1Are we again trying to obtain your approval? Or do we need (as some do) letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2You are our letter, written in our hearts, known1842 and read by all! 3It is being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and not in tablets of stone but in tablets that are hearts of flesh. 4We have such confidence through Christ toward God; 5not that we are competent on our own to claim anything for ourselves; but our competence is from God 6who has made us competent as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. Indeed, the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life! 7However, if the ministry of death, written in stones, came with glory, so much that the children of Israel could not gaze at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (and this glory was passing away): 8will not the ministry of the Spirit be with much more glory? 9For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds all the more in glory! 10It is certain that what used to be glorious has not been made glorious in such a manner—that is, by such an overwhelming glory. 11For if what passes away was glorious, how much more glorious is that which remains!
12Since we have such a hope, we use great boldness of speech, 13not as Moses, who put a veil on his face so that the children of Israel would not see the end of what was passing away. 14In this case, their minds were hardened, because to this very day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains since only in Christ does it pass away. 15Even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit1843 and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18With unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are all being transformed1844 into the same image, from glory to glory,1845 and this is from the Lord, the Spirit.
A difficult ministry
- Or “recognized”
- These verses are the biblical basis for the clause found in the Creed of Constantinople (381): “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life…”
- Or literally “transfigured” (Greek metamorfou,meqa)
- That is ‘from glory to greater glory’
Text: The Eastern / Greek Orthodox Bible, New Testament (EOB). Used with permission.
