1. Therefore since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not faint.
2. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the Word of God, but by the revelation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
3. But also if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those being lost,
4. in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving ones, so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ (who is the image of God) should not dawn on them.
5. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
6. For it is God who said, "Out of darkness Light shall shine;" who shone in our hearts to give the brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us;
8. in every way having been troubled, but not having been hemmed in; having been perplexed, but not utterly at a loss;
9. having been persecuted, but not having been forsaken; having been thrown down, but not having been destroyed;
10. always bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus in the body, so that the life of Jesus also might be revealed in our body.
11. For we who live are always being delivered to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus might also be revealed in our body.
12. So then death works in us, but life in you.
13. For we, having the same spirit of faith (according as it is written, "I believed, and therefore I have spoken"); we also believed and therefore speak,
14. knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus shall also raise us up by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15. For all things are for your sake, so that the superabounding grace might be made to abound through the thanksgiving of the greater number, to the glory of God.
16. For this cause we do not faint; but though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
17. For the lightness of our present affliction works out for us a far more excellent eternal weight of glory,
18. we not considering the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are not lasting, but the things which are not seen are everlasting.