2 Corinthians 5:11–21

Controlled by the Love of Christ

¹¹Therefore, because we^* know the fear of the Lord, we are attempting to persuade people, but we are revealed to God, and I hope to be revealed in your consciences. ¹²We are not commending ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to boast about us, in order that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. ¹³For if we are out of our senses, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. ¹⁴For the love of Christ controls us, because we^* have concluded this: that one died for all; as a result all died. ¹⁵And he died for all, in order that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

¹⁶So then, from now on we know no one from a human point of view^c, if indeed we have known Christ from a human point of view^d, but now we know him this way no longer. ¹⁷Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. ¹⁸And all these things are from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰Therefore we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as if^* God were imploring you through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹He made the one who did not know sin to be sin on our behalf, in order that we could become the righteousness of God in him.