2 Corinthians 5

Our Future after Death

¹For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands.²³Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling,⁴⁵since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.⁶⁷Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.⁸⁹Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.¹⁰

¹¹So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.¹²¹³For we walk by faith, not by sight.¹⁴¹⁵In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.¹⁶¹⁷Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.¹⁸¹⁹For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.²⁰

²¹Therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your consciences.²²²³We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in outward appearance rather than in the heart.²⁴²⁵For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.²⁶²⁷For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died.²⁸²⁹And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.³⁰

The Ministry of Reconciliation

³¹From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.³²³³Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!³⁴³⁵Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.³⁶³⁷That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.³⁸

³⁹Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”⁴⁰⁴¹He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.⁴²