2 Corinthians 5

¹For we know that if our earthly house, the tent, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ²For in this tent we groan, longing to put on over it our dwelling from heaven, ³if indeed, having put it on, we will not be found naked. ⁴For while we are in this tent we groan, being weighed down, because we do not want to take it off but to put our heavenly dwelling on over it, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵Now the one who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the down payment of the Spirit.

⁶So we are always confident, and we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from home, away from the Lord— ⁷for we walk by faith, not by sight— ⁸and we are confident and would rather be away from home, out of the body, and at home with the Lord. ⁹So we also make it our ambition, whether at home or away from home, to be pleasing to him. ¹⁰For we must all be made visible before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what is due for the things done through the body, whether good or bad.

¹¹Knowing, then, the fear of the Lord, we persuade people; but to God we have been made visible, and I hope that we have been made visible in your consciences as well. ¹²We are not commending ourselves to you again; rather, we are giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. ¹³For if we were out of our minds, it was for God; if we are in our right minds, it is for you. ¹⁴For the love of Christ constrains us, since we have concluded this: that one died for all, and therefore all died; ¹⁵and he died for all so that those who live would no longer live for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.

¹⁶So from now on we know no one according to the flesh. Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him that way no longer. ¹⁷So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old things have passed away; look, new things have come. ¹⁸And all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the service of reconciliation: ¹⁹namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the word of reconciliation. ²⁰So we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as God makes his appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God. ²¹The one who did not know sin he made sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Translation notes 10

5:1–4 — “Tent”; “put our heavenly dwelling on over it.” The body is a tent that can be dismantled, and the future body a building and a garment. Verses 2 and 4 use a verb for putting one garment on over another, and verse 4 pairs it with taking a garment off. “Our heavenly dwelling” in verse 4 supplies the object from verse 2, preserving the mixed building and clothing imagery. The Greek base in verse 3 reads “having put it on”; a competing reading in the Nestle-Aland text means “having taken it off,” which changes the sense of the verse. See the study notes.

5:6–9 — “At home”; “away from home.” Two verbs contrast being in one's own country with living abroad. The draft keeps the pairing in all six occurrences, three pairs.

5:10 — “Judgment seat”; “good or bad.” The seat is the raised platform from which a magistrate gave rulings, as in Acts 18:12. The Greek base has phaulon, which can mean bad, base, or worthless; here the contrast concerns the moral character of what one has done. The Robinson–Pierpont Byzantine text has kakon, also meaning bad or evil. Both words can convey moral badness; the variant does not require a sharper distinction in English.

5:12 — “In appearance.” Literally “in face,” contrasted with heart. “An answer” is supplied for the Greek's elliptical “so that you may have [something] against those.”

5:13 — “Out of our minds.” The verb can describe religious ecstasy or madness. Paul does not specify the occasion.

5:14 — “The love of Christ”; “constrains.” The Greek can mean Christ's love for us or our love for Christ; the former is the usual reading. The verb means to hold together, press hard, or hem in; “controls,” “compels,” and “urges on” are common renderings.

5:16 — “Know him that way no longer.” The Greek ends simply “now we no longer know”; “him that way” is supplied. Most interpreters take “according to the flesh” with the verb, as a way of evaluating; some attach it to “Christ,” a Messiah judged by human standards. The draft's word order follows the first.

5:17 — “There is a new creation.” The Greek has no verb: “if anyone is in Christ—new creation.” The clause can describe the person (“he is a new creation”) or the state of affairs. The base reads “new things have come”; other editions add “all things,” giving “all things have become new.”

5:19 — “God was in Christ reconciling”; “word.” The words can be read “God was in Christ, reconciling the world” or “in Christ God was reconciling the world”; the English keeps both possible. “The word of reconciliation” uses the same noun as “the word of God” in 2:17 and 4:2; “message” is the familiar rendering.

5:21 — “He made sin.” The wording is retained without expansion. Proposals that “sin” here means a sin offering, or that Paul means Christ was treated as a sinner, are interpretations; the study notes assess them.