Study Desk

To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life. And who is competent for this?

It is clear that you are Christ's letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.

It is not that we are competent in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our competence is from God.

He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life.

but their minds were closed. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ.

but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Instead, we have renounced shameful secret things, not walking in deceit or distorting God's message, but commending ourselves to every person's conscience in God's sight by an open display of the truth.

But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves because of Jesus.

We are pressured in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair;

we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.

So death works in us, but life in you.

So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in the outward appearance rather than in the heart.

And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.

But as God's ministers, we commend ourselves in everything: by great endurance, by afflictions, by hardship, by difficulties,

You are not limited by us, but you are limited by your own affections.

But God, who comforts the humble, comforted us by the arrival of Titus,

and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort he received from you. He told us about your deep longing, your sorrow, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.