3 Do we begin to praise ourselves again? Or do we need, as some others, letters of recommendation to you, or of recommendation from you?
2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, which is understood and read by all mankind;
3 in that you appear to be the letter of Christ, ministered by us, and written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart.
4 And such trust 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 Who has also made us able ministers of the New Testament - not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 If then, the ministry of death (written with letters and engraved in stones) was glorious; so that the children of Israel could not behold the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance (a glory which has gone away),
8 how shall not the ministry of the Spirit be more glorious?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, the ministry of righteousness much more exceeds it in glory.
10 For even that which was glorified was not glorified in this point: that is, regarding the exceeding glory.
11 For if that which is abolished was glorious, much more so shall that which remains be glorious.
12 Seeing then that we have such trust, we use great boldness of speech.
13 And we are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face so that the children of Israel would not look intently into the end of that which would be abolished.
14 But their minds were hardened. For until this day remains the same covering in the reading of the old Testament, which veil is put away in Christ.
15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is laid over their hearts.
16 Nevertheless, when their heart shall be turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
17 Now, the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.