2 Corinthians Chapter 3
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by everyone⁺.
3 You are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. Not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 Such trust do we have through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.
6 God has also made us able ministers of the new covenant⁺. Not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
7 But if the administration of death written and engraved⁺ in stones was glorious, so much so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away,
8 then how shall the administration of the spirit not be rather~ more glorious?
9 For if the administration~ of condemnation is glory, then much more does the administration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels.
11 For if what is done away was glorious, even much moreso is what remains glorious.
12 Therefore, seeing that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech.
13 We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of what is abolished.
14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains. It is not taken away in the reading of the old covenant⁺, but the veil is done away in Christ.
15 Even to this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts.
16 Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil will be taken away.
17 Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But with an open face beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror⁺, we are all changed by the Spirit of the Lord into the same image, from glory~ shining upon us to glory reflected in us.