5:1 And we know that if our earthly “tent” is taken down we have a supernatural building constructed by God, eternally in the heavens.

5:2 We ache for this new home of ours; we long to put on these clothes from heaven

5:3 so that we won’t be caught undressed!

5:4 We who are in this earthly tent groan under its weight, preferring not to remain undressed but to be clothed, so that the dying may be engulfed by the living.

5:5 Yet the same God who put this longing inside of us also gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

5:6 So be confident, even with the knowledge that living here in the body means not being at home with the Master.

5:7 For we live by faith, not sight.

5:8 Yet we are confident and would prefer to leave this home and be out of the body so we can be in our real home with the Master.

5:9 But whether at home or away, it is our great ambition to please him,

5:10 for everything about us will be revealed at the throne of the Anointed. We are to be assessed for whatever we did during our time in the body, whether good or flawed.

5:11 Having this respectful fear of the Master, then, we try to persuade people. But what we really are is plain to God— and I hope also to you.

5:12 Now we are not patting ourselves on the back again, but giving you a reason to be proud of us so that you can stand up to those who brag about appearances and not the heart.

5:13 If we were out of our minds it was for God; if we are sane it is for you.

5:14 We are constrained by the love of the Anointed, when we consider that one died for the sake of all, and in that way all died.

5:15 And he died for the sake of all so that those who live will no longer live only for themselves but also for the one who died for them and was raised.

5:16 So we no longer think of people as how they are in the flesh. We once knew the Anointed only in this way but no longer,

5:17 because if anyone is united with the Anointed, they are a new creation; the original has passed away and become something completely new!

5:18 Yet it all comes from God, the one who reconciled us to himself by means of the Anointed and assigned us to this service of reconciliation.

5:19 Through the Anointed God reconciled the world to himself, not holding their blunders against them, and gave us the message of reconciliation.

5:20 That means we are the Anointed’s representatives and God pleads through us. So, on behalf of the Anointed, we plead with you to be reconciled to God!

5:21 For this one who knew no failure was made to be Failure for our sakes, so that because of him we can become right with God.