CHAPTER 3
Are we beginning
to commend
ourselves
again?
Or
do we need,
like
some people,
letters
of recommendation
to
you
or
from
you?
It is clear
that
you are
a letter
from Christ,
the result of our ministry,
written
not
with ink
but
with the Spirit
of the living
God,
not
on
tablets
of stone
but
on
tablets
of human
hearts.
Not
that
we are
competent
in
ourselves
to claim that
anything
comes
from
us,
but
our
competence
comes from
God.
And
He
has qualified
us
as ministers
of a new
covenant,
not
of the letter
but
of the Spirit;
for
the
letter
kills,
but
the
Spirit
gives life.
Now
if
the
ministry
of death,
which was engraved
in
letters
on stone,
came
with
such glory
that
the
Israelites
could
not
gaze
at
the
face
of Moses
because of
its
fleeting
glory,
For
if
the
ministry
of condemnation
was glorious,
how much
more
glorious
is the
ministry
of righteousness!
For
if
what
was fading away
came with
glory,
how much greater
is the
glory
of that which
endures!
We are
not
like
Moses,
who would put
a veil
over
his
face
to keep
the
Israelites
from
gazing
at
the
end
of what
was fading away.
But
their
minds
were closed.
For
to
this
day
the
same
veil
remains
at
the
reading
of the
old
covenant.
It has not been lifted,
because only
in
Christ
can it be removed.
And
we, who
with unveiled
faces
all
reflect
the
glory
of the Lord,
are being transformed into
His
image
with intensifying glory,
which comes
from
the Lord,
who is the Spirit.