2 Corinthians 2:14-3:6

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.^{[a] 15} For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing:^{(A) 16} to the one group a fragrance from death^[b] to death, to the other a fragrance from life^[c] to life. Who is qualified for these things?^{(B) 17} For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many,^[d] but as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God, we are speaking in Christ before God.^(C)

Ministers of the New Covenant

3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we?^{(D) 2} You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, ³ and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are human hearts.^[e](E)

⁴ Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are qualified of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our qualification is from God,^{(F) 6} who has made us qualified to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.^(G)