2 Corinthians 5-7

Easy-to-Read Version

5 We know that our body—the tent we live in here on earth—will be destroyed. But when that happens, God will have a home for us to live in. It will not be the kind of home people build here. It will be a home in heaven that will continue forever. ² But now we are tired of this body. We want God to give us our heavenly home. ³ It will clothe us and we will not be naked. ⁴ While we live in this tent, we have burdens and so we complain. I don’t mean that we want to remove this tent, but we want to be clothed with our heavenly home. Then this body that dies will be covered with life. ⁵ This is what God himself made us for. And he has given us the Spirit as the first payment to guarantee the life to come.

⁶ So we always have confidence. We know that while we live in this body, we are away from the Lord. ⁷ We live by what we believe will happen, not by what we can see. ⁸ So I say that we have confidence. And we really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord. ⁹ Our only goal is to always please the Lord, whether we are living here in this body or there with him. ¹⁰ We must all stand before Christ to be judged. Everyone will get what they should. They will be paid for whatever they did—good or bad—when they lived in this earthly body.

Helping People Become God’s Friends

¹¹ We know what it means to fear the Lord, so we try to help people accept the truth. God knows what we really are, and I hope that in your hearts you know us too. ¹² We are not trying to prove ourselves to you again. But we are telling you about ourselves. We are giving you reasons to be proud of us. Then you will have an answer for those who are proud about what can be seen. They don’t care about what is in a person’s heart. ¹³ If we are crazy, it is for God. If we have our right mind, it is for you. ¹⁴ The love of Christ controls us, because we know that one person died for everyone. So all have died. ¹⁵ He died for all so that those who live would not continue to live for themselves. He died for them and was raised from death so that they would live for him.

¹⁶ From this time on we don’t think of anyone as the world thinks of people. It is true that in the past we thought of Christ as the world thinks. But we don’t think that way now. ¹⁷ When anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new world.^[a] The old things are gone; suddenly, everything is new! ¹⁸ All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between himself and us. And God gave us the work of bringing people into peace with him. ¹⁹ I mean that God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God did not hold people guilty for their sins. And he gave us this message of peace to tell people. ²⁰ So we have been sent to speak for Christ. It is like God is calling to people through us. We speak for Christ when we beg you to be at peace with God. ²¹ Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin^[b] so that in Christ we could be right with God.

6 We are workers together with God. So we beg you: Don’t let the grace that you received from God be for nothing. ² God says,

I tell you that the “right time” is now. The “day of salvation” is now.

³ We don’t want people to find anything wrong with our work. So we do nothing that will be a problem to others. ⁴ But in every way we show that we are servants of God. We never give up, even though we face troubles, difficulties, and problems of every kind. ⁵ We are beaten and thrown into prison. People get upset at us and fight against us. We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food. ⁶ We show that we are God’s servants by our pure lives, by our understanding, by our patience, and by our kindness. We show it by the Holy Spirit, by genuine love, ⁷ by speaking the truth, and by depending on God’s power. This right way of living has prepared us to defend ourselves against every kind of attack.

⁸ Some people honor us, but others shame us. Some people say good things about us, but others say bad things. Some people say we are liars, but we speak the truth. ⁹ To some people we are not known, but we are well known. We seem to be dying, but look! We continue to live. We are punished, but we are not killed. ¹⁰ We have much sadness, but we are always rejoicing. We are poor, but we are making many people rich in faith. We have nothing, but really we have everything.

¹¹ We have spoken freely to you people in Corinth. We have opened our hearts to you. ¹² Our feelings of love for you have not stopped. It is you who have stopped your feelings of love for us. ¹³ I speak to you as if you were my children. Do the same as we have done—open your hearts also.

We Are God’s Temple

¹⁴ You are not the same as those who don’t believe. So don’t join yourselves to them. Good and evil don’t belong together. Light and darkness cannot share the same room. ¹⁵ How can there be any unity between Christ and the devil^[c]? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ God’s temple^[d] cannot have anything to do with idols, and we are the temple of the living God. As God said,

7 Dear friends, we have these promises from God. So we should make ourselves pure—free from anything that makes our body or our soul unclean. Our respect for God should make us try to be completely holy in the way we live.

Paul’s Joy

² Open your hearts to us. We have not done wrong to anyone or caused harm to anyone. And we have not cheated anyone. ³ I do not say this to blame you. I told you before that we love you so much we would live or die with you. ⁴ I feel that I can tell you anything. I am very proud of you. Even with all the troubles we have had, I am greatly encouraged and feel very happy.

⁵ When we came into Macedonia, we had no rest. We found trouble all around us. We had fighting on the outside and fear on the inside. ⁶ But God encourages those who are troubled, and he certainly encouraged us by bringing Titus to us. ⁷ It was so good to see him, but we were encouraged even more to hear about the encouragement you gave him. He told us that you really want to see me and that you are very sorry for what you did. And he told us how ready and willing you are to help me. When I heard this, I was so much happier.

⁸ Even if the letter I wrote you made you sad, I am not sorry I wrote it. I know that letter made you sad, and I was sorry for that. But it made you sad only for a short time. ⁹ Now I am happy, not because you were made sad, but because your sorrow made you decide to change. That is what God wanted, so you were not hurt by us in any way. ¹⁰ The kind of sorrow God wants makes people decide to change their lives. This leads them to salvation, and we cannot be sorry for that. But the kind of sorrow the world has will bring death. ¹¹ You had the kind of sorrow God wanted you to have. Now see what that sorrow has brought you: It has made you very serious. It made you want to prove that you were not wrong. It made you angry and afraid. It made you want to see me. It made you care. It made you want the right thing to be done. You proved that you were not guilty in any part of that problem. ¹² The main reason I wrote that letter was not because of the one who did the wrong or the one who was hurt. I wrote so that you would realize, before God, how very much you care for us. ¹³ And that is what was so encouraging to us.

We were greatly encouraged, but we were especially pleased to see how happy Titus was. You all made him feel so much better. ¹⁴ I had bragged about you to Titus, and you didn’t embarrass me. We have always told you the truth, and now what we told Titus about you has been shown to be true. ¹⁵ And his love for you is stronger when he remembers that you were all ready to obey. You welcomed him with respect and fear. ¹⁶ I am so happy that I can trust you fully.