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¹ Do we begin again to recommend ourselves, except we need, as some, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?² You are our letter, having been written in our hearts, known and read by all men,³ revealed that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, not written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in the tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart,⁴ and such trust we have through the Christ toward God,⁵ not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency [is] of God,

⁶ who also made us sufficient [to be] servants of the New Covenant, not of letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, and the Spirit makes alive.⁷ And if the ministry of death, in letters, engraved in stones, came in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look steadfastly into the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face—which was being made useless,⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more in glory?⁹ For if the ministry of the condemnation [is] glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory;¹⁰ for also even that which has been glorious, has not been glorious—in this respect, because of the superior glory;¹¹ for if that which is being made useless [is] through glory, much more that which is remaining [is] in glory.

¹² Having, then, such hope, we use much freedom of speech,¹³ and [are] not as Moses, who was putting a veil on his own face, for the sons of Israel not to look steadfastly into the end of that which is being made useless,¹⁴ but their minds were hardened, for to this day the same veil at the reading of the Old Covenant remains unwithdrawn—which in Christ is being made useless—¹⁵ but until today, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart,¹⁶ and whenever they may turn to the LORD, the veil is taken away.¹⁷ And the LORD is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the LORD [is], there [is] liberty;¹⁸ and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the LORD in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.