2 Corinthians 5:1-21
5 For we know that if our earthly house,+ this tent,+ should be dissolved,+ we are to have a building from God, a house not made with hands,+ everlasting+ in the heavens.
2 For in this dwelling house we do indeed groan,+ earnestly desiring to put on the one for us from heaven,+
3 so that, having really put it on, we shall not be found naked.+
4 In fact, we who are in this tent groan, being weighed down; because we want, not to put it off, but to put on the other,+ that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.+
5 Now he that produced us for this very thing is God,+ who gave us the token+ of what is to come,* that is, the spirit.+
6 We are therefore always of good courage and know that, while we have our home in the body, we are absent from the Lord,+
7 for we are walking by faith, not by sight.+
8 But we are of good courage and are well pleased rather to become absent from the body and to make our home with the Lord.+
9 Therefore we are also making it our aim that, whether having our home with him or being absent from him,+ we may be acceptable to him.+
10 For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of the Christ,+ that each one may get his award for the things done through the body, according to the things he has practiced, whether it is good or vile.+
11 Knowing, therefore, the fear+ of the Lord, we keep persuading+ men, but we have been made manifest to God. However, I hope that we have been made manifest also to YOUR consciences.+
12 We are not again recommending+ ourselves to YOU, but giving YOU an inducement for boasting in respect to us,+ that YOU may have [an answer] for those who boast over the outward appearance+ but not over the heart.+
13 For if we were out of our mind,+ it was for God; if we are sound in mind,+ it is for YOU.
14 For the love the Christ has* compels us, because this is what we have judged, that one man died for all;+ so, then, all had died;
15 and he died for all that those who live might live no longer for themselves,+ but for him+ who died for them and was raised up.+
16 Consequently from now on we know no man according to the flesh.+ Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh,+ certainly we now know him so no more.+
17 Consequently if anyone is in union with Christ, he is a new creation;*+ the old things passed away,+ look! new things have come into existence.+
18 But all things are from God, who reconciled+ us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry+ of the reconciliation,
19 namely, that God was by means of Christ+ reconciling a world+ to himself,+ not reckoning to them their trespasses,+ and he committed the word+ of the reconciliation to us.+
20 We+ are therefore ambassadors+ substituting for* Christ,+ as though God were making entreaty through us.+ As substitutes for Christ we beg:+ “Become reconciled to God.”
21 The one who did not know sin+ he made to be sin*+ for us, that we might become God’s righteousness+ by means of him.
Footnotes
^ Or, “love of the Christ.”
^ Or, “creature.” Gr., ktiʹsis; Lat., cre·a·tuʹra.
^ Or, “instead of; in the name of.”
