1 Therefore having received this ministry, as we have obtained mercy, we are not disheartened:
2 but have rejected shameful disguises, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth, recommending ourselves to every man's conscience, in the sight of God.
3 And if our gospel also be veiled, it is to those that perish;
4 among whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, doth not shine unto them:
5 for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for the sake of Jesus.
6 For God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to reflect the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power might be evidently of God, and not of us:
8 being afflicted on every side, but not oppressed; perplexed, but not in despair;
9 persecuted, but not forsaken;
10 cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body.
11 For we, who are yet living, are always exposed to death for the sake of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
12 So that death is wrought in us, but life in you.
13 But having the same Spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed, and therefore have I spoken," we also believe, and therefore speak:
14 knowing that He, who raised up the Lord Jesus, will raise up us also by Jesus, and present us with you.
15 For all these things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the gratitude of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we are not disheartened: but though our outward man decayeth, yet the inward man is renewed daily.
17 For our short and light affliction is working out for us an infinite and eternal weight of glory, as we aim not at the things which are visible, but invisible:
18 for those, which are visible, are temporary, but the invisible are eternal.