is read, the same “veil” remains. Only through Christ can it be removed.
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
15 Even today, whenever the books of Moses are read, a veil covers their minds.
But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
16 But when they turn and accept the Lord, the veil is removed.
Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 So all of us, with our faces unveiled, see and reflect the glory of the Lord as in a mirror. We are being transformed into the same mirror image, whose glory grows brighter and brighter. This is what the Lord the Spirit does.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
