31 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again ? Or do we need , as some , letters of commendation to you or from you? 2 You are our letter , written in our hearts , known and read by all men ; 3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ , cared for 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 confidence we have through Christ toward God . 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves , but our adequacy is from God ,
6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant , not of the letter but of the Spirit ; for the letter kills , but the Spirit gives life . 7 But if the ministry of death , in letters engraved on stones , came with glory , so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face , fading as it was, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory ? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory , much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory . 10 For indeed what had glory , in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if that which fades away was with glory , much more that which remains is in glory .
12 Therefore having such a hope , we use great boldness in our speech , 13 and are not like Moses , who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away . 14 But their minds were hardened ; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted , because it is removed in Christ . 15 But to this day whenever e Moses is read , a veil lies over their heart ; 16 but whenever e a person turns to the Lord , the veil is taken away . 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit , and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty . 18 But we all , with unveiled face , beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord , are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory , just as from the Lord , the Spirit .
