1 Therefore, having this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart;
2 but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor falsifying the word of God, but by the open statement of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience before God.
3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing,
4 in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
5 For we do not proclaim ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves your servants for the sake of Jesus.
6 For it is God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthenware vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be from God and not from us.
8 We are pressed hard on every side but not hemmed in; perplexed but not in despair;
9 persecuted but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed;
10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made manifest in our body.
11 For we who live are always being handed over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So death works in us, but life in you.
13 Yet having the same spirit of faith, in keeping with what is written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we too believe, and so we too speak,
14 for we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also through Jesus and will bring us, together with you, into his presence.
15 For all things are for your sake, so that the grace, multiplied through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart; but even if our outer man is decaying, yet the inner man is being renewed day by day.
17 For this slight, momentary affliction of ours is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, beyond all measure and proportion,
18 while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things not seen; for the things that are seen are for a season, but the things not seen are eternal.