2 Corinthians 3
3
God's New Agreement
1Are we once again bragging about ourselves? Do we need letters to you or from you to tell others about us? Some people do need letters telling about them. 2But you are our letter, and you are in our#3.2 our: Some manuscripts have “your.” hearts for everyone to read and understand. 3#Ex 24.12; Jr 31.33; Ez 11.19; 36.26. You are like a letter written by Christ and delivered by us. But you are not written with pen and ink or on tablets made of stone. You are written in our hearts by the Spirit of the living God.
4We are sure about all this. Christ makes us sure in the very presence of God. 5We don't have the right to claim that we have done anything on our own. God gives us what it takes to do all we do. 6#Jr 31.31. He makes us worthy to be the servants of his new agreement that comes from the Holy Spirit and not from a written Law. After all, the Law brings death, but the Spirit brings life.
7 #
Ex 34.29. The Law of Moses brought only the promise of death, even though it was carved on stones and given in a wonderful way. Still the Law made Moses' face shine so brightly the people of Israel could not look at it, even though it was a fading glory. 8So won't the agreement the Spirit brings to us be even more wonderful? 9If something that brings the death sentence is glorious, won't something that makes us acceptable to God be even more glorious? 10In fact, the new agreement is so wonderful that the Law is no longer glorious at all. 11The Law was given with a glory that faded away. But the glory of the new agreement is much greater, because it will never fade away.
12This wonderful hope makes us feel like speaking freely. 13#Ex 34.33. We are not like Moses. His face was shining, but he covered it to keep the people of Israel from seeing the brightness fade away. 14The people were stubborn, and something still keeps them from seeing the truth when the Law is read. Only Christ can take away the covering that keeps them from seeing.
15When the Law of Moses is read, they have their minds covered over 16#Ex 34.34. with a covering that is removed only for those who turn to the Lord. 17The Lord and the Spirit are one and the same, and the Lord's Spirit sets us free. 18#4 Macc 9.22. So our faces are not covered. They show the bright glory of the Lord, as the Lord's Spirit makes us more and more like our glorious Lord.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
2 Corinthians 3
3
1Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need (as some do) epistles of commendation to you, or from you?
2You are our epistle, written in our hearts, which is known and read by all men:
3Being manifested, that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.
4And such confidence we have, through Christ, towards God.
5Not that we are sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God.
6Who also hath made us fit ministers of the new testament, not in the letter, but in the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth.
7Now if the ministration of death, engraven with letters upon stones, was glorious; so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which is made void:
8How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather in glory?
9For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more the ministration of justice aboundeth in glory.
10For even that which was glorious in this part was not glorified, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
11For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is in glory.
12Having therefore such hope, we use much confidence:
13And not as Moses put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel might not steadfastly look on the face of that which is made void.
14But their senses were made dull. For, until this present day, the selfsame veil, in the reading of the old testament, remaineth not taken away (because in Christ it is made void).
15But even until this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.
16But when they shall be converted to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
17Now the Lord is a Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.