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2 Corinthians 3 · a question people ask

"Now the Lord is the Spirit" (3:17). What does this mean?

In the text

The chapter's words are these: "But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (3:16-17), and it ends with "even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (3:18). It says no more about them in this chapter. These notes give no reading of who the Lord is in these verses, or of how the Lord and the Spirit are named together, and say no more than the verses say.

The verses

“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Corinthians 3

2 Corinthians 3: With unveiled face

In 2 Corinthians 3 the WEB's letter stands for two Greek words: the readers are "a letter of Christ" (3:3), and "the letter kills" (3:6). And the chapter that tells of Moses' veil (3:13) ends with "we all, with unveiled face" (3:18).

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Last reviewed October 8, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions