2 Corinthians 3:4-11

Christian Standard Bible

Paul’s Competence

⁴ Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. ⁵ It is not that we are competent in^[a] ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.^{(A) 6} He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant,^(B) not of the letter,^(C) but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

New Covenant Ministry

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory,^(D) so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? ⁹ For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory. ¹⁰ In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹ For if what was set aside^(E) was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.