2 Corinthians 5
The full text of 2 Corinthians 5 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is taken down, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,
3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.
4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
7 For we live by faith, not by sight.
8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due for what we have done in the body, whether good or bad.
11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.
12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in outward appearance rather than in the heart.
13 If we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old has gone, the new is here!
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: be reconciled to God.
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Translation notes (6)
- 2 Corinthians 5:1a Paul contrasts skenos (σκῆνος), 'tent', a term evoking the movable tabernacle and the transience of the body, with oikodome (οἰκοδομή), 'building', a permanent structure. The adjective acheiropoietos, 'not made with hands', elsewhere describes the temple not built by human agency (Mark 14:58), extending the imagery from tabernacle to eternal temple.
- 2 Corinthians 5:3a Greek manuscripts divide between endysamenoi, 'having been clothed', and ekdysamenoi, 'having been unclothed', the latter found in Western witnesses such as Codex Claromontanus. This translation follows endysamenoi, the reading of the earliest and broadest evidence, though it yields a seeming tautology that likely prompted the alteration.
- 2 Corinthians 5:10a Bema (βῆμα), 'judgment seat', denotes the raised tribunal from which a Roman magistrate rendered verdicts; the Corinthians knew such a platform in their own forum, where Paul himself had stood before the proconsul Gallio (Acts 18:12). The word for 'bad', phaulos, suggests what is worthless or paltry rather than actively vicious.
- 2 Corinthians 5:14a Synechei (συνέχει), 'compels', denotes a constraining grip that holds one to a single course. The genitive in he agape tou Christou may mean Christ's love for us or believers' love for Christ; the translation reads it as Christ's own love, since the ground given is his death. The clause 'therefore all died' asserts that all whom Christ represented died in his death, not merely that all are mortal.
- 2 Corinthians 5:17a The Greek is elliptical, kaine ktisis (καινὴ κτίσις), literally 'new creation', with no verb expressed; the rendering 'there is a new creation' preserves this openness rather than restricting the newness to the individual. The language echoes Isaiah 43:18-19 and the promise of new heavens and a new earth in Isaiah 65:17.
- 2 Corinthians 5:21a Greek hamartia (ἁμαρτία), 'sin', can also denote a sin offering, a usage found in the Septuagint of Leviticus, where it translates the Hebrew chattat, a term meaning both 'sin' and 'sin offering'. Some interpreters therefore understand Paul to say that God made Christ a sin offering. The rendering 'to be sin' preserves the deliberate parallel with 'the righteousness of God' later in the verse.
About this translation
You are reading the Trinity Bible Version (TBV) — an original 2026 translation made straight from the Greek, in clear modern English, exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter of every book is free to read online. For the study edition — with Hebrew and Greek on every verse and the full translation notes — open 2 Corinthians in the Trinity Bible app.
Continue: 2 Corinthians 6 → · All of 2 Corinthians · About the TBV · Read 2 Corinthians 5 in the KJV
Get the app: iOS · Android · Trinity Plus