Read Amplified Bible, 2015 2 Corinthians 3 Bible Online

2 Corinthians 3 - Amplified Bible, 2015 bible

2 Corinthians 3

¹Are we starting to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some [false teachers], letters of recommendation to you or from you? [No!]

²You are our letter [of recommendation], written in our hearts, recognized and read by everyone.

³You show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴Such is the confidence and steadfast reliance and absolute trust that we have through Christ toward God.

⁵Not that we are sufficiently qualified in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency and qualifications come from God.

⁶He has qualified us [making us sufficient] as ministers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not of the letter [of a written code] but of the Spirit; for the letter [of the Law] kills [by revealing sin and demanding obedience], but the Spirit gives life.

⁷Now if the ministry of death, engraved in letters on stones [the covenant of the Law which led to death because of sin], came with such glory and splendor that the Israelites were not able to look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, [a brilliance] that was fading,

⁸how will the ministry of the Spirit [the new covenant which allows us to be Spirit-filled] fail to be even more glorious and splendid?

⁹For if the ministry that brings condemnation [the old covenant, the Law] has glory, how much more does glory overflow in the ministry that brings righteousness [the new covenant which declares believers free of guilt and sets them apart for God's special purpose]!

¹⁰Indeed, what had glory [the Law], in this case no longer has glory because of the glory that surpasses it [the gospel].

¹¹For if that [Law] which fades away came with glory, how much more must that [gospel] which remains and is permanent abide in glory and splendor!

¹²Since we have such a [glorious] hope and confident expectation, we speak with great courage,

¹³and we are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites would not gaze at the end of the glory which was fading away.

¹⁴But [in fact] their minds were hardened [for they had lost the ability to understand]; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed [only] in Christ.

¹⁵But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil [of blindness] lies over their heart;

¹⁶but whenever a person turns [in repentance and faith] to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom].

¹⁸And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.