¹Are we beginning again to commend ourselves ? Or do we need , as do some , letters of commendation to you or from you ?

²You are our letter , written in our hearts , known and read by all men ,

³being revealed that you are a letter of Christ , served by us , written not with ink , but with the Spirit of the living God ; not in tablets of stone , but in tablets that are hearts of flesh .

⁴Such confidence we have through Christ towards God ,

⁵not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves ; but our sufficiency is from God ,

⁶who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant , not of the letter but of the Spirit . For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life .

⁷But if the service of death , written engraved on stones , came with glory , so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face , which was passing away ,

⁸won’t service of the Spirit be with much more glory ?

⁹For if the service of condemnation has glory , the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory .

¹⁰For most certainly that which has been made glorious has not been made glorious in this respect , by reason of the glory that surpasses .

¹¹For if that which passes away was with glory , much more that which remains is in glory .

¹²Having therefore such a hope , we use great boldness of speech ,

¹³and not as Moses , who put a veil on his face so that the children of Israel wouldn’t look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away .

¹⁴But their minds were hardened , for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains , because in Christ it passes away .

¹⁵But 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 Spirit ; and where the Spirit of the Lord is , there is liberty .

¹⁸But we all , with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror , are transformed into the same image from glory to glory , even as from the Lord , the Spirit .