2 Corinthians 3

Living Letters

3Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you? ²You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone. ^f3It is clear that you are Christ’s letter, ^gproduced ^hby us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God ⁱ—not on stone tablets ^jbut on tablets that are hearts of flesh. ^k

Paul’s Competence

⁴We have this kind of confidence toward God through Christ. ⁵It is not that we are competent in ^lourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our competence is from God. ^m6He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, ⁿnot of the letter, ^obut of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life.

New Covenant Ministry

⁷Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, ^pso that the Israelites were not able to look directly at Moses’ face because of the glory from his face—a fading glory— ⁸how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? ⁹For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness overflows with even more glory. ¹⁰In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹For if what was fading away ^qwas glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

¹²Therefore, having such a hope, ^rwe use great boldness. ¹³We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face ^sso that the Israelites could not stare at the end of what was fading away, ¹⁴but their minds were closed. ^tuFor to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, ^vthe same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. ^w15Even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, ¹⁶but whenever a person turns ^xto the Lord, the veil is removed. ^y17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at ^zathe glory of the Lord ^band are being transformed ^cinto the same image ^dfrom glory to glory; ^ethis is from the Lord who is the Spirit. ^f