| 章 |
| 3:1 |
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some [others], epistles of commendation to you, or [letters] of commendation from you.
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| 3:2 |
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men:
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| 3:3 |
[Forasmuch as ye are] manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart.
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| 3:4 |
And such trust we have through Christ toward God.
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| 3:5 |
Not that we are sufficient by ourselves to think any thing as from ourselves; but our sufficiency [is] from God;
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| 3:6 |
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
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| 3:7 |
But if the ministration of death, written [and] engraven on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which [glory] was to be done away;
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| 3:8 |
How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?
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| 3:9 |
For if the ministration of condemnation [was] glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
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| 3:10 |
For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
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| 3:11 |
For if that which was done away [was] glorious, much more that which remaineth [is] glorious.
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| 3:12 |
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
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| 3:13 |
And not as Moses, [who] put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
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| 3:14 |
But their minds were blinded: for until this day the same vail remaineth untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which [vail] is done away in Christ.
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| 3:15 |
But even to this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
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| 3:16 |
Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
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| 3:17 |
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty.
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| 3:18 |
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.
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