Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, 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 by all men;

³ for 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 on tablets of stone but in fleshy tablets of the heart.

⁴ And such is the trust we have through Christ to Godward.

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

⁶ who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament — not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.

⁷ But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away with,

⁸ how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be more glorious?

⁹ For if the ministration of condemnation is glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory!

¹⁰ For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

¹¹ For if that which is done away with was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

¹² Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech—

¹³ and not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which was being abolished.

¹⁴ But their minds were blinded; for until this day the same veil remaineth untaken away in the reading of the old testament, which veil is done away with in Christ.

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

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

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

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

4 Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint not,

² but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifesting the truth we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

³ But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to those who are lost,

⁴ whose unbelieving minds the god of this world hath blinded, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

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

⁶ For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

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

⁸ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, 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 being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

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

¹³ We, having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written: “I believed and therefore have I 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 all things are for your sakes, that, through the thanksgiving of many, the abundant grace might redound to the glory of God.

¹⁶ For this cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,

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.