2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Today's Passage: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
I don’t know if you would consider yourself to be a ‘camper’ (maybe you’re more comfortable with the term ‘glamper?’), but if you’ve ever stayed in a tent you know of the pros and cons of that dwelling. It does provide shelter from the elements, but only to a certain degree. It does connect you to the outdoors, but only to a certain degree. A tent by nature (pun intended!) isn’t supposed to be a permanent fixture. It is, by design, temporary.
That’s what Paul is telling the Corinthian church about the ‘tent’ we call the human body. Having just discussed the hope that we can hold onto since all suffering and hurt we experience pales in comparison to what God has planned for the believer (see chapter 4:7-16), he continues his argument that we shouldn’t focus on what is earthly and temporal. We are basically camping while we are on the earth.
V. 1: For if the tent that is our earthly home (our body) is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens..
Paul advocates that what God has built in our future (a permanent structure; a house) is way better than what we experience only in the earthly body now (just a lowly piece of vinyl or canvas).
We groan in the tent (v. 2). We want to go home.
We are naked in the tent (v. 3). (That’s a weird statement to write in a devotional!) We want to put on what is still to come.
We are burdened in the tent (v. 4). We know there is more and feel it on the inside of us.
BUT…
We are clothed in the house (v. 3-4). We will put on immortality.
We are guaranteed the house (v. 5). The Spirit is the guarantee of this hope.
We are of good courage in the house (v. 6-7). We know the best is yet to come.
As we approach verse 7 we see the crux of this passage: whether we are still in the temporal tent or the permanent eternal body, our aim is to please God.
Here’s why I find such courage in this reality:
So as Paul already said back in 4:16 and again here in 5:6: we do NOT lose heart and we are ALWAYS of good courage. You’re camping right now, and it is temporal. This isn’t all there is. If it never gets better here, it will get better there. Your longing as a Christian will cease and you will inherit your eternal dwelling place; with God, made new, just like Christ.
While you camp, make it your aim to please Him!
Written By: Drew Dukes
I don’t know if you would consider yourself to be a ‘camper’ (maybe you’re more comfortable with the term ‘glamper?’), but if you’ve ever stayed in a tent you know of the pros and cons of that dwelling. It does provide shelter from the elements, but only to a certain degree. It does connect you to the outdoors, but only to a certain degree. A tent by nature (pun intended!) isn’t supposed to be a permanent fixture. It is, by design, temporary.
That’s what Paul is telling the Corinthian church about the ‘tent’ we call the human body. Having just discussed the hope that we can hold onto since all suffering and hurt we experience pales in comparison to what God has planned for the believer (see chapter 4:7-16), he continues his argument that we shouldn’t focus on what is earthly and temporal. We are basically camping while we are on the earth.
V. 1: For if the tent that is our earthly home (our body) is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens..
Paul advocates that what God has built in our future (a permanent structure; a house) is way better than what we experience only in the earthly body now (just a lowly piece of vinyl or canvas).
We groan in the tent (v. 2). We want to go home.
We are naked in the tent (v. 3). (That’s a weird statement to write in a devotional!) We want to put on what is still to come.
We are burdened in the tent (v. 4). We know there is more and feel it on the inside of us.
BUT…
We are clothed in the house (v. 3-4). We will put on immortality.
We are guaranteed the house (v. 5). The Spirit is the guarantee of this hope.
We are of good courage in the house (v. 6-7). We know the best is yet to come.
As we approach verse 7 we see the crux of this passage: whether we are still in the temporal tent or the permanent eternal body, our aim is to please God.
Here’s why I find such courage in this reality:
1. No matter what happens to me here, God will make it better there.
2. What seems incomplete here, God will bring it to completion there.
3. Even though I long to go home here, we are guaranteed this dwelling there.
So as Paul already said back in 4:16 and again here in 5:6: we do NOT lose heart and we are ALWAYS of good courage. You’re camping right now, and it is temporal. This isn’t all there is. If it never gets better here, it will get better there. Your longing as a Christian will cease and you will inherit your eternal dwelling place; with God, made new, just like Christ.
While you camp, make it your aim to please Him!
Written By: Drew Dukes
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