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2 Corinthians 3
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 , 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 toward 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 , 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 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 the same veil remains, because in 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 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.
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Questions this passage answers
What is repentance in the Bible?
Scripture describes repentance as turning: a change of mind about sin and about God that turns a person away from sin and toward God, and shows itself in what follows. It is more than regret, since Scripture distinguishes godly sorrow that leads to repentance from worldly sorrow that only produces death, and it is God's gift as well as our act.
What does the Bible say about money?
Scripture treats money as a real good that God provides and as a rival master that can own a person. It never calls money evil; it calls the love of money a root of all kinds of evil, warns that no one can serve both God and wealth, and directs the rich to generosity and everyone to contentment. Its main question about money is not how much you have but who you are serving with it.
Why does God allow suffering?
Scripture never gives one tidy reason for all suffering. It says that pain entered a good world through sin, that God is neither its author nor its prisoner, that he uses it without approving of it, and that he entered it himself in Christ rather than explaining it from a distance. The Bible answers the question with a person before it answers it with an argument.
What is the Gospel?
The Gospel is news, not advice. It is the announcement that God became man in Jesus Christ, lived the life we owed, died the death we deserved, rose bodily from the dead, and now freely forgives and reconciles everyone who turns from sin and trusts him. It is something done, reported to us, before it is anything asked of us.