A Living Letter

3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we?1 3:2 You yourselves are our letter,2 written on our hearts, known and read by everyone, 3:3 revealing3 that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us,4 written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets5 but on tablets of human hearts.

3:4 Now we have such confidence in God through Christ. 3:5 Not that we are adequate6 in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy7 is from God, 3:6 who made us adequate8 to be servants of a new covenant9 not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The Greater Glory of the Spirit’s Ministry

3:7 But if the ministry that produced death—carved in letters on stone tablets10—came with glory, so that the Israelites11 could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face12 (a glory13 which was made ineffective),14 3:8 how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be?15 3:9 For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation,16 how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness17 excel18 in glory! 3:10 For indeed, what had been glorious now19 has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it.20 3:11 For if what was made ineffective21 came with22 glory, how much more has what remains23 come in glory! 3:12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we behave with great boldness,24 3:13 and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites25 from staring26 at the result27 of the glory that was made ineffective.28 3:14 But their minds were closed.29 For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read.30 It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away.31 3:15 But until this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds,32 3:16 but when one33 turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.34 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present,35 there is freedom. 3:18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord,36 are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another,37 which is from38 the Lord, who is the Spirit.39

Paul’s Perseverance in Ministry

4:1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, just as God has shown us mercy,1 we do not become discouraged.2 4:2 But we have rejected3 shameful hidden deeds,4 not behaving5 with deceptiveness6 or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God. 4:3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, 4:4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe7 so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel8 of Christ,9 who is the image of God. 4:5 For we do not proclaim10 ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves11 for Jesus’ sake. 4:6 For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,”12 is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge13 of God in the face of Christ.14

An Eternal Weight of Glory

4:7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power15 belongs to God and does not come from us. 4:8 We are experiencing trouble on every side,16 but are not crushed; we are perplexed,17 but not driven to despair; 4:9 we are persecuted, but not abandoned;18 we are knocked down,19 but not destroyed, 4:10 always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus,20 so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible21 in our body. 4:11 For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible22 in our mortal body.23 4:12 As a result,24 death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.25 4:13 But since we have the same spirit of faith as that shown in26 what has been written, “I believed; therefore I spoke,”27 we also believe, therefore we also speak. 4:14 We do so28 because we know that the one who raised up Jesus29 will also raise us up with Jesus and will bring us with you into his presence. 4:15 For all these things are for your sake, so that the grace that is including30 more and more people may cause thanksgiving to increase31 to the glory of God. 4:16 Therefore we do not despair,32 but even if our physical body33 is wearing away, our inner person34 is being renewed day by day. 4:17 For our momentary, light suffering35 is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison 4:18 because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Living by Faith, Not by Sight

5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in,1 is dismantled,2 we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens. 5:2 For in this earthly house3 we groan, because we desire to put on4 our heavenly dwelling, 5:3 if indeed, after we have put on5 our heavenly house,6 we will not be found naked. 5:4 For we groan while we are in this tent,7 since we are weighed down,8 because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5:5 Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose9 is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.10 5:6 Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth11 we are absent from the Lord—5:7 for we live12 by faith, not by sight. 5:8 Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away13 from the body and at home with the Lord. 5:9 So then whether we are alive14 or away, we make it our ambition to please him.15 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,16 so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil.17