Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

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 house for us to live in. It will not be a house made by men. It will be a home in heaven that will last 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 body, we have burdens, and we complain. We do not want to be naked. We want to be clothed with our heavenly home. Then this body that dies will be fully covered with life. ⁵ This is what God made us for. And he has given us the Spirit to be a guarantee for this new life.

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

Becoming Friends with God

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, too. ¹² We are not trying to prove ourselves to you again. But we are telling you about ourselves, so you will be proud of us. Then you will have an answer for those who are proud about things that can be seen. They do not care about what is in the heart. ¹³ If we are out of our minds, it is for God. If we have our right mind, then it is for you. ¹⁴ The love of Christ controls us. Because we know that One died for all. So all have died. ¹⁵ Christ 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 do not think of anyone as the world does. It is true that in the past we thought of Christ as the world thinks. But we no longer think of him in that way. ¹⁷ If anyone belongs to Christ, then he is made new. The old things have gone; everything is made new! ¹⁸ All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between us and himself. And God gave us the work of bringing everyone 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 the world guilty of its sins. And he gave us this message of peace. ²⁰ So we have been sent to speak for Christ. It is as if God is calling to you 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. God did this for us so that in Christ we could become right with God.

6 We are workers together with God. So we beg you: Do not 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 do not want anyone to find anything wrong with our work. So we do nothing that will be a problem for anyone. ⁴ But in every way we show that we are servants of God: in accepting many hard things, in troubles, in difficulties, and in great problems. ⁵ We are beaten and thrown into prison. Men become upset and fight us. We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food. ⁶ We show that we are servants of God by living a pure life, by our understanding, by our patience, and by our kindness. We show this by the Holy Spirit, by true love, ⁷ by speaking the truth, and by God’s power. We use our right living to defend ourselves against everything. ⁸ Some people honor us, but other people shame us. Some people say good things about us, but other people say bad things. Some people say we are liars, but we speak the truth. ⁹ 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 in Corinth. We have opened our hearts to you. ¹² Our feelings of love for you have not stopped. It is you that have stopped your feelings of love for us. ¹³ I speak to you as if you were my children. Do to us as we have done—open your hearts to us.

Warning About Non-Christians

¹⁴ You are not the same as those who do not believe. So do not join yourselves to them. Good and bad do not belong together. Light and darkness cannot share together. ¹⁵ How can Christ and Belial, the devil, have any agreement? What can a believer have together with a non-believer? ¹⁶ The temple of God cannot have any agreement with idols. And we are the temple of the living God. As God said: “I will live with them and walk with them. And I will be their God. And they will be my people.”^[a]