you are well known to be a letter of Christ, written by us as his ministers, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

He has also made us competent as ministers of a New Agreement [i.e., between Himself and mankind]. It is not [an agreement] based [merely] on a written document [i.e., such as the law of Moses], but on the Holy Spirit, for the written document brings [spiritual] death [See Rom. 8:2], but the Holy Spirit brings [never ending] life.

For we are writing to you nothing different from what we have written before, or from what indeed you already recognize as truth and will, I trust, recognize as such to the very end;

even as it is written, He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little did not lack.

As it is written. He scattered broadcast, he gave to the poor; His almsgiving continues forever.

Howbeit, seeing that we have the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written - I believed, therefore I spake, we, also believe, therefore also we speak:

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: