Parallel Bible results for "2 corinthians 3"

2 Corinthians 3

Common English Bible CEB

1 Are we starting to commend ourselves again? We don't need letters of introduction to you or from you like other people, do we?

2 You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.

3 You show that you are Christ's letter, delivered by us. You weren't written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. You weren't written on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 This is the confidence that we have through Christ in the presence of God.

5 It isn't that we ourselves are qualified to claim that anything came from us. No, our qualification is from God.

6 He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not based on what is written but on the Spirit, because what is written kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 The ministry that brought death was carved in letters on stone tablets. It came with such glory that the Israelites couldn't look for long at Moses' face because his face was shining with glory, even though it was a fading glory.

8 Won't the ministry of the Spirit be much more glorious?

9 If the ministry that brought condemnation has glory, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness?

10 In fact, what was glorious isn't glorious now, because of the glory that is brighter.

11 If the glory that fades away was glorious, how much more glorious is the one that lasts!

12 So, since we have such a hope, we act with great confidence.

13 We aren't like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites couldn't watch the end of what was fading away.

14 But their minds were closed. Right up to the present day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. The veil is not removed because it is taken away by Christ.

15 Even today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.

16 But whenever someone turns back to the Lord, the veil is removed.

17 The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom.

18 All of us are looking with unveiled faces at the glory of the Lord as if we were looking in a mirror. We are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Revised Standard Version RSV

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?

2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men;

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.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

5 Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God,

6 who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 Now if the dispensation of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such splendor that the Israelites could not look at Moses' face because of its brightness, fading as this was,

8 will not the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with greater splendor?

9 For if there was splendor in the dispensation of condemnation, the dispensation of righteousness must far exceed it in splendor.

10 Indeed, in this case, what once had splendor has come to have no splendor at all, because of the splendor that surpasses it.

11 For if what faded away came with splendor, what is permanent must have much more splendor.

12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,

13 not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor.

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.

15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their minds;

16 but when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed.

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.