4 ¹⁶ No wonder we do not lose heart! Though our outward humanity is in decay, yet day by day we are inwardly renewed. 4 ¹⁷ Our troubles are slight and shortlived; and their outcome an eternal glory which outweighs them far. 4 ¹⁸ Meanwhile our eyes are fixed, not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen: for what is seen passes away; what is unseen is eternal.

5 ¹ For we know that if the earthly frame that houses us today should be demolished, we possess a building which God has provided—a house not made by human hands, eternal, and in heaven. 5 ² In this present body we do indeed groan; we yearn to have our heavenly habitation put on over this one— 5 ³ in the hope that, being thus clothed, we shall not find ourselves naked. 5 ⁴ We groan indeed, we who are enclosed within this earthly frame; we are oppressed because we do not want to have the old body stripped off. 5 ⁵ Rather our desire is to have the new body put on over it, so that our mortal part may be absorbed into life immortal. God himself has shaped us for this very end, and as a pledge of it he has given us the Spirit.

5 ⁶ Therefore we never cease to be confident. We know that so long as we are at home in the body we are exiles from the Lord; 5 ⁷ faith is our guide, we do not see him. Or: faith is our guide and not the things we see. 5 ⁸ We are confident, I repeat, and would rather leave our home in the body and go to live with the Lord. 5 ⁹ We therefore make it our ambition, wherever we are, here or there, to be acceptable to him. 5 ¹⁰ For we must all have our lives laid open before the tribunal of Christ, where each must receive what is due to him for his conduct in the body, good or bad.