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 handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience before God.

3 But also if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,

4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine on them.

5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.

6 For it is God who commanded light to 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 earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not from us.

8 We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are 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, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

11 For we who live are always delivered to death because of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

12 So then death is working in us, but life in you.

13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believe and therefore I speak, we also believe and therefore speak,

14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up through Jesus, and will present us with you.

15 For all things are for you, that the grace may excel through the greater numbers, and cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not faint. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is achieving for us a surpassing and eternal weight of glory,

18 while we do not contemplate the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.