¹Do we have to show you our qualifications again? Do we, like some people, need letters that recommend us to you or letters from you that recommend us to others? ²You’re our letter of recommendation written in our hearts that everyone knows and reads. ³It’s clear that you are Christ’s letter, written as a result of our ministry. You are a letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, a letter written not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴Christ gives us confidence about you in God’s presence. ⁵By ourselves we are not qualified in any way to claim that we can do anything. Rather, God makes us qualified. ⁶He has also qualified us to be ministers of a new promise,^aa spiritual promise, not a written one. Clearly, what was written brings death, but the Spirit brings life.

⁷The ministry that brought death was inscribed on stone. Yet, it came with such glory that the people of Israel couldn’t look at Moses’ face. His face was shining with glory, even though that glory was fading. ⁸Won’t the ministry that brings the Spirit have even more glory? ⁹If the ministry that brings punishment has glory, then the ministry that brings God’s approval has an overwhelming glory. ¹⁰In fact, the ministry that brings punishment lost its glory because of the superior glory of the other ministry. ¹¹If that former ministry faded away despite its glory, how much more does that ministry which remains continue to be glorious?

¹²Since we have confidence ⸤in the new promise⸥, we speak very boldly. ¹³We are not like Moses. He kept covering his face with a veil. He didn’t want the people of Israel to see the glory fading away. ¹⁴However, their minds became closed. In fact, to this day the same veil is still there when they read the Old Testament. It isn’t removed, because only Christ can remove it. ¹⁵Yet, even today, when they read the books of Moses, a veil covers their minds. ¹⁶But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

¹⁷This Lord is the Spirit. Wherever the Lord’s Spirit is, there is freedom. ¹⁸As all of us reflect the Lord’s glory with faces that are not covered with veils, we are being changed into his image with ever-increasing glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

4TH CHAPTER

Paul Is Never Discouraged

¹We don’t become discouraged, since God has given us this ministry through his mercy. ²Instead, we have refused to use secret and shameful ways. We don’t use tricks, and we don’t distort God’s word. As God watches, we clearly reveal the truth to everyone. This is our ⸤letter of⸥ recommendation.

³So if the Good News that we tell others is covered with a veil, it is hidden from those who are dying. ⁴The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. As a result, they don’t see the light of the Good News about Christ’s glory. It is Christ who is God’s image.

⁵Our message is not about ourselves. It is about Jesus Christ as the Lord. We are your servants for his sake. ⁶We are his servants because the same God who said that light should shine out of darkness has given us light. For that reason we bring to light the knowledge about God’s glory which shines from Christ’s face.

⁷Our bodies are made of clay, yet we have the treasure of the Good News in them. This shows that the superior power of this treasure belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. ⁸In every way we’re troubled, but we aren’t crushed by our troubles. We’re frustrated, but we don’t give up. ⁹We’re persecuted, but we’re not abandoned. We’re captured, but we’re not killed. ¹⁰We always carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies so that the life of Jesus is also shown in our bodies. ¹¹While we are alive, we are constantly handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that the life of Jesus is also shown in our mortal nature. ¹²Death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

¹³The following is written, “I believed; therefore, I spoke.” We have that same spirit of faith. We also believe; therefore, we also speak. ¹⁴We know that the one who brought the Lord Jesus back to life will also bring us back to life through Jesus. He will present us to God together with you.

¹⁵All this is for your sake so that, as God’s kindness^aoverflows in the lives of many people, it will produce even more thanksgiving to the glory of God. ¹⁶That is why we are not discouraged. Though outwardly we are wearing out, inwardly we are renewed day by day. ¹⁷Our suffering is light and temporary and is producing for us an eternal glory that is greater than anything we can imagine. ¹⁸We don’t look for things that can be seen but for things that can’t be seen. Things that can be seen are only temporary. But things that can’t be seen last forever.

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Footnotes

a 3:6 Or “covenant.”
a 4:15 Or “grace.”