The way you now live proves that we teach the truth about Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:1-6

3 As I write these things about myself, I am [RHQ] not doing it to boast about how good I am, as some of you say I do. Some people always carry letters with them that tell how well they work, that other people have written. But I do not [RHQ] need to bring letters like that when I come to you. Nor do I need to ask you to write letters like that for me when I go to other congregations. 2 You yourselves are [MET] like a letter that recommends my work for God to everyone. People see how Christ changed your lives when you believed the message that I taught you. Everyone who knows you can see the result of my work for God. 3 You are [MET] like a letter that Christ himself has written that says good things about my work for God in your lives. You show people by the way you now conduct your lives that God has changed your lives as a result of my work among you. People did not find out about you by reading a letter that was written to them on paper with pen and ink. Instead, they saw how the Spirit of the all-powerful God has changed your lives. Nor did people find out about you by reading a letter that was carved on stone slabs like the stone slabs that God gave to Moses. Instead, it was the change that God’s Spirit made in your lives [MET] that they saw.

4 I can very confidently write these things about the work that Silas, Timothy, and I did among you, because God knows that what I write is true. We(exc) are true workers for God because of what Christ has done for us. 5 We (exc), by ourselves, do not have the ability to do this work. None of us apostles can say, “I have changed the lives of these people.” God is the one who has given us this ability. 6 He is the one who enables us (exc) to be his messengers. He has enabled us to tell people the message about the new agreement that he is making with them. This is not a message about obeying all the written laws of his old agreement that he made with the Jewish people. Instead, it is a message about God giving us his Spirit. Previously, God condemned people to be separated from him forever if they did not obey his laws. But by God’s new agreement his Spirit enables people to live eternally.