Ministers of a New Covenant

3 Are we beginning to ^(A)commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, ^(B)letters of commendation to you or from you? ^2 (C)You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people, ³ revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of Christ, ^[a](D)delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of ^(E)the living God, not on ^(F)tablets of stone but on ^(G)tablets of ^[b](H)human hearts.

⁴ Such is the ^(I)confidence we have toward God through Christ. ⁵ Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but ^(J)our adequacy is from God, ⁶ who also made us adequate as ^(K)servants of a ^(L)new covenant, not of ^(M)the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but ^(N)the Spirit gives life.

⁷ But if the ^(O)ministry of death, engraved ^(P)in letters on stones, came ^[c]with glory ^(Q)so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? ⁹ For if ^(R)the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ^(S)ministry of righteousness excel in glory. ¹⁰ For indeed what had glory in this case has no glory, because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹ For if that which fades away was ^[d]with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where ^(A)the Spirit of the Lord is, ^(B)there is freedom. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled faces, ^(C)looking as in a mirror at the ^(D)glory of the Lord, are being ^(E)transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from ^(F)the Lord, the Spirit.

⁴ Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of ^(A)water and the Spirit, he cannot enter ^(B)the kingdom of God. ^6 (C)That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born ^[a]again.’ ^8 (D)The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

³⁴ For He whom God ^(A)sent speaks the words of God; ^(B)for He does not give the Spirit ^[a]sparingly. ^35 (C)The Father loves the Son and ^(D)has entrusted all things to His hand. ³⁶ The one who ^(E)believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who ^(F)does not ^[b]obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you ^(A)abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that ^(B)each of you know how to ^[a]possess his own ^[b](C)vessel in sanctification and ^(D)honor, ⁵ not in ^[c](E)lustful passion, like the Gentiles who ^(F)do not know God; ⁶ and that no one violate the rights and ^(G)take advantage of his brother or sister ^(H)in the matter, because ^(I)the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also ^(J)told you previously and solemnly warned you. ⁷ For ^(K)God has not called us for ^[d](L)impurity, but in sanctification. ⁸ Therefore, the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who ^(M)gives His Holy Spirit to you.