2 Cor. 3
1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?
2You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
3being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
5Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as
coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
6who also made us
adequate as servants of a
new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading
as it was,
8how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?
9For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.
10For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses
it. 11For if that which fades away
was with glory, much more that which remains
is in glory.
12Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in
our speech,
13and
are not like Moses,
who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
14But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
15But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;
16but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty.
18But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror
the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
1 Cor. 10: 1-6
1For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea;
2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3and all ate the same spiritual food;
4and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.
5Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.
6Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.
1 Cor. 10:23
23All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.
24Let no one seek his own
good, but that of his neighbor.
Judges 16:20
20She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.”
But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
Judges 16:20 is, to me, one of the scariest verses in the Bible. The fact that Samson was not aware that the Lord had left him is very troubling. We are to be transformed into the image of the Lord. Did Christ not work? The thought here is not so much regarding what Samson did for the Lord to depart, but the fact that Samson was unaware that He had departed.
2 Peter 1:4-11
4For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
5Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9For he who lacks these
qualities is blind
or short-sighted, having forgotten
his purification from his former sins.
10Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;
for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.