Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

3 Do we begin again to recommend ourselves, except we need, as some, letters of recommendation unto you, or from you?

² our letter ye are, having been written in our hearts, known and read by all men,

³ manifested that ye are a letter of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in the tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart,

⁴ and such trust we have through the Christ toward God,

⁵ not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency [is] of God,

⁶ who also made us sufficient [to be] ministrants of a new covenant, not of letter, but of spirit; for the letter doth kill, and the spirit doth make alive.

⁷ and if the ministration of the death, in letters, engraved in stones, came in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look stedfastly to the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face -- which was being made useless,

⁸ how shall the ministration of the Spirit not be more in glory?

⁹ for if the ministration of the condemnation [is] glory, much more doth the ministration of the righteousness abound in glory;

¹⁰ for also even that which hath been glorious, hath not been glorious -- in this respect, because of the superior glory;

¹¹ for if that which is being made useless [is] through glory, much more that which is remaining [is] in glory.

¹² Having, then, such hope, we use much freedom of speech,

¹³ and [are] not as Moses, who was putting a vail upon his own face, for the sons of Israel not stedfastly to look to the end of that which is being made useless,

¹⁴ but their minds were hardened, for unto this day the same vail at the reading of the Old Covenant doth remain unwithdrawn -- which in Christ is being made useless --

¹⁵ but till to-day, when Moses is read, a vail upon their heart doth lie,

¹⁶ and whenever they may turn unto the Lord, the vail is taken away.

¹⁷ And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty;

¹⁸ and we all, with unvailed face, the glory of the Lord beholding in a mirror, to the same image are being transformed, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

4 Because of this, having this ministration, according as we did receive kindness, we do not faint,

² but did renounce for ourselves the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor deceitfully using the word of God, but by the manifestation of the truth recommending ourselves unto every conscience of men, before God;

³ and if also our good news is vailed, in those perishing it is vailed,

⁴ in whom the god of this age did blind the minds of the unbelieving, that there doth not shine forth to them the enlightening of the good news of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God;

⁵ for not ourselves do we preach, but Christ Jesus -- Lord, and ourselves your servants because of Jesus;

⁶ because [it is] God who said, Out of darkness light [is] to shine, who did shine in our hearts, for the enlightening of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ And we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us;

⁸ on every side being in tribulation, but not straitened; perplexed, but not in despair;

⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

¹⁰ at all times the dying of the Lord Jesus bearing about in the body, that the life also of Jesus in our body may be manifested,

¹¹ for always are we who are living delivered up to death because of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our dying flesh,

¹² so that, the death indeed in us doth work, and the life in you.

¹³ And having the same spirit of the faith, according to that which hath been written, `I believed, therefore I did speak;' we also do believe, therefore also do we speak;

¹⁴ knowing that He who did raise up the Lord Jesus, us also through Jesus shall raise up, and shall present with you,

¹⁵ for the all things [are] because of you, that the grace having been multiplied, because of the thanksgiving of the more, may abound to the glory of God;

¹⁶ wherefore, we faint not, but if also our outward man doth decay, yet the inward is renewed day by day;

¹⁷ for the momentary light matter of our tribulation, more and more exceedingly an age-during weight of glory doth work out for us --

¹⁸ we not looking to the things seen, but to the things not seen; for the things seen [are] temporary, but the things not seen [are] age-during.