2 Corinthians 5 Commentary

Paul compares our earthly bodies to a tent, something that is transitory and temporary. He contrasts the tent with a building that is permanent and built by God, which will be our eternal dwelling. We walk by faith and not by sight through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us as a deposit on what is to come. This life is fleeting, and it will be better to be with God.

Our goal is to please God in light of our coming appearance before the judgment seat of Christ. He will reward us for our obedience, but for our bad actions, we will suffer a loss of rewards which could have been. Paul lives in obedience to God to preach to others because he remembers that this judgment day is coming.

Paul is not seeking the approval of the Corinthians; rather, he is showing them that they should not seek the approval of men, who only judge externals and don’t know the heart. If we live by remembering that Jesus will judge us, not men, and act out our conscience, then we do not have to fear the opinions of other people. Paul lives by the leading of Jesus’s love, because Jesus died and resurrected to save all men, thus Paul lives not for himself or others’ approval, but in Jesus’s example and for His approval.

Each believer in Christ has transformed into a new person. It is as though we were born again, into a new life, so that we can live as Christ lived. We can live in obedience and fellowship with God because we now have Christ living in us. This is an amazing change of our entire identity and reality.

For Paul, being “in Christ” was everything, and everything he did, thought, and spoke came from this perspective or worldview. The fear of the Lord, the compelling love of Christ, the conviction that Christ died for him and for all, the lens of the Spirit and not the flesh, the message and ministry of reconciliation, and being an ambassador of Christ and His purpose, all came from Paul being “in Christ.”

God the Father and God the Son acted out a plan to restore the relationship between man and God. God the Father sent God the Son in a human body to live in perfect obedience and die as the perfect sacrifice for everyone’s sins, then He raised Him back to life. Now, by believing in Jesus the Son, we can choose not to sin, and can now live rightly according to God’s good design.