The Message of Reconciliation

5:11 Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord,18 we try to persuade19 people,20 but we are well known21 to God, and I hope we are well known to your consciences too. 5:12 We are not trying to commend22 ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us,23 so that you may be able to answer those who take pride24 in outward appearance25 and not in what is in the heart. 5:13 For if we are out of our minds, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 5:14 For the love of Christ26 controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ27 died for all; therefore all have died. 5:15 And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised.28 5:16 So then from now on we acknowledge29 no one from an outward human point of view.30 Even though we have known Christ from such a human point of view,31 now we do not know him in that way any longer. 5:17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away32—look, what is new33 has come!34 5:18 And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 5:19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us35 the message of reconciliation. 5:20 Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea36 through us. We plead with you37 on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!” 5:21 God38 made the one who did not know sin39 to be sin for us, so that in him40 we would become the righteousness of God.