Corinthians (The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the )

Do you say that this is self-recommendation once more? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

Our letter of recommendation is yourselves--a letter written on our hearts and everywhere known and read.

For all can see that you are a letter of Christ entrusted to our care, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the ever-living God--and not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts as tablets.

Such is the confidence which we have through Christ in the presence of God;

not that of ourselves we are competent to decide anything by our own reasonings, but our competency comes from God.

It is He also who has made us competent to serve Him in connexion with a new Covenant, which is not a written code but a Spirit; for the written code inflicts death, but the Spirit gives Life.