Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 167
4:11–5:13
2 C o ri n thia n s
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suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life
of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so
that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the
face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.
But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the
psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” We know that
God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present
us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s
grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and
God will receive more and more glory.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits
are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t
last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them
and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now;
rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we
see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
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.
We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly
bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not
be spirits without bodies. 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. God himself has prepared us for this,
and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
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. For we live by believing and not by seeing. 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.
So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is
to please him. 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.
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. 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. If it seems
we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds,
