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 me:
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.