|
Chapter 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? |
| 2 | Ye are our epistle written in our
hearts, known and read of all men: |
|
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 in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. |
| 4 | And such trust have we through
Christ to God-ward: |
| 5 | Not
that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our
sufficiency is of God; |
| 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. |
| 7 | But if the ministration of
death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of
Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance; which glory was to be done away: |
| 8 | How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather
glorious? |
| 9 | For if the
ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory. |
| 10
| For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by
reason of the glory that excelleth. |
|
11 | For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that
which remaineth is glorious. |
| 12
| Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of
speech: |
| 13 | And not as
Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not
stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: |
| 14 | But their minds were blinded: for
until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old
testament; which vail is done away in Christ. |
| 15 | But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is
upon their heart. |
| 16 |
Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. |
| 17 | Now the Lord is that
Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. |
| 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. |
