2 Corinthians
Chapter 3
1 Are we starting to praise ourselves again? Do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to or from you?
2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by everyone.
3 It is clear that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on the human heart’s living pages.
4 We have this confidence in God through Christ.
5 We are not capable on our own to consider anything as coming from ourselves; our ability comes from God.
6 God has also made us skilled servants of the new agreement; not by the written laws, but by the spirit: because the written laws can cause death, but the spirit gives life.
7 But if the service of death, written on stones, was so bright that the people of Israel could not look straight at Moses’s face because of its shine, which was passing away:
8 How could serving in the Spirit not be more glorious?
9 For if the service that brings condemnation is glorious, the service that brings righteousness is far more glorious.
10 Even what used to be glorious has no glory now compared to the greater glory.
11 If something that ends was great, then what stays is even greater.
12 Since we have this hope, we speak very clearly.
13 Unlike Moses, who covered his face with a veil to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of the fading glory.
14 Their minds were closed. Even today, the same covering stays when they read the old covenant, not removed because it is taken away through Christ.
15 But even now, when people read about Moses, their hearts are covered like with a veil.
16 When people turn to God, the veil will be removed.
17 Now God is that Spirit, and where God’s Spirit is, there is freedom.
18 We all, with uncovered faces, look at God’s glory as if looking in a mirror and are transformed to become more like Him, from one degree of glory to another, by God’s Spirit.