| 1 | Are we starting to commend ourselves again? Or we do not, like some [false teachers], need written credentials
or
letters of recommendation to you or from you, [do we]? |
| 2 | [No] you yourselves are our letter of recommendation (our credentials), written in
[a]your hearts, to be known (perceived, recognized) and read by everybody. |
| 3 | You show
and
make obvious that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, not written with ink but with [the] Spirit of [the] living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. |
| 4 | Such is the reliance
and
confidence that we have through Christ toward
and
with reference to God. |
| 5 | Not that we are fit (qualified and sufficient in ability) of ourselves to form personal judgments
or
to claim
or
count anything as coming from us, but our power
and
ability
and
sufficiency are from God. |
| 6 | [It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers
and
dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive. |
| 7 | Now if the dispensation of death engraved in letters on stone [the ministration of the Law], was inaugurated with such glory
and
splendor that the Israelites were not able to look steadily at the face of Moses because of its brilliance, [a glory] that was to fade
and
pass away, |
| 8 | Why should not the dispensation of the Spirit [this spiritual
[b]ministry whose task it is to cause men to obtain and be governed by the Holy Spirit] be attended with much greater
and
more splendid glory? |
| 9 | For if the service that condemns [the ministration of doom] had glory, how infinitely more abounding in splendor
and
glory must be the service that makes righteous [the ministry that produces and fosters righteous living and right standing with God]! |
| 10 | Indeed, in view of this fact, what once had splendor [
[c]the glory of the Law in the face of Moses] has come to have no splendor at all, because of the overwhelming glory that exceeds
and
excels it [
[d]the glory of the Gospel in the face of Jesus Christ]. |
| 11 | For if that which was but passing
and
fading away came with splendor, how much more must that which remains
and
is permanent abide in glory
and
splendor! |
| 12 | Since we have such [glorious] hope (such joyful and confident expectation), we speak very freely
and
openly
and
fearlessly. |
| 13 | Nor [do we act] like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze upon the finish of the vanishing [splendor which had been upon it]. |
| 14 | In fact, their minds were grown hard
and
calloused [they had become dull and had lost the power of understanding]; for until this present day, when the Old Testament (the old covenant) is being read, that same veil still lies [on their hearts], not being lifted [to reveal] that in Christ it is made void
and
done away. |
| 15 | Yes, down to this [very] day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their minds
and
hearts. |
| 16 | But whenever a person turns [in repentance] to the Lord, the veil is stripped off
and
taken away. |
| 17 | Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). |
| 18 | And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His
very own
image in ever increasing splendor
and
from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit. |
Cross references:
-
2 Corinthians 3:3 : Exod. 24:12; 31:18; 32:15, 16; Jer. 31:33.
-
2 Corinthians 3:6 : Jer. 31:31.
-
2 Corinthians 3:7 : Exod. 34:29-35.
-
2 Corinthians 3:17 : Isa. 61:1, 2.
|