2 Corinthians 2:14-3:6

The Voice

¹⁴ Yet I am so thankful to God, who always marches us to victory under the banner of the Anointed One; and through us He spreads the beautiful fragrance of His knowledge to every corner of the earth. ¹⁵ In a turbulent world where people are either dying or being rescued, we are the sweet smell of the Anointed to God our Father. ¹⁶ To those who are dying, they smell the stench of death in us. And to those being rescued, we are the unmistakable scent of life. Who is worthy of this calling? ¹⁷ For we are nothing like the others who sell the word of God like a commodity. Do not be mistaken; our words come from God with the utmost sincerity, always spoken through the Anointed in the presence of God.

3 Are we back to page one? Do we need to gather some recommendations to prove our validity to you? Or do we need to take your letter of commendation to others to gain credibility? ² You are our letter, every word burned onto our^[a] hearts to be read by everyone. ³ You are the living letter of the Anointed One, the Liberating King, nurtured by us and inscribed, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God—a letter too passionate to be chiseled onto stone tablets, but emblazoned upon the human heart.

⁴ This is the kind of confidence we have in and through the Anointed toward our God. ⁵ Don’t be mistaken; in and of ourselves we know we have little to offer, but any competence or value we have comes from God. ⁶ Now God has equipped us to be capable servants of the new covenant, not by authority of the written law which only brings death, but by the Spirit who brings life.