¹We don’t become discouraged, since God has given us this ministry through his mercy. ²Instead, we have refused to use secret and shameful ways. We don’t use tricks, and we don’t distort God’s word. As God watches, we clearly reveal the truth to everyone. This is our ⸤letter of⸥ recommendation.

³So if the Good News that we tell others is covered with a veil, it is hidden from those who are dying. ⁴The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. As a result, they don’t see the light of the Good News about Christ’s glory. It is Christ who is God’s image.

⁵Our message is not about ourselves. It is about Jesus Christ as the Lord. We are your servants for his sake. ⁶We are his servants because the same God who said that light should shine out of darkness has given us light. For that reason we bring to light the knowledge about God’s glory which shines from Christ’s face.

⁷Our bodies are made of clay, yet we have the treasure of the Good News in them. This shows that the superior power of this treasure belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. ⁸In every way we’re troubled, but we aren’t crushed by our troubles. We’re frustrated, but we don’t give up. ⁹We’re persecuted, but we’re not abandoned. We’re captured, but we’re not killed. ¹⁰We always carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies so that the life of Jesus is also shown in our bodies. ¹¹While we are alive, we are constantly handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that the life of Jesus is also shown in our mortal nature. ¹²Death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

¹³The following is written, “I believed; therefore, I spoke.” We have that same spirit of faith. We also believe; therefore, we also speak. ¹⁴We know that the one who brought the Lord Jesus back to life will also bring us back to life through Jesus. He will present us to God together with you.

¹⁵All this is for your sake so that, as God’s kindness^aoverflows in the lives of many people, it will produce even more thanksgiving to the glory of God. ¹⁶That is why we are not discouraged. Though outwardly we are wearing out, inwardly we are renewed day by day. ¹⁷Our suffering is light and temporary and is producing for us an eternal glory that is greater than anything we can imagine. ¹⁸We don’t look for things that can be seen but for things that can’t be seen. Things that can be seen are only temporary. But things that can’t be seen last forever.

5TH CHAPTER

Faith Guides Our Lives

¹We know that if the life we live here on earth is ever taken down like a tent, we still have a building from God. It is an eternal house in heaven that isn’t made by human hands. ²In our present tent-like existence we sigh, since we long to put on the house we will have in heaven. ³After we have put it on,^awe won’t be naked. ⁴While we are in this tent, we sigh. We feel distressed because we don’t want to take off the tent, but we do want to put on the eternal house. Then ⸤eternal⸥ life will put an end to our mortal existence. ⁵God has prepared us for this and has given us his Spirit to guarantee it.

⁶So we are always confident. We know that as long as we are living in these bodies, we are living away from the Lord. ⁷Indeed, our lives are guided by faith, not by sight. ⁸We are confident and prefer to live away from this body and to live with the Lord. ⁹Whether we live in the body or move out of it, our goal is to be pleasing to him. ¹⁰All of us must appear in front of Christ’s judgment seat. Then all people will receive what they deserve for the good or evil they have done while living in their bodies.

Christ’s Love Guides Us

¹¹As people who know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. God already knows what we are, and I hope that you also know what we are. ¹²We are not trying to show you our qualifications again, but we are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us. Then you can answer those who are proud of their appearance rather than their character. ¹³So if we were crazy, it was for God. If we are sane, it is for you. ¹⁴Clearly, Christ’s love guides us. We are convinced of the fact that one man has died for all people. Therefore, all people have died. ¹⁵He died for all people so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the man who died and was brought back to life for them.

¹⁶So from now on we don’t think of anyone from a human point of view. If we did think of Christ from a human point of view, we don’t anymore. ¹⁷Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence. ¹⁸God has done all this. He has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships. ¹⁹In other words, God was using Christ to restore his relationship with humanity. He didn’t hold people’s faults against them, and he has given us this message of restored relationships to tell others. ²⁰Therefore, we are Christ’s representatives, and through us God is calling you. We beg you on behalf of Christ to become reunited with God. ²¹God had Christ, who was sinless, take our sin so that we might receive God’s approval through him.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

a 4:15 Or “grace.”
a 5:3 Some manuscripts and translations read “taken it off.”