3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves^(A) again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation^(B) to you or from you? ² You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.^{(C) 3} You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God,^(D) not on tablets of stone^(E) but on tablets of human hearts.^(F)

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit,^(A) and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.^{(B) 18} And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate^[a](C) the Lord’s glory,^(D) are being transformed into his image^(E) with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.