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?
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or are we like some who need letters of commendation to you, or from you?
2 Our letter of recommendation is yourselves--a letter written on our hearts and everywhere known and read.
You yourselves are our letter — a letter written on our hearts, and one which everybody can read and understand.
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.
All can see that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, a letter written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on ‘tablets of stone,’ but on ‘tablets of human hearts.’
4 Such is the confidence which we have through Christ in the presence of God;
This, then, is the confidence in regard to God that we have gained through the Christ.
5 not that of ourselves we are competent to decide anything by our own reasonings, but our competency comes from God.
I do not mean that we are fit to form any judgment by ourselves, as if on our own authority;
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.
our fitness comes from God, who himself made us fit to be ministers of a New Covenant, of which the substance is, not a written Law, but a Spirit. For the written Law means Death, but the Spirit gives 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;
If the system of religion which involved Death, embodied in a written Law and engraved on stones, began amid such glory, that the Israelites were unable to gaze at the face of Moses on account of its glory, though it was but a passing glory,
8 will not the service of the Spirit be far more glorious?
will not the religion that confers the Spirit have still greater glory?
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 a glory in the religion that involved condemnation, far greater is the glory of the religion that confers righteousness!
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.
Indeed, that which then had glory has lost its glory, because of the glory which surpasses it.
11 For if that which was to be abolished came with glory, much more is that which is permanent arrayed in glory.
And, if that which was to pass away was attended with glory, far more will that which is to endure be surrounded with glory!
12 Therefore, cherishing a hope like this, we speak without reserve, and we do not imitate Moses,
With such a hope as this, we speak with all plainness;
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.
unlike Moses, who covered his face with a veil, to prevent the Israelites from gazing at the disappearance of what was passing away.
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 their minds were slow to learn. Indeed, to this very day, at the public reading of the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted; only for those who are in union with Christ does it pass away.
15 Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their hearts.
But, even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their hearts.
16 But whenever the heart of the nation shall have returned to the Lord, the veil will be withdrawn.
‘Yet, whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.’
17 Now by "the Lord" is meant the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, freedom is enjoyed.
And the ‘Lord’ 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 all of us, with faces from which the veil is lifted, seeing, as if reflected in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into his likeness, from glory to glory, as it is given by the Lord, the Spirit.
