2 Corinthians 5

We know that if the earthly tent we live in is taken down, we have a building from God, a house not made by human hands, that lasts forever in the heavens.

1For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

NoteKJV "tabernacle" here does not mean the Israelite sanctuary of Exodus. It is simply a tent, the ordinary portable shelter a traveler pitches and strikes, and "dissolved" is the word for taking such a tent down. The contrast Paul draws is between a temporary shelter and a permanent building. Paul worked as a tentmaker by trade.

2While we are in this tent we groan, longing to put on our home that comes from heaven,

2For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

Note"Clothed upon" translates a Greek compound meaning to put a garment on over what you are already wearing, the way a coat goes over clothes, rather than changing into a different outfit. The metaphor shifts from housing to clothing in mid-sentence, and the two images run together through verse 4.

3since once we have put it on, we will not be found without any covering at all.

3If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

Note"Naked" here means without a body at all, not undressed. In Greek thought a soul stripped of its body was a thing to be dreaded, and Paul is saying that is not what awaits. Some ancient manuscripts read "having taken it off" rather than "being clothed," which reverses the sense of the first half of the verse; translators have to choose.

4While we are in this tent we groan under the weight of it. It is not that we want to be stripped of a body, but to be covered with the new one, so that what is dying may be swallowed up by life.

4For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

Note"Swallowed up" picks up the wording of Isaiah 25:8, where death itself is swallowed up. The Greek behind "mortality" means the part of us that is liable to die, not death as an event.

5God is the one who has prepared us for exactly this, and he has given us the Spirit as the down payment that guarantees it.

5Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

Note"Earnest" is a business word of 1611, translating a Greek commercial term for a deposit: a first installment that is genuinely part of the full payment and legally guarantees the rest will follow. Not a sample or a token, but the opening portion of the same thing.

6So we are always confident. We know that while we are at home in this body, we are away from the Lord.

6Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

NoteThe Greek uses a matched pair of verbs: being at home among your own people, and being abroad away from them. English cannot keep the pairing, so translations stretch the phrases out. The same pair returns in verses 8 and 9.

7(We live by trusting God, not by what we can see.)

7(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

Note"Walk" is the standard biblical idiom for the whole conduct of a life, not a journey or a single stretch of road. "Sight" here means the outward appearance of things, what is visibly there to be seen.

8We are confident, I say, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

8We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

9So whether we are at home in the body or away from it, we make it our aim to please him.

9Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

Note"Accepted of him" in 1611 English means pleasing to him, not accepted in our sense of being admitted or let in. The Greek word means well-pleasing.

10We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each person receives what is due for what he did while in the body, whether it was good or bad.

10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

NoteThe "judgment seat" is the bema, a raised platform in a Greek or Roman city where a magistrate sat in public view to hear cases and pass sentence, and where prizes were also awarded at games. Corinth had one in its marketplace, and Paul had been hauled before it there.

11So, because we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade people. God knows exactly what we are, and I hope you know it in your own consciences too.

11Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Note"Terror of the Lord" means the fear of the Lord, a standard Old Testament phrase; in 1611 "terror" covered awed reverence as well as dread, and the Greek word covers both. The grammar allows either "knowing what it is to fear the Lord" or "knowing how fearsome the Lord is." "Made manifest" means laid open to view, with nothing hidden.

12We are not recommending ourselves to you all over again. We are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you have an answer for those who boast about appearances rather than about the heart.

12For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

Note"Commend" means to present or recommend someone, as a letter of introduction does; Paul has already mentioned such letters earlier in this letter. "Glory" as a verb means to boast, not to shine, and it carries that sense throughout this letter. "Somewhat" is simply "something." "In appearance" is literally "in the face," meaning outward presentation and credentials.

13If we are out of our minds, it is for God. If we are in our right minds, it is for you.

13For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.

Note"Beside ourselves" is the old idiom for being out of one's mind, and "sober" is its opposite, being of sound and steady mind. Paul is picking up terms others have apparently used about him; the pair could refer to ecstatic religious experience set against restrained ordinary speech, or simply to the charge of madness.

14The love of Christ presses us forward, because we have reached this conclusion: one man died for all, and so all died.

14For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

Note"Constraineth" is misleading now. The Greek means to press in from both sides, to hem in and so drive forward; modern "constrain" suggests holding back, which is nearly the reverse. "The love of Christ" is grammatically ambiguous in Greek and can mean Christ's love for us or our love for Christ, and the rendering keeps the ambiguity.

15And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised again.

15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

16So from now on we do not judge anyone by merely human standards. Even though we once thought of Christ that way, we no longer do.

16Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Note"After the flesh" means by merely human standards, sizing a person up by outward appearance and status; it is not about the physical body as such. The Greek word order lets the phrase attach either to the knowing ("we once judged Christ by such standards") or to the Christ known ("we once knew a merely human Christ"), and the sentence has been read both ways.

17So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone. Look, everything has become new.

17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Note"Creature" in 1611 means anything created, a creation, not an animal. The Greek clause has no verb and is compressed: it can be read as "he is a new creation" or as "there is a new creation," that is, a whole new order of things has arrived. "Behold" is simply "look."

18All of this comes from God, who brought us back into a right relationship with himself through Jesus Christ, and gave us the work of bringing others back to him.

18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Note"Reconciled" is the everyday word for ending a quarrel and restoring friendly terms between two estranged parties; it was used of separated spouses and of warring states. "Ministry" translates a word meaning service or a commission entrusted to a servant, not an office in a church.

19That is, God was in Christ, bringing the world back into a right relationship with himself, not counting people's sins against them. And he has trusted us with this message of coming back to him.

19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Note"To wit" is archaic for "that is to say." "Imputing" is a bookkeeping term: entering an amount in the ledger against someone's account. "The word of reconciliation" means the message about it, "word" here standing for a spoken message rather than a single term.

20So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were making his appeal through us. We beg you, speaking for Christ: come back into a right relationship with God.

20Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

NoteAn ambassador was an official envoy sent by a ruler or a city, whose words carried the authority of the one who sent him and were treated as that ruler's own. "In Christ's stead" means in Christ's place, speaking on his behalf. "We pray you" and "beseech" in 1611 mean we beg you, an urgent request made to a person; neither has anything to do with prayer addressed to God.

21God made him, who never sinned, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

NoteThe Greek word here translated "sin" is also the regular word the Greek Old Testament uses for a sin offering, so the phrase can be heard as "made him to be sin" or "made him a sin offering," and readers have argued over which since antiquity. "Knew no sin" means had no personal experience of sinning. "The righteousness of God" is likewise open: it can mean a right standing that comes from God, or God's own rightness displayed in them.