Introduction. (Read the reference)

Comments on this passage are often perplexing and confusing for a number of reasons:

(1) Many interpret it in the light of a simple but probably erroneous belief that when a Christian dies he or she goes immediately and consciously to their reward in heaven.

(2) Paul does not deal here or anywhere unambiguously with the believer's state between death and the resurrection. This did not seem to exercise Paul although it exercises many Christians. Paul looked forward overwhelmingly to the resurrection of the body and to all that followed from that. This was the supremely important event for him and it is with this that he deals here. Christians who deny an intermediate state exists should remember what happened to Jesus. He was not given a resurrection body at death. His body rested in the tomb for 2 nights before it was taken into the new. There was an intermediate state between his death and his resurrection to life. He is the firstfruits of them that sleep.

(3) The context of the passage is often overlooked. Paul was still thinking of his often distressing condition. In Asia Paul had felt the sentence of death. 2Cor1v9. He informed the Corinthians: Though outwardly we are wasting away. 2Cor4v16.

(4) The passage provides an excellent example of mixed metaphors. Paul likens the body we inhabit to a tent and also to clothing. So death is both like the destruction of a tent and also like being unclothed. He mixes the metaphors when he writes about being clothed with our heavenly dwelling. I feel it would have been preferable for Paul to have stuck with one metaphor!

I have dealt with some of the issues raised in this passage in: my article on heaven and hell and my expositions on:1Cor15v12to34 and 1Cor15v35to58.

(B) Man's distressing condition.

Paul describes mankind's distressing condition by using a series of metaphors: Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed .... . For while we are in this tent we groan and are burdened because we do not wish to be unclothed ..... and be found naked.

These metaphors suggest:

(1) Bodily life is impermanent. A tent is not a fixed abode. In Paul's day nomads might have lived in a tent for a while before taking it down and moving on. I am still quite fond of camping but I do not look upon my tent as a permanent dwelling. It is somewhere I spend a couple of weeks on holiday. Then I pack up and go home. So our earthly bodies are but a temporary dwelling.

(2) Bodily life can be very uncomfortable. A tent is not the most secure dwelling. A person in a tent cannot protect himself from really bad weather or even noise. Last year while camping at Kelling Heath I was woken up at 5am every morning by an arthritic pheasant that honked loudly outside my tent. I could tell it was arthritic because it walked with a limp. I could gladly have shot it.

There are many things the body cannot protect us from - disease, weakness, disappointments, failures and frustrations.

(3) Bodily life can be humiliating and undignified. Paul groaned at the thought of being unclothed and left naked. This is probably a reference to being wasted away.

A tent will eventually wear out. The wind will begin to rip it. Holes appear and the rain gets in. The tent will soon be used up, knackered and fit for nothing. It becomes a shameful thing.

It can be very undignified and humiliating getting old and frail. It is akin to the indignity of being stripped naked. My poor old father after 18 years of Parkinson's disease was in the sorriest of states - a wreck - a ruin - a travesty of the man he was in his youth.

We may well groan at the thought of being like this. It can be a burden to us - something we fear and dread.

Paul was very aware of the really big problem the body poses for us. He wrote to the Corinthians: I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. Phil1v20.

(4) Bodily life ends in destruction. Paul does not use a euphemism for death. He certainly does not say the body sleeps at death or is mysteriously translated to heaven. When sleep is used to describe death in the New Testament this refers to the state of the dead person. It is more like being asleep than anything else we know.

Paul says that when we die the body is destroyed. For the growing number of humanists, atheists and secularists in Britain death will be the end. All that is left is for the elements to destroy their bodies.

(C) Christians hope for a new and better body.

Paul wrote: We have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

We need to interpret this statement with reference to other teaching in the Scriptures about the resurrection body.

When we die our spirit is not taken by God to heaven to be kitted out then and there in a new body. The only man who has gone bodily to heaven is Jesus. This must surely be what John meant when he wrote in his gospel: No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven - the Son of man. John3v13.

When Jesus died he did not go bodily to heaven. He dismissed his spirit into the safe keeping of God his Father. It was only after his resurrection that Jesus ascended into heaven.

There is a sense in which the believer is always secure in God. Paul tells the Colossions: Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Col3v3. Death will make absolutely no difference to that fact. Later: When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Col4v4. Paul tells the Philippians: And we eagerly await a Saviour from there(heaven) the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring all things under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Phil3v20and21.

So what Paul seems to be saying to the Corinthians is that a blue print for their new bodies has been prepared and is waiting in heaven for that day when the resurrection of the dead takes place at Christ's Second Coming. Then spirit and body will be reunited - prepared for that eternal life on a new earth and in a new universe. Heaven is not actually our home!

Paul hints at some of the features of the new body:

(1) It is more like a house than a tent! Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God ... . Our new body will suit us better than the old. There is more that we can do with it! Jesus could materialise and vanish at will. He could cook, and eat and serve but also enter a locked room.

(2) It is the ultimate model: An eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Just imagine owning the ultimate model motorcar from the ultimate designer - one that cannot be improved upon in any way whatsoever. Our resurrection body will be a de luxe, unimprovable body. It will have absolutely none of the disadvantages of the old body. There will be no raging, uncontrolable appetites, no desperate bodily needs, no discomfit and no pain.

(3) It is indestructible. So what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. v4. Our resurrection bodies will be like his(Jesus') glorious body and as such will last forever.

(D) God's guarantee of resurrection.

Now it is God who has made us for this purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. v5.

We all know what a deposit is. It is a down payment that shows a commitment to a future transaction. Before Christmas I went into my local furniture store and ordered a new three piece suite. I needed to wait a couple of months for it to be manufactured. So I was asked to pay a deposit as a sign of good faith - as evidence that when the time came for the furniture to be delivered I would go through with the purchase.

A farmer might pay for his son to take a degree in agriculture or estate management. The son will see this as a declaration of his father's purpose to hand over the farm to him one day.

When a man or a woman becomes a Christian God imparts new spiritual life to them. A believer recieves the Holy Spirit. This is a sign of God's purpose to renew both body and spirit at the resurrection. New life given now shows God's commitment to impart eternal life in the future. I like this poem that captures a flavour of the life to come:

The view of heaven that I have
Is not of angels bright and suave.
White robed with harps and golden crowns.
I vision rather little towns
With smog less skies and rivers clear.
And not an airplane you can hear.
No dust, no rust, no rats, no rot;
No raucous rock no potent pot,
No growing old and weakened sight,
No dentures slipping when you bite.
No bombs, no guns, no courts, no jails,
Where all succeed and no one fails.
No strikes, no layoffs, full employment,
And everyone with job enjoyment.
All tell the truth, state only facts,
No wars, no debts, no income tax.
According to this dream of mine,
In heaven no one stands in line,
And there are only smiling faces
And lots and lots of parking spaces.

Paul's confidence in the resurrection makes him resolve:

(1) Not to get too comfortable in, or preoccupied with, this life.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. v6. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. v8and9.

Some commentators take these words to mean that Paul wants to leave earth where he is at home in the body to be with Jesus in heaven where he would be at home with the Lord. The passage is cited as evidence that when a Christian dies he goes straight to heaven to be with Jesus.

Well this may be true! But if this is the correct interpretation I don't see the point of Paul's comment: So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. If we are in heaven with Jesus I don't think there is any doubt that we shall please him. Our will hardly enters into it! It is not appropriate to talk about making it our goal to please him in heaven. No one disobeys Jesus in heaven!

So I tend to agree with Aida Besancon Spencer who writes in her commentary on 2 Corinthians: Rather, to be 'at home in the body' means to feel complete satisfaction and comfort in this life. We certainly use expressions like, 'I felt very much at home,' to indicate feeling at ease in a given situation. So, perhaps, when Paul writes about being at home in the body he means being at ease, comfortable, content and secure in this life like the farmer in Jesus' parable of the Rich Fool. See exposition on Luke12v13to21.

It is possible to find this life so comfortable and rewarding that we are in love with it and neglectful of Jesus. We can be so very contented and pleased with our lot on earth that we fail to prepare for the life to come.

When Paul wrote that he preferred to be away from the body he may have meant that he preferred to be uncomfortable, uneasy, troubled and distressed - in despair of this life - wasting away - if this brought him closer to Christ and kept him in his will.

It is easy to be corrupted by ease and to lose sight of the goal. This can happen to rich young footballers. They become wealthy so quickly that they lose their hunger for the game. Grantland Price wrote:

When the one great scorer comes
To write against your name
He marks - not that you won or lost -
But how you played the game.

So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. v9.

A father reading his Sunday paper and not wanting to be disturbed, cut up a map of the world and gave it to his little girl. He asked her to put the pieces together thinking it would take her quite a while. But in very short time the little girl returned with every piece in its proper place. Her father asked, "How did you get the world in its proper place so quickly?"

The little girl replied, "You see, there was a picture of Jesus on the other side and I knew if I got Jesus in the right place, the whole world would be right!"

Paul was determined whatever state he was in - comfortable or uncomfortable - secure or insecure - successful or a failure - he would put Jesus in the right place. His goal was not to please himself, not even to please others, but but to please Jesus. Paul realised that it might actually be harder to keep this goal in sight in prosperity but even in prosperity he resolved to do so.

(3) To live by faith. We live by faith not be sight.

This well known story illustrates what it is to live by faith:

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I’ll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can’t see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that’s all that matters."

Paul lived in the belief that whatever his circumstances God was always there for him. He has already referred to this: So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2Cor4v18.

Things often went wrong for Paul - all sorts of things. He was in poor health, he suffered imprisonment and physical violence, he experienced many dangers on his travels and he was unappreciated by his fellow believers who should have known better. Paul endured many troubles because he believed in the end he would finish the race set before him and win the crown of righteousness.

That is what it takes on our part to live by faith. We need to really believe the words of the old Sunday school chorus:

God is still on the throne,
And He will remember his own:
Though trials may press us and burdens distress us
He never will leave us alone;
God is still on the throne,
And he will remember his own;
His promise is true, He will not forget you;
God is still on the throne.

(4) To always keep in view the final judgment of believers.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body whether good or bad. v10.

It is important to realise what this doesn't mean! Our works will not be used to decide whether we receive eternal life or not. We can never earn salvation and eternal life. We are not saved through any merit of our own. Paul makes it clear writing to the Ephesians that salvation is a gift. We are saved by grace and through faith.

When Jesus judges his own he will not be interested in our life before conversion or in the sins we have committed. Our sin has been dealt with.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear in no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

What Jesus will judge will be the quality of our service. To what extent have we been obedient to him, how have we used the opportunities that we have been given and how far has our motivation been pure.

Jesus will judge our work, estimate our worth and allocate our reward. Not every Christian will receive the same reward. If we are awarded a medal we shall be able to wear it for all eternity.

I don't think believers think enough about being judged by Jesus. If we did we might take our Christian service more seriously. See exposition on 1Cor3v10to15.