II Corinthians 5
1 For we know that if our earthly house of [this] tent be destroyed, we have [a] building from God, [an] eternal house not made with hands in the heavens. 2 For in this we also groan, longing to put on our dwelling from heaven, 3 if indeed, being clothed, we not be found naked. 4 For we being in [this] tent do groan, being weighed down, not that we want to be unclothed, but clothed, in order that the death-like be swallowed up by zoe-life1 . 5 Now the [one] having wrought us for this same [this is] God, the [one] having given to us the down-payment of the spirit. 6 Always being courageous therefore, and knowing that being home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for through faith we walk, not through visible-form— 8 we are confident and resolve rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. 9 Therefore we aspire, whether being home or being absent, to be pleasing to him. 10 For we all must be manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, in order that each receive the [things] toward which he practiced through his body, whether good or worthless.11 Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but to God we are manifest, and I hope to be manifest in your consciences. 12 We do not again recommend ourselves to you, but giving to you pretext of boasting concerning us, in order that you have [answer] to those boasting in appearance, and not in heart. 13 For whether we are senseless, [it is] to God, whether we are of sound mind, [it is] to you. 14 For the agape-love of Christ impels us, having judged this [thing], that one [man] died in behalf of all; therefore all died. 15 And he died in behalf of all in order that those zoe-living1 no longer zoe-live1 to themselves but to the [one] having died and having been raised in their behalf. 16 So we from now on know nothing according to the flesh; and if we have known Christ according to the flesh, now we no longer know [him thus]. 17 So if anyone [is] in Christ, [He is a] new creation; the old has passed away, behold everything is become new. 18 So everything [is] from the God having reconciled us to himself through Christ and having given to us the service of the reconciliation, 19 how God was in Christ reconciling [the] world to himself, not reckoning to them their transgressions, and having placed in us the word of reconciliation. 20 In behalf of Christ therefore we act as ambassadors, as though God [is] exhorting through us; we ask in Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 He made him sin in our behalf, [he] who knew not sin, in order that we become [the] justness of God in him.
1from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.