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The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, Chapter 3
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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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2 |
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and
read of all men:
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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 in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables
of the heart.
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4 |
And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
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5 |
Not that weare sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but
our sufficiency is of God;
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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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7 |
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones,
was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory
was to be done away:
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8 |
How shall not the ministration of the spirit
be rather glorious?
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9 |
For if the ministration of condemnation be
glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in
glory.
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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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11 |
For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which
remaineth is glorious.
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12 |
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of
speech:
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13 |
And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that
the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that
which is abolished:
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14 |
But their minds were blinded: for until this
day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old
testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
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15 |
But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon
their heart.
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16 |
Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be
taken away.
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Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty.
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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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