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?
Am I beginning again to "recommend" myself? Or do I need, as some do, letters of commendation either to you or from you?
2 You are our letter, written in our experience with you, that everybody reads and knows about.
You are my letter, written on my heart, known and read by 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.
Since all can see that you are a letter of Christ transcribed by men, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts as tablets.
4 We have total confidence before God through Christ.
Such confidence I have through Christ before God.
5 Not that we would consider ourselves able to do this on our own—it's God who gives us this capacity!
Not that I am sufficient in myself to reach any conclusion in my own wisdom; but my sufficiency is from 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.
It is he who has also made me sufficient as a minister of a new covenant; not of a letter but of a spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit makes alive.
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.
If, however, the administration of death, written with letters and engraved on stones, began in glory, so that the children of Israel could not gaze steadily on the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face - a glory even then fading -
8 If that was so, shouldn't the new way of relating to God in the Spirit come with even greater glory?
how much more shall the ministry of the Spirit abide in glory?
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 ministry of condemnation had glory, far more is the ministry of righteousness radiant in glory.
10 For the old that was once glorious has no glory at all in comparison with the incredible glory of the new.
Indeed that which once was glorious has lost its glory, because of the glory which surpasses it.
11 If the old that is fading away had glory, the new that continues has so much more glory.
For if that which was fading came in glory, far more will that which ever abides be glorious.
12 Since we have such a confident hope, we are truly bold!
Therefore, cherishing such a hope, I use great freedom 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.
I do not do as Moses did, who used to cover his face with a veil to keep the children of Israel from beholding the passing of a fading glory.
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.
Nay, their minds were made dull; for to this very day, at the public reading of the Old Testament, the same veil rests thereon, because it is not revealed to them that in Christ the veil is taken away.
15 Even today, whenever the books of Moses are read, a veil covers their minds.
Yes, to this very day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their hearts;
16 But when they turn and accept the Lord, the veil is removed.
but when their heart turns to our Lord the veil is stripped away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.
(The Lord means the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord abides there is freedom.)
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.
And we all, with unveiled faces, reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are ourselves continually being transformed into the same likeness, from glory to glory, as by the Lord, the Spirit.
