2 Corinthians 5:1-8 meaning

In 2 Corinthians 5:1-8, Paul sums up the Christian faith walk (1 Corinthians 5:7). He begins with the phrase For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down (v. 1a). The word For connects with Paul’s thought from the previous chapter, which ended with him exhorting believers to walk by faith, believing that what they cannot see (in heaven) is more real than what they can see on earth. That is because what can be seen on earth is temporary, and is passing away, while what can’t be seen, that is to come, will last forever. This includes the fact that our earthly bodies are mortal and will pass away, but the resurrection bodies we are promised will be immortal.

Paul refers to our physical body here on earth as an earthly tent. When we think of an earthly tent we think of something that is temporary, easily taken down. Paul was a tent maker by trade, thus it would have been natural for him to use the tent metaphor. A tent is seen as not permanent, something that is here today but will be gone tomorrow. Paul contrasts the earthly tent that is our earthly body with another thing we have waiting for us in heaven, in the life that is to come: a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (v. 1b).

Paul is developing his thought from the previous chapter, the last verse of which includes the phrase “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (2 Corinthians 4:18). A tent which is torn down refers to our earthly bodies, which will one day die. This is something that is “seen.” Accepting this reality, Paul wants us to be focused on the promise that we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (v. 1b). This is something that is “unseen”—something that is hoped for.

This infers what is spoken of overtly in Hebrews, that the very definition of faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Paul exhorts believers to exercise the faith to know that we have something we cannot see waiting for us. Chapter 5 begins with For we know indicating that the hope of the resurrection is, by faith, something tangible and real—something that by faith we can know.

Since our earthly body is temporary and our resurrection body will be permanent, what we do not see is more real than what we do see. The building from God is something that will last, something that is eternal in the heavens (v 1b). That means it will be in God’s presence (in the heavens) and last forever.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he explained what happens when the earthly body dies:

“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” 
(1 Corinthians 15:42-44)

It is important to recognize that in the age to come we will have a body that is more real than our current body. It will not be the same body, it will be a “spiritual body.” We are not told many specifics, but we know Jesus had a resurrected body. We know His resurrected body was physical since the disciples touched Him and He ate food (Luke 24:41-43, John 20:27). It was also spiritual, as He apparently passed through solid objects (Mark 16:14) and took on different forms (Mark 16:12). But whatever new characteristics our resurrected body might have, it is still a body.

In the age to come, we will not be disembodied spirits floating around on clouds, playing harps with nothing to do. There is no biblical description of anything like that. We will have a body and a place, as Jesus says in John 14:2, “for I go to prepare a place for you.” We know that this new place will be a new earth (Revelation 21:1).

Rather than living in a fallen state, in this new earth righteousness will dwell (2 Peter 3:13). We will have the amazing privilege to dwell on this earth with God, who will dwell among us (Revelation 21:3). This new earth will apparently be brimming with activity and purpose, as the kings of the nations will bring their glory and the glory of their nations into the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24-26).

Paul says this new body we can look forward to in the knowledge of faith is eternal in the heavens. This might indicate that believers will receive these resurrected bodies prior to the time when God relocates His presence to dwell upon the new earth He will create. In this context, heavens likely refers to the place of God’s dwelling. When believers die, they immediately go to be in His presence (1 Thessalonians 4:17, Luke 23:43). It will be at a later time that God will create a new heavens and a new earth.

This knowledge of faith gives us amazing hope, as Paul recognizes the difficulty of pain while living in his earthly, mortal body, saying: For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven (v. 2). 

The house Paul refers to is his current physical body. In the original language, the word translated house is a pronoun that refers back to the earthly tent that is his physical, earthly body. Some have called our physical body an “earth suit”—it is the vehicle required for human spiritual beings to dwell in a physical earth.

This indicates further that the spiritual body we can look forward to in the resurrection will not have the frailties that our current body has. Our hope and expectation is that these resurrected bodies will endure forever (1 Corinthians 15:53-54, Revelation 21:4, 22:2).

The word groan in the phrase For indeed in this house we groan brings to mind Paul’s letter to the Romans where he says:

“…even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” 
(Romans 8:23b)

To groan in this instance is not necessarily because something has happened to us, though there can be some hint here of suffering in service to Christ. It is more of the eager longing for something better than what we experience in this fallen world. We desire a world without pain and evil. This includes the reality of our human suffering and inevitable mortality. We groan, and desire the hope of redemption for our bodies in the resurrection to happen sooner rather than later.

Again, we are called to the perspective of looking to the eternal as a prime motivation over and above the temporal. Paul enhances the metaphor of dwelling when he says that we groan from living in this frail tent of our human body and are rather longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, which will be our resurrection body. Today living humans are spiritual beings dwelling in a lowly physical tent that is our mortal bodies. But in the resurrection we can look forward to having a new body. Paul describes this as being clothed with our dwelling from heaven. 

His phrase mixes the concept of wearing clothes with the home we live in—our dwelling. We are human spirits living in a body, which is our dwelling. On this earth we dwell in something temporary—a physical body. In the future we will have a new and permanent dwelling from heaven. This will be a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44). But it will be a part of us, as we will be clothed with this new body.

Perhaps here Paul is drawing on his previous letter to Corinth when he said, speaking of our human bodies, “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53) inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked (v.3). 

When Paul says he will not be found naked, it would seem he is saying that we will get a new body. We will not be spirits with no home, floating aimlessly. We will be humans, with bodies, but with new, spiritual bodies. We will be raised with Christ, who is the first human to be raised from physical death and receive a new spiritual body.

There is also a concept of not being naked that refers to the judgment seat of Christ, which is a few verses later, in 2 Corinthians 5:10. To be found naked at the judgment is spoken of in Revelation as being naked without good deeds, where good deeds are pictured as robes that cover up our nakedness. But here Paul appears to be speaking of having a body.

As we saw in his first letter, false teachers were telling the Corinthians there was no resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:12). So Paul is asserting here the absolute certainty of the resurrection, and that includes having a new body that is quite tangible, as tangible as clothing or a dwelling.

It is apparent from this section (2 Corinthians 4:18 - 5:10) that Paul’s primary motivation stemmed from the perspective of the eternal and not the temporal. Paul saw this life, its sufferings, its joys, its opportunities, and its purpose in the light of the eternal. As we saw in the prior chapter, Paul considered the intense suffering he endured for Christ as “momentary” and “light” as compared to the “eternal weight of glory” he would gain as a reward for faithful service (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). We will see in verse 10 of this chapter that he keeps a primary focus on the reality that all he does in this life will be judged, and that he will receive rewards (2 Corinthians 5:10). 

This focus on the next life raises a tension that he now resolves. A focus on the next life could cause us to lapse in our diligence, it could lead us to neglect living faithfully in this life. We could adopt the idea that “This life doesn’t matter, I am just waiting for the next life.” Paul feels a longing to go to the next life, as he says next: For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. (v.4). 

Paul is suffering a lot, and longs for it to end; he longs to gain a new body. His eyesight was apparently failing (Galatians 6:11). He endured immense sufferings (2 Corinthians 11:23-29). Paul is burdened with the suffering of this age. Even though Paul had chosen to view suffering in this life as “momentary, light affliction” as compared to the glory to be revealed in the age to come, it was still a burden to endure difficulty (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). 

And Paul is not wishing to be disembodied (unclothed). Rather he wishes to receive a resurrection body (clothed). He is ready to shed his physical body (mortal) and exchange it for a resurrected body that will never die (swallowed up by life). 

However, although Paul is eager to shed his frail physical body living in this fallen world, and receive a resurrected body in a new earth in which righteousness dwells, he keeps his focus on living faithfully in this life. He will wait patiently for God’s timing. As he will emphasize in 2 Corinthians 5:10, we will all give an account for how faithfully we have deployed stewardship of the gifts God has granted us in this life. Therefore, Paul is dedicated to persevere in working diligently for God during all his days on earth. 

Just as the master who returned to judge his servants in Jesus’s parable of the talents, so will Christ judge each believer when they stand before Him (Matthew 25:19-28). So while Paul longs for the age to come now, he uses the certainty of that future reality to motivate himself to live faithfully in the present age.

As Paul has emphasized in this section (2 Corinthians 4:18 - 5:10), his primary perspective was rooted in the eternal rather than the temporal. But this rooting in an eternal perspective gave meaning and purpose to all he endured in this life. Paul viewed life’s sufferings, its joys, its opportunities, and its purpose in the light of the eternal. This allowed him to place all his difficulties into a context where he viewed them as a means to an end, as he asserted in the previous chapter (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

Paul saw his present circumstances as “momentary” affliction as compared to the glory he could have for all of eternity for living faithfully as unto the Lord. He says the exceedingly difficult circumstances he was experiencing are “light” as compared to the immense glory he could gain from the rewards laid up for those who live in faithful obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10, Colossians 3:23, 2 Timothy 4:8).

He was looking ahead through the lens of the eternal. Paul was the opposite of someone who is “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” This thought would have been anathema to Paul, who viewed this life on earth like he was an athlete training to win the Olympic games (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

Paul viewed winning at life as gaining an “eternal weight of glory” for the deeds he did while on earth (2 Corinthians 4:17). At the fire of Christ’s judgment of his deeds, he wanted to receive “gold, silver, precious stones” that would be refined and endure rather than “wood, hay, straw” that would burn up and not endure (1 Corinthians 3:12).

Jesus spoke not only of His own resurrection, but of the resurrection of the righteous. Jesus said these words to the religious leaders, indicating that there will be rewards in heaven for good deeds done while living on this earth:

“But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” 
(Luke 14:13-14)

Jesus also said this to His follower Martha, that all who believe in Him will be resurrected:

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.’” 
(John 11:25)

Paul understood both that a) all believers will be resurrected, and b) there will be rewards for deeds done while living on this earth (2 Corinthians 5:10). Paul lived this perspective, that the eternal rewards would be worth any degree of suffering endured from obedience to Christ while living in his earthly tent, that is, his physical body. So he says we groan, being burdened. However we continue on and endure because of our eternal perspective; we know it will be more than worth it. 

To serve God in obedience to Him by serving others in love, speaking and living the truth, is the very purpose for which humans were created. God made us to steward the earth in harmony with Him, nature, and one another. As Paul states: Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge (v 5).

The context of the purpose Paul speaks of here is the purpose of having an “eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Scripture speaks of God creating humans and giving them the “glory and honor” of reigning over the earth in harmony with God (Psalm 8:5-6, Hebrews 2:7-8). God prepared humans for this purpose.

Though humans fell and lost their place, Jesus has restored this “glory and honor” through the “suffering of death” by dying on the cross for our sins (Matthew 28:18, Hebrews 2:9). Paul understands this and knows that life will swallow up death when he walks in the obedience of faith.

Throughout Paul’s writings, he encourages us to “put on” or “clothe” ourselves with Christ. (Romans 13:14, Colossians 3:12, Ephesians 4:24, Ephesians 6:11). Walking by faith requires tapping into the power of the Spirit.

God sent the Spirit as a pledge to believers. A pledge is like a down payment that guarantees a promised result. In this case, the promised result is that walking by faith in Him will be greatly rewarded. Because we have the Spirit, we have the voice of God within us, giving us assurance that we are His, and that if we walk in His ways we will be greatly rewarded. Paul says both of these things (we are His and will be rewarded for faithfulness) in his letter to the Romans:

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God”
(Romans 8:16).

In this verse Paul indicates that the Spirit speaks to us, and lets us know we are His. Because we have the Spirit, we can be assured God will keep all His promises; the Spirit is a pledge or “deposit.” Our acceptance in God is through Christ and not of ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-9). Therefore, God is our inheritance regardless of our behavior. Being in God’s family is a gift given by God’s grace, and is therefore irrevocable (Romans 11:29).

If we are hearing God speaking to us as a child, it should give us assurance that we are in His family forever. This includes hearing an inner voice chastising us, for God chastises those whom He loves (Revelation 3:19). Belonging to God, being accepted into His family, is a part of our inheritance that is unconditional.

There is a responsibility that attends being in the esteemed family of God, as the passage continues:

“and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” 
(Romans 8:17)

We see here that we are “heirs of God” unconditionally. This is our unconditional acceptance in Christ. But there is also a part of our inheritance that is received as a reward for faithfulness, and is conditioned upon our being faithful. We are “glorified with Him” only if we “suffer with Him.” Paul understands this, and that is why he considers the great suffering he endures as “momentary” and “light” as compared to the “eternal weight of glory” that will be revealed to those who suffer rejection by the world in their obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 4:17).

The Spirit will reveal to us the great benefits God will give to those who are faithful, things that are beyond our ability to comprehend (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

We see that as members of God’s royal family, we are heirs. We are heirs of God simply because we are His. But we only become “fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him” and walk in obedience to God while enduring rejection by the world. If we overcome rejection, loss, and death as Jesus overcame, we will share in His authority and be given responsibility (Revelation 3:21). We will enter in to the joy of our Master and be given great responsibilities to serve Him as a reward (Matthew 25:21).

Paul sees a continuity of our life, first earthly, then eternal: “this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53). Paul sees that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life (v. 4b). To be swallowed up by life is connected to his reference of Isaiah 25:8 in 1 Corinthians 15:54, “Death is swallowed up in victory” through the promised resurrection, and our receipt of a new, spiritual body.

When we become “a new creature” in Christ, “the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This new creation inside of us begins to shape and form us in the image of Christ. Each believer is destined to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

Being formed into His image is a process sometimes referred to as sanctification. We are saved from the penalty of sin and made a child of God through simple belief (John 3:14-15). But it requires an ongoing walk of faith to be delivered from the power and consequences of sin in this life (Galatians 6:8).

Our resurrection body will be formed around this “new creature” God has created us to be. As new creations, we are being restored to our original design, which will bring an “eternal weight of glory” as we walk in obedience to Him (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God (v 5a).

He prepared us for what we are to become. When we believe that our future reward for faithfulness to Him will be great when we suffer for Him, then verses like 2 Corinthians 4:17 make a lot of sense; suffering on this earth is “momentary” and “light” compared to the amazing glory of the rewards God has for those who are faithful to Him.

The culmination of the reconciliation of all things, including our resurrected bodies, will be on “the day of the Lord” (2 Peter 3:10) when, “according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). While we cannot physically see this, we can gain a glimpse from God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge (v. 5b). As Paul said in his first letter to Corinth, we cannot really comprehend all God has in store to reward us for serving Him, but “to us God revealed them through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:10). 

The Spirit is given as a pledge not only to God’s restoration of our design, but for all that God has in store for us (1 Corinthians 2:9). As Paul has emphasized to this point, this includes the glory of God as well as the glory God has promised to those who walk in obedience to Him, an “eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). As Paul asserted, we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Also in Chapter 3, Paul compares the glory of the Law of Moses as being inferior to the present glory of being “in Christ” (2 Corinthians 3:9). The glory God originally bestowed upon humans has been restored to Jesus, and He desires to bring many sons to share that glory with Him (Hebrews 2:10).

That Paul spends so much emphasis on adopting this eternal perspective makes apparent that this is a choice; believers can adopt this perspective or not. As Paul described in Colossians, believers can be deceived by the world:

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the elementary principles of this world, rather than according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

This deception can take the form of religious rules that creep into the church:

“If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of this world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’ (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?” 
(Colossians 2:20-22)

Religious rules do not conform us to the image of Christ. Walking in the Spirit by faith conforms us to the image of Christ. Fighting against religious legalism is a major theme in Paul’s letters. As Paul says to the Galatians,

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law” (Galatians 5:18).

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

This “walk by the Spirit” is the transformation referred to in 2 Corinthians 3:18 and it is this spiritual transformation that moves us from the “glory” of the “ministry of condemnation” to the surpassing glory of God’s pledge given to us in the Spirit, which is Christ in us, our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

Now Paul makes an application. Given that we have a pledge or “deposit” of the Spirit assuring us of life in the resurrection and the hope of glory, Paul now says: Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord (v. 6). 

This is an application of verses 2-4, but now he points to their confidence, being always of good courage. Paul has been speaking of enduring difficulties. But in light of the hope believers have in Christ through enduring such difficulties by faith, they should always have a state of mind to be of good courage. 

It is interesting to consider that niceness is not a biblical virtue. Niceness is, at its core, self-seeking. This is because niceness is centered around attempting to manage what others think of us. However, courage places very high as a biblical virtue (see commentary on Revelation).

Revelation 21:8 lists “cowardly and unbelieving” as traits to be judged. These two things may be listed together due to being linked. We fear, and are therefore cowardly due to lack of belief.

An example can be found in Mark 4:40, where Jesus addressed His disciples who remain fearful after He had calmed the raging storm. Jesus desired them to rather be of good courage by having faith. Courage and faith are linked. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to be of good courage because they believe God’s promises and His pledge to fulfill them through the Holy Spirit.

Faith leads to boldness. In order to be a faithful witness and not fear death, loss, or rejection, we need to have the courage to walk in faith that God’s reward will be more than worth any loss we endure for staying the course (Hebrews 11:6).

If they keep their eyes on the eternal, they will continue to have confidence even though they have been going through afflictions, persecutions, and have been struck down (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). They can have the courage that comes through faith of knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight (vv 6-7).

The inference here is that through difficulties believers should maintain courage and confidence that when we leave this earth and enter the presence of the Lord, He will make all our sufferings worthwhile. Paul says we walk by faith in what is laid up for us in heaven, rather than walking by sight of the things we see in this physical world. This is consistent with the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, that it is the “conviction of things not seen.”

The idea is that we should be of good courage and not fear because if we die, we are better off. For now, we are in the body and therefore absent from the Lord. Because of the great promises God has made to reward faithful service to Him, going to the next life will be a huge promotion (1 Corinthians 2:9, 2 Corinthians 5:10). We see a direct application of this mentality in Paul’s final letter, when he is facing martyrdom, when he says:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” 
(2 Timothy 4:7-8)

There are things that are temporal, “things which are seen”, but through the glory that has been revealed through Christ, His promises to His people and the deposit of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing those promises, Paul realizes that “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

The great courage Paul admonishes us to have comes because enduring difficulties by faith produces an “eternal weight of glory” that is “for us.” We are the great beneficiaries of enduring difficulty through faithful obedience. We see this pattern throughout scripture. A few examples follow:

• Philippians 2:5-9, which tells believers to have the same mindset Jesus had, who learned obedience even unto death and was therefore given great glory, the name above every name.
• Revelation 3:21, where Jesus exhorts believers to overcome as He overcame, and promises such overcomers that He will share His throne with them even as His Father shared His throne for having overcome.
• Hebrews 2:5-10, where Jesus restored the “glory and honor” to humanity to reign over the earth through the “suffering of death.” Jesus desires to bring “many sons to glory” to reign with Him—all who will follow in His footsteps and be sanctified apart from the world.

Paul lives by the conviction that the surpassing glory of God is so far beyond what we can think or imagine that he longs and groans that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life (v 4). Paul powerfully and eloquently describes this walk by faith in the prayer he writes in Ephesians 3:14-21). In that prayer, Paul prays for his followers to be grounded in love, with hearts of faith, and be granted comprehension of the love of Christ, which surpasses human knowledge. He also describes the fruit of such a walk of faith in Galatians 5:22-23, the fruit of the Spirit.

In light of this walk of faith, Paul goes on to conclude we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord (v 8). Again, Paul’s confidence does not come from circumstances but from the conviction that he lives his life seeing the eternal. He is living faithfully and obediently now while preferring to be at home with the Lord, when he leaves this world and goes to heaven. But he is not lax, because he knows that he will give an account for the stewardship of his time on this earth (2 Corinthians 5:10).

This is not easy to do or Paul would not have to exhort believers to learn to think in this manner. But it is clear from the letters he writes, particularly to the Corinthians, that this attitude/perspective is something Paul desires be adopted by all believers. Scripture uses the word translated “saints” to apply to all who are believers in Christ Jesus—“saints” translating a Greek word that means “set apart.” Each believer is set apart from the world through being baptized into the death of Jesus.