2 Corinthians 4:7-5:10

EasyEnglish Bible

⁷ God has given to us the gift to speak his message. But we ourselves are very weak. It is like we are keeping his valuable gift in clay pots. So it is clear that the great power of God's message comes from God himself. It does not come from us. ⁸ We receive trouble all the time, but that does not stop us. We do not always know what to do, but we are not afraid to continue. ⁹ We have many enemies, but we always have friends. People hurt us, but they never destroy us. ¹⁰ As we serve Jesus, we know that we may die as he died. Because of that, our lives show that we live because he is alive. ¹¹ Yes, as we live our lives, death is always very near, because we serve Jesus. As a result, people can see in our weak, human bodies that Jesus is alive. ¹² So death is near to us, even as we live. But as a result, we are bringing God's life to you.

¹³ This is written in the Bible: ‘I believed in God, and so I spoke.’^[a] We also have the same kind of faith in God. So we also speak God's message, because we believe in him. ¹⁴ God raised up the Lord Jesus, to become alive again after his death. Because we belong to Jesus, we know that God will also raise us up after we die. Together with you, God will take us to be where he is. ¹⁵ In everything that we do, we want to help you. As a result, more and more people are seeing how kind God is. So people are thanking God more and more. And that shows how great God is.

¹⁶ That is why we are not afraid to continue our work. Yes, our bodies are getting older and weaker. But our spirits are becoming stronger every day! ¹⁷ We have these little troubles that continue for a short time. But as a result, we will receive the great things that God has prepared for us. Those great things are much more important than our little troubles. And God's great things will continue for ever! ¹⁸ So we do not look at the things that we can see in this world. Instead, we look at the things that people cannot see. The things that we can see are only here for a short time. But the things that we cannot see will continue for ever.

God has prepared a new body for us

5 Our bodies are like a tent that we live in here on earth. One day, that home will come to an end. But we know that God will give us a new home. It is not a house that a human builder has built. God has built it for us in heaven and we will live there for ever. ² Now, while we are in our body here on earth, we cry inside ourselves. We want to go and live in our house that is in heaven. ³ That will be like new clothes that we put on. When we go to live there, we will not be without clothes and ashamed.

⁴ While we still live in our bodies here on earth, we cry inside ourselves. Many difficult things happen to us. We do not really want to take off our old body. But we do want to put on our new body, like new clothes. When that happens, we will no longer need our old body which had to die. Instead we will have a new body that will live for ever. ⁵ God is the one who has prepared us to have a new life in heaven one day. He has given his Spirit to be with us now. Because of that, we know that we will receive all God's good things one day.

⁶ Because God's Spirit is with us, we continue to be brave. While we still live here on earth, we know that we are not yet at home with the Lord. ⁷ As we live here, we have to trust God. We do not yet see the things that belong to heaven. ⁸ We are brave because we trust God. We would like to go away from our body here on earth. Then we would go to be at home with the Lord. And that would be better! ⁹ But all the time we want to please the Lord. We want to do that while we are still at home in our body here on earth. We also want to please him when we go away from these bodies. ¹⁰ Because all of us must go and stand in front of Christ as our judge. He will decide about the things that we have done during our lives here on earth. Whether we have done good things or bad things, we will receive what is right for us.