2 Corinthians 3
What Happens in This Chapter
Paul says he does not need letters of recommendation, because the Corinthian believers themselves are his letter, written by the Spirit on human hearts. He then compares two kinds of work for God: the old covenant carved on stone, which brought condemnation and had a glory that faded from Moses' face, and the new covenant of the Spirit, which gives life and lasts. He says a veil still covers the minds of those who hear the old covenant read, and that the veil is taken away when a person turns to the Lord. The chapter ends with believers seeing the Lord's glory with uncovered faces and being changed into the same image.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
1Are we starting to brag about ourselves again? Do we need letters that say we can be trusted? Some people carry letters like that. We do not need them for you, or from you.
In Paul's day, travelers often carried a written letter from people who knew them. The letter told strangers that the traveler could be trusted.
2Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
2You yourselves are our letter. You are written on our hearts. Everyone can know you and read you.
3Forasmuch 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.
3Anyone can see that you are a letter from Christ. Our work helped write it. It was not written with ink. It was written with the Spirit of the living God. It was not carved on stone. It was written on human hearts.
4And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
4We are sure of this before God. We are sure because of Christ.
5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
5We are not good enough on our own. We cannot even say that good thoughts start with us. God is the one who makes us able.
6Who 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.
6God made us able to serve his new agreement with people. This agreement is not about written rules. It is about the Spirit. The written rule brings death. The Spirit gives life.
The KJV word "testament" here means a covenant, which is a solemn agreement. "The letter" means the written rules, not a mailed letter.
7But 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:
7The old rules were carved in letters on stone. That work brought death. Even so, it came with shining glory. Moses' face shone so brightly that the people of Israel could not keep looking at him. And that shine was already fading away.
8How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
8So the work of the Spirit must shine even brighter.
9For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
9The old work told people they were guilty, and it had glory. The new work makes people right with God. Its glory is far greater.
10For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
10What once shone does not seem to shine at all now. The new glory is so much greater.
11For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
11The thing that was fading came with glory. So the thing that lasts has much more glory.
12Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
12We have this hope. So we speak very plainly and bravely.
13And 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:
13We are not like Moses. He put a cloth over his face. That kept the people of Israel from watching the shine fade away.
14But 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.
14But their minds were closed. Even today, that same cloth is still there when the old agreement is read. It has not been lifted. Only in Christ is it taken away.
15But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
15Even today, when the books of Moses are read, a cloth lies over their hearts.
16Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
16But when a person turns to the Lord, the cloth is taken away.
17Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
17The Lord is the Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, people are free.
18But 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.
18Our faces have no cloth over them. We all look at the glory of the Lord, as in a mirror. And we are being changed to be like him. Our glory grows brighter and brighter. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The KJV word "glass" means a mirror. Mirrors then were polished metal, not glass.
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