Day 8 – 2 Corinthians 5:1-12

For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 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. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart.^[1]

It is usually at memorial services we have heard many of the verses read. They are read and quoted to give us comfort and peace at the passing of loved ones and friends. Our familiarity with them in that context is so great that it is hard to hear them any other way. Clearly, it is appropriate to hear them and read them as we have but in so doing we miss the deeper revelation Paul is seeking to impart. We long for the day when we can be with our Lord in glorified bodies, no longer held hostage by the issues of life that often afflict them. But there is also a strong sense here that Paul is also referring to a life driven by the demands of the flesh versus one driven by our faith in our Lord.

This life has its claims on us but it leaves us naked, vulnerable, and unprotected. Our faith leads us to desire a different, higher and better relationship that brings us into the presence of the Lord. The relationship, being present with the Lord, covers the nakedness of our flesh. As long as we are driven, compelled, motivated by our flesh, our earthly tent, we are exposed, naked and therefore absent from the Lord. Our aim, our ambition, our goal should be to become one with the Lord, not just in “the great bye and bye,” but in the here and now. Yes, there is a day coming when we will be with the Lord for all eternity, and in that day inherit that which has been prepared for us, but there is also an exposure, a nakedness we can leave behind in this life simply by deciding to be absent from it; and in that manner we are pleasing to the Lord. I prefer, like Paul, to be absent from the body to be with the Lord.

Dear Father, we are driven by our flesh in so many ways. We have a desire to walk closer with You but the pull of our flesh is often so overwhelming. Therefore, we are so grateful for Your gift of the Holy Spirit who clothes us in our nakedness and strengthens us in our weaknesses. The guilt over our failures, over our nakedness, is often so pronounced that we find we cannot move forward. Help us, this day, to desire absence from this body prone to sin so that we can be present with You walking in Your highest and best for our lives. Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 2 Co 5:1–12.