2 Corinthians 5 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 55-57
Location
Written from Macedonia to the church in Corinth, Greece
Audience
The Christian community in Corinth, a cosmopolitan port city with predominantly Gentile believers
Situation
Paul writes during his third missionary journey after a period of conflict with the Corinthian church and challenges to his apostolic authority. This letter follows a painful visit and a previous severe letter, and represents a time of reconciliation and pastoral instruction.
Key Background
Corinth was a wealthy commercial center known for religious diversity and Greek philosophical thought, which influenced how believers understood concepts like bodily resurrection. Paul addresses mortality and eternal hope in chapter 5 partly because Greek philosophy typically viewed the body negatively and was skeptical of physical resurrection. The chapter's theme of reconciliation ministry reflects Paul's own recent reconciliation with the Corinthian congregation and establishes the theological foundation for Christian ministry.
We know that if the we live in here on earth — this body of ours — is torn down, we have a from a permanent home in the heavens, not made by human hands.
Right now we're in this body, longing to on our heavenly home like clothing over what we already wear —
because when we do put it on, we won't be found and
While we're still in this temporary shelter, we groan under its weight — not because we want to be stripped of it, but because we want to be covered over with the new, so that what's dying is up by
And the one who has us for exactly this is God himself, who has given us the as a down — a guarantee of what's coming.
So we're always even though we know that while we're at in this body, we're away from the Lord —
because we navigate life by not by what we can
We are confident, and actually we'd prefer to this and be at home with the Lord.
So whether we're at home in the body or away from it, our one is to be to him.
Because all of us will have to stand before the of the where each person will receive what they're owed for the things they did while in the body — whether good or
So because we understand what it means to have a of the Lord, we try to people. God knows exactly who we are, and I hope that deep down, you know too.
We're not trying to recommend ourselves to you again. We're giving you something to be proud of about us, so you can respond to those who brag about rather than what's in the
If we seem out of it's for God. If we're being reasonable, it's for you.
Because the of the us. We've come to this conclusion: died for all, which means all died.
And he died for everyone so that those who are alive would stop living for themselves and start living for the one who died for them and was to
So from now on, we don't evaluate anyone by anymore. Even if we once evaluated the One that way, we don't anymore.
So if anyone is with the One, they are an entirely The old has gone. Look — the is here!
And all of this comes from God, who with us through the One and then gave us the of
Here's what that means: God was in the One, restoring the with himself. He wasn't holding people's against them, and he entrusted us with this of
So we are on behalf of the One, as though God is making his appeal through us. We're pleading on behalf of the One: be to God!
God took the who had no of and let him become itself for our sake, so that through him we could become the very of