Written ~ 08-30-2024
Read 2 Corinthians Chapter Five
2 Corinthians 5
Wow! This chapter is pretty awesome wouldn’t you say? I really hope you read through it before we begin, but if not, we are going to dive right in with verse 5:1. In the first 10 verses Paul is giving us a small glimpse into Heaven. This little peek gives believers hope and confidence that when we leave this earth, we have a wonderful place to look forward to.
2 Corinthians 5:1…
1 “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.”
When I think of a “tent,” the first thing that comes to mind is a tent used for camping. It’s a temporary shelter, some easier to set up than others. It’s collapsable and can be squeezed into a small place; then what happens? It gets thrown into storage where it collects dust until it’s needed again.
As Christians we are living in a temporary vessel, a “tent.” Some of us take better care of our “tents” than others, but all in all – we can all be sure that these earthly “tents” will not last forever. We get to trade them in! We will trade them in for something glorious, hand built by God! Psalm 139:13-16 tells us that God made us, knit us together, just the way He wanted. So, our earthly tent is also hand built by God. The main difference, when these tents are worn out and our time on earth is complete, instead of being thrown out, we get an upgrade! We get a new body with heavenly features!
2 Corinthians 5:2…
2 “We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.”
Well, isn’t that the truth! How many mornings do we wake up, put our feet on the ground, begin to stand up and it’s like “Holy Cow” what’s with all the crinks and pops! It might take a moment for all our bones and muscles to sink into place before we can get moving. As we age, our bodies will grow increasingly weary. It’s important to take care of our bodies, because while we are here on earth, we are the temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16-23). Even though we long for the day we get to put on our heavenly bodies, the purpose that the Lord has placed on our lives has to play out. We must live for the Lord each and every day. We can’t become complacent; we can’t become lazy. No where in the Bible will you find that it’s ok to sit around and wait for the day we put on our new bodies. No, our earthly tent must be used every single day to get the Gospel message out to all people.
2 Corinthians 5:3…
3 “For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.”
In heaven we will actually have bodies. We won’t be translucent beings without physical form. Our new bodies will be pain free, disease free, they will not become weary. These new bodies will interact with Jesus, who is also a living being! Awesome!
2 Corinthians 5:4…
4 “While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.”
We have eternal life to look forward to! These bodies, these earthly tents we live in, are not meant to live forever. We must be prepared for these bodies to break down, then eventually, we will die. Noone can escape death. But, while we are on earth, God does not want us to live with an “Eeyore Complex” and a “Ho-Hum” mentality. NO! He gave us life! To live abundantly! Yes, we can look forward to the day we exchange these earthly tents for heavenly bodies, but in the meantime, we must live for the Lord! If you haven’t already found it… FIND YOUR PURPOSE IN THE LORD! Look again at what verse 5:4 says, “…these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.” What? When I die, I live? YES! That is the assurance Salvation gives to every Born-Again believer!
2 Corinthians 5:5…
5 “God Himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee He has given us His Holy Spirit.”
Let that sink in for a moment…
While we are here on earth, living in earthly tents, temporary bodies… The Almighty God has given us HIS HOLY SPIRIT! It’s not some random angelic being… NO! GOD’S VERY OWN SPIRIT is living within us! That should make us excited enough that we leap for joy and give a shout of HALLELU-YAH! The Holy Spirit is given to us so we can learn about the things of Heaven. He was given to us so we can maneuver through this life with all the Power of Heaven within us! Pretty awesome for just some temporary tents, wouldn’t you say?
2 Corinthians 5:6-8…
6 “So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.”
As we grow in our relationship with the Lord, the longing to be with the Lord should increase. As believers, we have confidence in our Salvation. No matter how long we are here, in our earthly tent, soon we will be with the Lord in Heaven. It is important to remind ourselves, that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit prompted our hearts to realize eternal life was only found through Salvation. “…we live by believing and not by seeing…” We did not come to Salvation because we saw Jesus walking on this earth, we came to Salvation because God has given the Holy Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that we know what we have heard about Jesus and Salvation is the ultimate truth. We have chosen to believe without seeing.
My prayer is that each of my family members, every one of my friends would thrive in their walk with the Lord. My prayer is that their confidence in their Salvation is what drives them forward each day. My prayer is that this life, this world is not what is attractive to them, instead the thought of Heaven is what thrills their hearts and living an abundant life with Jesus is what gets them out of bed in the morning. My prayer is that each of us would live for the Lord in everything we do or say.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10…
9 “So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please Him. 10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.”
If your goal is to please the Lord while you are in your earthly tent… What changes do you need to make in your life today? If we know that one day we will stand before the Lord to be judged, what things do you see in your life that need to be altered?
Our responsibility while here on earth is to serve the Lord. We are to work hard at bringing people to Christ. When you gave your life to the Lord, was that it? Did you just figure “I got in” now I can go do what I want? The purpose every single believer has is to spread the Gospel message! We are either doing that, or we are not doing that. If we aren’t doing it, what is taking the place of spreading the Love of Christ to everyone? In verse 5:14 it says, “…we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we all died to our old life…” When we stepped into Salvation, we became a new person. We now have a Heavenly view of what needs to be done while we are still on earth. Let’s all do our part!
2 Corinthians 5:16-21…
16 “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
First off, what does Paul mean when he says don’t “evaluate others from a human point of view?” It simply means we are not to judge others by looking only at their outward appearance. Have you ever heard the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?” That’s essentially what verse 5:16 is saying. We are no longer to look at others at face value or judge them simple by what they look like on the outside. Then Paul continues by saying, “at one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view.” That means the world judges Christ by merely looking at Him from an outwardly and earthly point of view. Once we become believers, our attitude towards Him changes abruptly! We need to be very careful that we aren’t passing judgement on anyone just by outward appearance. What could we miss out on by passing a quick judgement? Could God be placing that person in your path because they need a friend? By passing them over, you might be missing out on getting to know someone who has a wisdom and knowledge of the Scriptures and a faith in the Lord that you could really learn from.
So how does that work with Jesus? Well, think about it… one person can read the Bible and completely miss who Jesus is. That happened with the religious leaders in the days Jesus walked the earth. They chose to take on a superficial view of Jesus as truth, they made their decision based on what He looked like to determine He couldn’t possibly be the Messiah.
When we look deeper, when our search brings us to the heart of things, that’s where change happens. When we stop looking just at the surface, everything is different.
What happens next? A complete change of heart! When we look at Jesus we see who He is, our attitudes change, we are the ones who see differently. Christ didn’t change for us… We became a new person! And now we belong to Him. We have stopped looking outwardly, instead we are looking inward. Verse 5:17 says, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” God has given us beautiful gift… the gift of LIFE through Jesus Christ. The King James Version (KJV) says we have become a “new creature.” So, it truly means we are no longer who we used to be when we come to Christ, we have become something completely different. Do you know what the means? We should never look back to see if we can find our old selves – Instead we look forward – we are Christ’s Ambassadors. Verse 5:20 says, “…we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us…”
The dictionary defines ambassador as:
- The resident Representative
- An Authorized Representative or Messenger
- An Agent, Delegate, Minister
So, as Christ’s Ambassadors, we are to represent Christ in all we do as residents here on earth. As believers, this is not our home, our true residence is in Heaven. But, while we are here, we have become Christ’s messengers. Verse 5:18 says, “God has given us this task of reconciling (restoring harmony) people to Him…” Verse 5:20 says, “…God is making His appeal through us…”
God is asking us, now that we have become a new creature through Jesus Christ, to be His messengers, to get the Word out, to plead with people… “Come Back to God!”
You know… it’s an awesome thing that we have… our sins no longer count against us (vs.5:19) and we should have a deep desire to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ!
This is the time for boldness! As we look forward to trading in these earthly tents into something new and extraordinary, we first have a great task set before us and that is to be messengers of the Good News. Start with family! Start with friends! Draw them into a closeness with Christ that they have never experienced before! Help them see Jesus more than just at face value. Encourage a deeper relationship, cut through the layers of our own human point of view and see who Christ truly is. Let’s restore our “new selves.” We may feel a little beat up and run down, so let’s freshen things up and dig into the Word of God! Put that shine back on our faces, let’s have the joy we feel on the inside burst through!
God is so awesome, isn’t He? He’s cheering us on! He has given us the gift of Salvation and He has given us a reason to shine! We have Jesus! We are new creatures; we are no longer tied to that old sinful past – we have been set free and He wants us to proclaim that freedom to the world!
~AMEN~