1Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, letters of commendation to you or commendation from you? 2You are our letter written in our hearts, known and read by all men. 3Clearly you are a letter of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but in tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. 4And we have such confidence through Christ toward God. 5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being out of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6who also made us able ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive. 7But if the ministry of death, written and engraved in stone, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which was passing away, 8how much will not the ministry of the Spirit be more glorious. 9For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, even more the ministry of righteousness abounds in glory. 10For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the surpassing glory. 11For if what is passing away was glorious, much more what remains is glorious. 12Therefore, since we have such hope, we use much boldness; 13not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Covenant, which is being done away in Christ. 15But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16Nevertheless when one 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, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.