3:1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some
[others], epistles of commendation to you, or [letters] of
commendation from you.
3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by
all men:
3:3 [Forasmuch as ye are] manifestly declared to be the epistle
of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the
Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on
fleshly tables of the heart.
3:4 And such trust we have through Christ toward God.
3:5 Not that we are sufficient by ourselves to think any thing
as from ourselves; but our sufficiency [is] from God;
3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament;
not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth,
but the spirit giveth life.
3:7 But if the ministration of death, written [and] engraven on
stones, was glorious, 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;
3:8 How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather
glorious?
3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation [was] glory, much
more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
3:10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this
respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
3:11 For if that which was done away [was] glorious, much more
that which remaineth [is] glorious.
3:12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech:
3:13 And not as Moses, [who] put a vail over his face, that the
children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of
that which is abolished:
3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day the same
vail remaineth untaken away in the reading of the old
testament; which [vail] is done away in Christ.
3:15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon
their heart.
3:16 Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail
shall be taken away.
3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the
Lord [is], there [is] liberty.
3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.
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