2 CorinthiansChapter 3

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¹Are we starting to praise ourselves again? Or do we need letters that say good things about us, like some people do? Do we need them to bring to you or to get from you? ²You yourselves are our letter. You are written on our hearts. Everyone knows and reads you. ³It is clear that you are a letter from Christ. You are the result of our work. This letter was not written with ink. It was written with the Spirit of the living God. It was not written on tablets of stone. It was written on tablets of human hearts. ⁴We can be this sure before God because of Christ. ⁵We are not able by ourselves to say that anything comes from us. No, our ability comes from God. ⁶He has made us able to serve a new covenant. It is not a covenant of the written law but of the Spirit. The written law kills, but the Spirit gives life.a ⁷The old way of serving God brought death. It was carved in letters on stone. Yet it came with so much glory that the Israelites could not look at Moses' face. They could not look because of its glory, even though that glory was fading. ⁸So won't the way of serving that comes by the Spirit have even more glory? ⁹The way of serving that judged people guilty had glory. So the way of serving that makes people right with God has much more glory! ¹⁰In fact, what once had glory has no glory now. That is because of the far greater glory that has come. ¹¹What was fading away came with glory. So what lasts forever has much greater glory! ¹²We have such a hope. So we are very bold. ¹³We are not like Moses. He would put a veil over his face. That kept the Israelites from staring at the end of what was fading away. ¹⁴But their minds were closed. Even today the same veil is still there when the old covenant is read. It has not been taken away, because only in Christ can it be removed. ¹⁵Even today when the books of Moses are read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶But any time someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸Our faces are not covered with a veil. We all show the Lord's glory, like a mirror. And we are being changed to look like him, with more and more glory. This glory comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.