11 No, we are not praising ourselves again. But we are telling you this so that you may really be proud of us. Then you will be ready to answer people who are proud of themselves. They are proud of the things which can be seen.But in their hearts they have nothing to be proud of.
12 If we are crazy, it is for Gods sake. If we are right in our minds, it is for your sakes.
13 The love of Christ makes us do what we do to win men. We believe that one man died for all people. To God it is as if we all died with him.
14 He died for all, so that those who live would not live to please themselves. But they should live to please him who gave his life for them and rose again from death.
15 So then we no longer know people by what we see on the outside. There was a time when we knew Christ that way, but now we do not know him that way any longer.
16 So, if any man belongs to Christ, he is a new person. His old life has gone. You see, he has begun a new life.
17 But it is God who has done all this. He sent Christ to make peace with us and to bring us back to himself. Now he has given us the work of bringing other people back to God.
18 God was in Christ. He brought the world back to himself. He forgave them for the wrong things they had done. And he gave us the message that will bring people back to himself.
19 So we are messengers for Christ. God is using us to call people. So we are standing here for Christ and begging people, Come back to God!
20 Christ did no wrong thing. But for our sake God put the blame for our wrong ways on Christ. So now God sees us as good, because we are in Christ.
21 missing fehlt/missing