New Living Translation NLT
Common English Bible CEB
1 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.
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We know that if the tent that we live in on earth is torn down, we have a building from God. It's a house that isn't handmade, which is eternal and located in heaven.
2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.
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We groan while we live in this residence. We really want to dress ourselves with our building from heaven—
3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.
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since we assume that when we take off this tent, we won't find out that we are naked.
4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.
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Yes, while we are in this tent we groan, because we are weighed down. We want to be dressed not undressed, so that what is dying can be swallowed up by life.
5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
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Now the one who prepared us for this very thing is God, and God gave us the Spirit as a down payment for our home.
6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord.
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So we are always confident, because we know that while we are living in the body, we are away from our home with the Lord.
7 For we live by believing and not by seeing.
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We live by faith and not by sight.
8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.
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We are confident, and we would prefer to leave the body and to be at home with the Lord.
9 So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.
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So our goal is to be acceptable to him, whether we are at home or away from home.
10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
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We all must appear before Christ in court so that each person can be paid back for the things that were done while in the body, whether they were good or bad.
11 Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.
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So we try to persuade people, since we know what it means to fear the Lord. We are well known by God, and I hope that in your heart we are well known by you as well.
12 Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart.
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We aren't trying to commend ourselves to you again. Instead, we are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us so that you could answer those who take pride in superficial appearance, and not in what is in the heart.
13 If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.
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If we are crazy, it's for God's sake. If we are rational, it's for your sake.
14 Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.
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The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: one died for the sake of all; therefore, all died.
15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
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He died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.
16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!
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So then, from this point on we won't recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn't how we know him now.
17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
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So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!
18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
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All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
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In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people's sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation.
20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
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So we are ambassadors who represent Christ. God is negotiating with you through us. We beg you as Christ's representatives, "Be reconciled to God!"
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
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God caused the one who didn't know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible