2 Corinthians 3
1 Do you say that this is self-recommendation once more? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
Do we begin again to show you who we are? Or do we, like others, need that letters recommendatory of us should be written to you? Or, that ye should write recommendations of us?
2 Our letter of recommendation is yourselves--a letter written on our hearts and everywhere known and read.
Ye are our epistle, written on our hearts, and known and read by every man.
3 For all can see that you are a letter of Christ entrusted to our care, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the ever-living God--and not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts as tablets.
For ye know that ye are an epistle of the Messiah, ministered by us; not written with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on the tablets of the heart of flesh.
4 Such is the confidence which we have through Christ in the presence of God;
And such confidence have we in the Messiah towards God.
5 not that of ourselves we are competent to decide anything by our own reasonings, but our competency comes from God.
Not that we are sufficient to think any thing as of ourselves; but our efficiency is from God:
6 It is He also who has made us competent to serve Him in connexion with a new Covenant, which is not a written code but a Spirit; for the written code inflicts death, but the Spirit gives Life.
who hath fitted us to be ministers of the new Testament, not in the letter, but in the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.
7 If, however, the service that proclaims death--its code being engraved in writing upon stones--came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily on the face of Moses because of the brightness of his face--a vanishing brightness;
Now if the ministration of death was engraved upon stones in writing, and was so glorious that the children of Israel could not look on the face of Moses, on account of the glory upon his face which vanished away;
8 will not the service of the Spirit be far more glorious?
how then shall not the ministration of the Spirit be still more glorious?
9 For if the service which pronounces doom had glory, far more glorious still is the service which tells of righteousness.
For if there was glory in the ministration of condemnation, how much more shall the ministration of justification excel in glory?
10 For, in fact, that which was once resplendent in glory has no glory at all in this respect, that it pales before the glory which surpasses it.
For that which was glorious, was as if not glorious, in comparison with this which excelleth in glory.
11 For if that which was to be abolished came with glory, much more is that which is permanent arrayed in glory.
For if that which is abolished was glorious, much more must that which abideth be glorious.
12 Therefore, cherishing a hope like this, we speak without reserve, and we do not imitate Moses,
Seeing therefore we have this hope, we the more speak with boldness;
13 who used to throw a veil over his face to hide from the gaze of the children of Israel the passing away of what was but transitory.
and are not like Moses, who threw a vail over his face, that the children of Israel might not behold the termination of that which was abolished.
14 Nay, their minds were made dull; for to this very day during the reading of the book of the ancient Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because it is only in Christ that it is to be abolished.
But they were blinded in their understanding; for until this day, when the old Testament is read, the same vail resteth upon them; nor is it manifest to them, that it is abolished by the Messiah.
15 Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their hearts.
And unto this day, when Moses is read, a vail is thrown upon their hearts.
16 But whenever the heart of the nation shall have returned to the Lord, the veil will be withdrawn.
But when any of them is turned unto the Lord, the vail is taken from him.
17 Now by "the Lord" is meant the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, freedom is enjoyed.
Now the Lord himself is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And all of us, with unveiled faces, reflecting like bright mirrors the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same likeness, from one degree of radiant holiness to another, even as derived from the Lord the Spirit.
And we all, with uncovered faces, behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and are transformed into the same likeness, from glory to glory, as by the Lord the Spirit.
