Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

3 ¶ Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

² Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

³ Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

⁴ And such trust we have through the Christ towards God:

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

⁶ ¶ who also has made us able ministers of the new testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ But if the ministry of death in the letter engraved in stones was glorious, so that the sons of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to fade away,

⁸ How shall not the ministry of the Spirit be for greater glory?

⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, much more shall the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

¹⁰ For even that which was so glorious had no glory in this respect, in comparison with the glory that excels.

¹¹ For if that which fades away was glorious, much more shall that which remains be glorious.

¹² ¶ Seeing then that we have such hope, we speak with great confidence,

¹³ And not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, that the sons of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that glory which was to fade away:

¹⁴ (And thus their senses became hardened, for until this day remains the same veil not uncovered in the reading of the old testament, which veil is taken away in Christ.

¹⁵ But even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.

¹⁶ Nevertheless when they convert to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.)

¹⁷ For the Lord is the Spirit, and where that Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

¹⁸ Therefore we all, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord with uncovered face, are transformed from glory to glory into the same likeness, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

4 ¶ Therefore seeing we have this ministry, according to the mercy we have received, we fault not,

² but remove from ourselves every hidden shameful thing, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God, but in the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

³ But if our gospel is hid, it is hid to those that are lost,

⁴ In whom the god of this age has blinded the understanding of those who do not believe, that the light of the gospel of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine in them.

⁵ For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your slaves for Jesus’ sake.

⁶ For the God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to bring forth the light of the knowledge of the clarity of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay vessels that the excellency of the virtue may be of God, and not of us.

⁸ ¶ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are unsure of our lives, but not in despair;

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

¹⁰ always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

¹¹ For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

¹² So then death works in us, but life in you.

¹³ We having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and, therefore, I have spoken; we also believe and, therefore, speak;

¹⁴ knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you.

¹⁵ For we suffer all these things for your sakes that the grace abounding through many may in the thanksgiving redound to the glory of God.

¹⁶ Therefore we fault not; but though our outward man is wearing out, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

¹⁷ For our tribulation, which is momentary and light, prepares an exceeding and eternal weight of glory unto us;

¹⁸ while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.