3:1  ARE WE starting to commend ourselves again? Or we do not, like some [false teachers], need written credentials {or} letters of recommendation to you or from you, [do we]?

3:2  [No] you yourselves are our letter of recommendation (our credentials), written in your hearts, to be known (perceived, recognized) and read by everybody.

3:3  You show {and} make obvious that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, not written with ink but with [the] Spirit of [the] living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

3:4  Such is the reliance {and} confidence that we have through Christ toward {and} with reference to God.

3:5  Not that we are fit (qualified and sufficient in ability) of ourselves to form personal judgments {or} to claim {or} count anything as coming from us, but our power {and} ability {and} sufficiency are from God.

3:6  [It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers {and} dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive.

3:7  Now if the dispensation of death engraved in letters on stone [the ministration of the Law], was inaugurated with such glory {and} splendor that the Israelites were not able to look steadily at the face of Moses because of its brilliance, [a glory] that was to fade {and} pass away,

3:8  Why should not the dispensation of the Spirit [this spiritual ministry whose task it is to cause men to obtain and be governed by the Holy Spirit] be attended with much greater {and} more splendid glory?

3:9  For if the service that condemns [the ministration of doom] had glory, how infinitely more abounding in splendor {and} glory must be the service that makes righteous [the ministry that produces and fosters righteous living and right standing with God]!

3:10  Indeed, in view of this fact, what once had splendor [the glory of the Law in the face of Moses] has come to have no splendor at all, because of the overwhelming glory that exceeds {and} excels it [the glory of the Gospel in the face of Jesus Christ].

3:11  For if that which was but passing {and} fading away came with splendor, how much more must that which remains {and} is permanent abide in glory {and} splendor!

3:12  Since we have such [glorious] hope (such joyful and confident expectation), we speak very freely {and} openly {and} fearlessly.

3:13  Nor [do we act] like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze upon the finish of the vanishing [splendor which had been upon it].

3:14  In fact, their minds were grown hard {and} calloused [they had become dull and had lost the power of understanding]; for until this present day, when the Old Testament (the old covenant) is being read, that same veil still lies [on their hearts], not being lifted [to reveal] that in Christ it is made void {and} done away.

3:15  Yes, down to this [very] day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their minds {and} hearts.

3:16  But whenever a person turns [in repentance] to the Lord, the veil is stripped off {and} taken away.

3:17  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).

3:18  And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His {very own} image in ever increasing splendor {and} from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.