(2Co 5:8) “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”   I once again draw your attention to the fact that not only is this confidence based upon faith in God’s stated Word, but it is also based upon a tangible thing that can be proven to self  – the earnest, the Holy Spirit in you (2 Cor 5:5). This proof is why a person can rightly be asked, (2Co_13:5)  “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves…”  

(2Co 5:8) “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”   Notice the difference between this statement and Verse 1, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”.  Today’s verse speaks of now, before the resurrection of our bodies (v.1), our verse of present day. To pass today is to leave this old house behind. Yet, we are not naked, but the spiritual body was made alive at the salvation experience. With it we immediately stand in the presence of God. At the Rapture we will receive a glorified, resurrected body.

(2Co 5:8) “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”   In both vVerse 6 and now in Verse 8, we have a phrase that speaks of a settled faith in God’s Word, His truthfulness, His ability. That phrase is “we are confident”! Are you confident of your spiritual position in both this life and the life to come?

(2Co 5:6) “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (7)  (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”  That parenthesis statement gives clarity to what has been stated in Verse Six. Though seemingly absent from the presence of the Lord while living in this physical world, our faith in God’s teaching and the presence of the Holy Spirit assure our hearts that we are not only His, but that Verse Eight (seen tomorrow) awaits us! Praise His Name.

(2Co 5:5) “Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”  To “wrought us” and “the earnest of the Spirit”  speak of the same thing. It speaks of that new body being something that will, without doubt, take effect. “Wrought” speaks of finishing. The Spirit of God living inside us being the “earnest”, speaks of “a token, a sign, a surety of a promise”. Praise God, how can  you possibly doubt if you so have the evidence, the reality of the Holy Spirit within you?

(2Co 5:4) “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”   Interesting phrase: “mortality might be swallowed up of life”. Death hangs like an awning over us in this life. It’s awful fingers touch each of us from loved ones, to our own sickness, to its nearness in old age. Our salvation speaks of life incorruptible: no sickness, no aging, only immortality!

(2Co 5:4) “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”  It is not wrong to desire the next life. Our bodies certainly go through periods of desire to depart them. This is the desire and hope of the Believer, for we have been promised this by God Who cannot lie nor does He change His mind. Bless the Lord!

(2Co 5:3)  “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.”  While speaking to the Corinthians he, like any good preacher, makes sure that if one is lost their heart may be pricked. That is why he speaks of being found “naked”. There is a new body awaiting all the truly saved, (1 Cor 15:51) “…we shall all be changed….(52)… and the dead shall be raised incorruptible…” 

 (2Co 5:1) “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2) For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:”  When the saved suffer the sickness and pains of this life, it turns their minds heavenward, or to the future. They make us long for the release from this body unto that which God has promised and will fulfill!

(2Co 5:1) “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”  This house is referring to first of all, the spiritual body we call “the spirit” (it houses the soul); and second of all, to the resurrected eternal body like Jesus’ (to house the soul). Before the Rapture takes place, those who die open their spiritual eyes in the presence of the Lord. Their physical body is buried or cremated. Those individuals are waiting for the Rapture that will resurrect and transform their old bodies into new eternal ones, uniting the spirit to that body.