2 Corinthians
5
- Now we know that if the earthly tent we live
in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven,
not built by human hands.
- Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed
with our heavenly dwelling,
- because when we are clothed, we will not
be found naked.
- For while we are in this tent, we groan and
are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with
our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
- Now it is God who has made us for this very
purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to
come.
- Therefore we are always confident and know
that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
- We live by faith, not by sight.
- We are confident, I say, and would prefer
to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
- So we make it our goal to please him, whether
we are at home in the body or away from it.
- For we must all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done
while in the body, whether good or bad.
- Since, then, we know what it is to fear the
Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is
also plain to your conscience.
- We are not trying to commend ourselves to
you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that
you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is
in the heart.
- If we are out of our mind, it is for the
sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
- For Christ's love compels us, because we
are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
- And he died for all, that those who live
should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was
raised again.
- So from now on we regard no one from a worldly
point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come !
- All this is from God, who reconciled us to
himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
- that God was reconciling the world to himself
in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us
the message of reconciliation.
- We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as
though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf:
Be reconciled to God.
- God made him who had no sin to be sin for
us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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