2 Corinthians
Chapter 3
Overview
Paul answers doubts about whether he needs official letters to prove his authority. He points instead to the Corinthians themselves: their changed lives are a letter written by God’s Spirit. From there, Paul contrasts the law carved on stone in Moses’ time with a new covenant that brings life through the Spirit. The first came with dazzling glory, but its brightness faded; the new has a greater and lasting glory. Paul then returns to the image of a veil, explaining how turning to the Lord brings freedom, clear sight, and gradual transformation.
1Are we beginning to recommend ourselves again? Surely we do not need letters of recommendation to you or from you, as some people do.
2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.
3You make it clear that you are a letter from the Messiah, produced through our service. It was written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and not on stone tablets but on tablets of living human hearts.
4Through the Messiah, we have this kind of confidence before God.
5We are not claiming that we are qualified by ourselves to regard anything as our own achievement. Our ability comes from God.
6God has made us qualified to serve a new covenant—not one based merely on a written code, but one empowered by the Spirit. The written code brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
7The service that brought death was engraved in letters on stone, yet it came with such radiant glory that the people of Israel could not stare at Moses’ face. His face shone with a glory that was fading away.
8Won’t the service of the Spirit come with even greater glory?
9If the service that declares people guilty had glory, then the service that puts people in a right relationship with God overflows with far greater glory.
10In fact, what once had glory now seems to have none when compared with this overwhelming glory.
11If what was fading away came with glory, then what remains will have far greater glory.
12Since we have this hope, we speak with great openness and courage.
13We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the people of Israel would not stare at the fading glory until it disappeared.
14But their minds became closed and unresponsive. Even today, when the old covenant is read, that same veil remains and is not lifted, because it is removed only through the Messiah.
15Yes, even today, whenever the writings of Moses are read, a veil lies over their hearts.
16But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17The Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Lord’s Spirit is, there is freedom.
18All of us now have unveiled faces. As we look at the Lord’s glory as though in a mirror, we are being transformed into the same image, moving from one degree of glory to another. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.