You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

Glory of the New Covenant

But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,

And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,

As it is written, “He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.”

Administering the Gift

Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you;

As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”

I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare—

Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.