1 FOR we know that if this tent, our earthly home, is thrown down, we have a building of God, a home not made by hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 For in this we sigh in earnest desire to put on our dwelling that comes from heaven,

3 since if we put that on we shall not be found naked.

4 For while we are in this tent we sigh being burdened, not that we wish to be unclothed, but to put on the other, that what is mortal may be swallowed up in life.

5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, and he has given to us the pledge of the Spirit.

6 So being always of good courage and knowing that while living at home in the body we are living in a foreign land away from the Lord \'97

7 for we walk by faith, not by sight \'97

8 I say we are of good courage and wish rather to live in the land foreign to the body and be at home with the Lord.

9 Therefore also we are ambitious to be pleasing to him, whether at home with him or in this foreign land.

10 For we must all appear as we truly are before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive the award for what he has done with his body, according to his actions, whether good or bad.

11 Knowing, therefore, the fear of the Lord, we are persuading men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope that it is also plain to your consciences.

12 We are not recommending ourselves again to you, but giving occasion to you for boasting on our behalf, that you may have it to use against those who boast of appearances and not of heart.

13 For if we were out of our minds it was for God, and if we are sane it is for you.

14 For the love of Christ impels us, convinced of this, that if one died for all, then all died,

15 and he died for all that the living may no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.

16 So we, from now on, know no man according to the flesh. Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.

17 So if any one is in Christ he is a new creature. The old things have passed away, they have become new.

18 And all things are from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given to us the service of reconciliation \'97

19 to proclaim that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting against men their sins, and that he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing to you through us. We pray you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God.

21 Him who knew no sin God made sin for our sake that we might become the righteousness of God in him.