2 Corinthians 5

¹ For we are well aware that when the tent that houses us on earth is folded up, there is a house for usfrom God, not made by human hands but everlasting, in the heavens.

² And in this earthly state we do indeed groan,

³ longing to put on our heavenly home over the present one; if indeed we are to be found clothed ratherthan stripped bare.

⁴ Yes, indeed, in this present tent, we groan under the burden, not that we want to be stripped of ourcovering, but because we want to be covered with a second garment on top, so that what is mortal in us may beswal owed up by life.

⁵ It is God who designed us for this very purpose, and he has given us the Spirit as a pledge.

⁶ We are always ful of confidence, then, realising that as long as we are at home in the body we areexiled from the Lord,

⁷ guided by faith and not yet by sight;

⁸ we are ful of confidence, then, and long instead to be exiled from the body and to be at home with theLord.

⁹ And so whether at home or exiled, we make it our ambition to please him.

¹⁰ For at the judgement seat of Christ we are al to be seen for what we are, so that each of us mayreceive what he has deserved in the body, matched to whatever he has done, good or bad.

¹¹ And so it is with the fear of the Lord always in mind that we try to win people over. But God sees us forwhat we are, and I hope your consciences do too.

¹² Again we are saying this not to commend ourselves to you, but simply to give you the opportunity totake pride in us, so that you may have an answer for those who take pride in appearances and not inner reality.

¹³ If we have been unreasonable, it was for God; if reasonable, for you.

¹⁴ For the love of Christ overwhelms us when we consider that if one man died for all, then al have died;

¹⁵ his purpose in dying for all humanity was that those who live should live not any more for themselves,but for him who died and was raised to life.

¹⁶ From now onwards, then, we wil not consider anyone by human standards: even if we were oncefamiliar with Christ according to human standards, we do not know him in that way any longer.

¹⁷ So for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is thereto see.

¹⁸ It is all God's work; he reconciled us to himself through Christ and he gave us the ministry ofreconciliation.

¹⁹ I mean, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding anyone's faults against them,but entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name ofChrist we appeal to you to be reconciled to God.

²¹ For our sake he made the sinless one a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightnessof God.