11. So we try to persuade people, since we know what it means to fear the Lord. We are well known by God, and I hope that in your heart we are well known by you as well.
12. We aren’t trying to commend ourselves to you again. Instead, we are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us so that you could answer those who take pride in superficial appearance, and not in what is in the heart.
13. If we are crazy, it’s for God’s sake. If we are rational, it’s for your sake.
14. The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: one died for the sake of all; therefore, all died.
15. He died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.
16. So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now.
17. So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!