increased number, may more and more promote the glory of God.
004:016 Therefore we are not cowards. Nay, even though our outward
man is wasting away, yet our inward man is being renewed
day by day.
004:017 For this our light and transitory burden of suffering is
achieving for us a preponderating, yes, a vastly preponderating,
and eternal weight of glory;
004:018 while we look not at things seen, but things unseen;
for things seen are temporary, but things unseen are eternal.
005:001 For we know that if this poor tent, our earthly house,
is taken down, we have in Heaven a building which God has provided,
a house not built by human hands, but eternal.
005:002 For in this one we sigh, because we long to put on over it
our dwelling which comes from Heaven--
005:003 if indeed having really put on a robe we shall not be found
to be unclothed.
005:004 Yes, we who are in this tent certainly do sigh under our burdens,
for we do not wish to lay aside that with which we are
now clothed, but to put on more, so that our mortality may
be absorbed in Life.
005:005 And He who formed us with this very end in view is God, who has
given us His Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that bliss.
005:006 We have therefore a cheerful confidence. We know that while we
are at home in the body we are banished from the Lord;
005:007 for we are living a life of faith, and not one of sight.
005:008 So we have a cheerful confidence, and we anticipate with
greater delight being banished from the body and going home
to the Lord.
005:009 And for this reason also we make it our ambition, whether at
home or in exile, to please Him perfectly.