Study Desk

clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

And we have such trust through Christ toward God.

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.

For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses,

by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,

And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you [fn] are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in themAnd walk among them.I will be their God,And they shall be My people." Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 37:27 ">[fn]