Parallel Bible results for "2 corinthians 3"

2 Corinthians 3

The Message Bible MSG

1 Does it sound like we're patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we're not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you.

2 You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you.

3 Christ himself wrote it - not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives - and we publish it.

4 We couldn't be more sure of ourselves in this - that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation.

5 We wouldn't think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter.

6 His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn't written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It's written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!

7 The Government of Death, its constitution chiseled on stone tablets, had a dazzling inaugural. Moses' face as he delivered the tablets was so bright that day (even though it would fade soon enough) that the people of Israel could no more look right at him than stare into the sun.

8 How much more dazzling, then, the Government of Living Spirit?

9 If the Government of Condemnation was impressive, how about this Government of Affirmation?

10 Bright as that old government was, it would look downright dull alongside this new one.

11 If that makeshift arrangement impressed us, how much more this brightly shining government installed for eternity?

12 With that kind of hope to excite us, nothing holds us back.

13 Unlike Moses, we have nothing to hide. Everything is out in the open with us. He wore a veil so the children of Israel wouldn't notice that the glory was fading away -

14 and they didn't notice. They didn't notice it then and they don't notice it now, don't notice that there's nothing left behind that veil.

15 Even today when the proclamations of that old, bankrupt government are read out, they can't see through it. Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there's nothing there.

16 Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are - face to face!

17 They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it!

18 All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

New Living Translation NLT

1 Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Are we like others, who need to bring you letters of recommendation, or who ask you to write such letters on their behalf? Surely not!

2 The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you.

3 Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

4 We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ.

5 It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.

6 He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.

7 The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away.

8 Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life?

9 If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God!

10 In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way.

11 So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever!

12 Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold.

13 We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away.

14 But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.

15 Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand.

16 But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.