Letters to the Churches

So instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

My purpose in writing you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.

If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And if I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven it in the presence of Christ for your sake,

in order that Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and a door stood open for me in the Lord,

I had no peace in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.

For we are to God the sweet aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

To the one, we are an odor of death and demise; to the other, a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task?

For we are not like so many others, who peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as men sent from God.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by everyone.

It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Such confidence before God is ours through Christ.

Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.

And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory,

will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of righteousness!

Indeed, what was once glorious has no glory now in comparison to the glory that surpasses it.

For if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which endures!

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was fading away.

But their minds were closed. For to this day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant. It has not been lifted, because only in Christ can it be removed.