⁶ So we are always confident, even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—

5 For we know that, if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.^(A)

¹³ All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth,^(A)

²⁰ But our citizenship^[a] is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ He will transform the body of our humiliation^[b] that it may be conformed to the body of his glory,^[c] by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.^(A)

A Vision of Christ

⁹ I, John, your brother who share with you the persecution and the kingdom and the endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.^[a](A)

Tending the Flock of God

5 Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you^(A)

³⁵ Do not, therefore, abandon that boldness of yours; it brings a great reward.

⁸ Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

⁴ The Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you base this reliance of yours?^(A)