| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Are we beginning to recommend ourselves again? Unlike some people, we do not need letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? | 1Are 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! |
| 2You are our letter, written in our hearts and known and read by everyone. | 2The 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. |
| 3You are demonstrating that you are the Messiah's letter, produced by our service, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. | 3Clearly, 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. |
| 4Such is the confidence that we have in God through the Messiah. | 4We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. |
| 5By ourselves we are not qualified to claim that anything comes from us. Rather, our credentials come from God, | 5It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. |
| 6who has also qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, which is not written but spiritual, because the written text brings death, but the Spirit gives life. | 6He 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. The Glory of the New Covenant |
| 7Now if the ministry of death that was inscribed in letters of stone came with such glory that the people of Israel could not gaze on Moses' face (because the glory was fading away from it), | 7The 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. |
| 8will not the Spirit's ministry have even more glory? | 8Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? |
| 9For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, then the ministry of justification has an overwhelming glory. | 9If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! |
| 10In fact, that which once had glory lost its glory, because the other glory surpassed it. | 10In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. |
| 11For if that which fades away came through glory, how much more does that which is permanent have glory? | 11So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever! |
| 12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we speak very boldly, | 12Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. |
| 13not like Moses, who kept covering his face with a veil to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of what was fading away. | 13We 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. |
| 14However, their minds were hardened, for to this day the same veil is still there when they read the old covenant. Only in union with the Messiah is that veil removed. | 14But 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. |
| 15Yet even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. | 15Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. |
| 16But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. | 16But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. |
| 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom. | 17For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. |
| 18As all of us reflect the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, we are becoming more like him with ever-increasing glory by the Lord's Spirit. | 18So 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. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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