1For we know that if our earthly house, the tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. 2For indeed, in this house we groan, because we desire to put on our dwelling from heaven, 3if indeed, even after we have taken it off, we will not be found naked. 4For indeed we who are in this tent groan, being burdened ˻for this reason, that˼ we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now the one who has prepared us for this very thingis God, who has given us the down payment, the Spirit. 6Therefore, although we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7for we live by faith, not by sight— 8so we are confident and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9Therefore indeed we have as our ambition, whether at home in the body or absent from the body, to be acceptable to him. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, in order that each one may receive back the things through the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 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˼, if indeed we have known Christ ˻from a human point of view˼, 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 thingsare 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.