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2 Corinthians 3 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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Ministers of the New Covenant

(cf. Jer 31:31–34 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:1 - Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:2 - You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our[fn] hearts, to be known and read by all.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:3 - And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.[fn]
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:4 - Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:5 - Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:6 - who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:7 - Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end,
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:8 - will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:9 - For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:10 - Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:11 - For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:12 - Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:13 - not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:14 - But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:15 - Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:16 - But when one[fn] turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:17 - Now the Lord[fn] is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Unchecked Copy Box2Co 3:18 - And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,[fn] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.[fn] For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
ESV Footnotes
Some manuscripts your
Greek fleshly hearts
Greek he
Or this Lord
Or reflecting the glory of the Lord
Greek from glory to glory
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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