2 Corinthians 5

1For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens.

2For indeed we groan in this tent, deeply longing to put on our dwelling from heaven over it,

3if indeed, even after taking it off, we will not be found naked.

4For we who are in this tent groan, weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed further, so that life may swallow up what is mortal.

5God is the one who has shaped us for this very thing, and he has given us the Spirit as a down payment.

6So we are always full of courage, knowing that while we make our home in the body we are living away from the Lord,

7for we walk by faith, not by sight.

8We are full of courage, and we would much prefer to leave our home in the body and make our home with the Lord.

9That is why we are eager, whether we are at home or away, to be pleasing to him.

10For all of us must be brought into the open before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive back what corresponds to the deeds done through the body, whether good or bad.

11Knowing, then, the fear of the Lord, we persuade people. But we stand in full view before God, and I hope we stand in full view before your consciences as well.

12We are not commending ourselves to you once more. Rather, we are giving you an occasion to boast on our behalf, so that you will have something to say to those who boast in appearances and not in the heart.

13For if we have gone out of our minds, it is for God’s sake; if we are sensible, it is for your sake.

14For Christ’s love holds us in its grip, since we have reached this judgment: one died for all, and so all died.

15And he died for all so that those who are alive would stop living for themselves and would live instead for the one who died and was raised on their behalf.

16So from now on we know no one by the standard of the flesh. Even if we once knew Christ by that standard, we no longer know him that way.

17So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old things are gone; look, new things have come into being.

18Everything is from God. Through Christ he reconciled us to himself, and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

19that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not charging their trespasses to their account, and he has placed with us the message of reconciliation.

20So we serve as ambassadors on Christ’s behalf, as if God were appealing through us. On Christ’s behalf we plead with you: be reconciled to God.

21God made the one who never knew sin to be sin for our sake, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.