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For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved. 2 Corinthians 5:1 The certain knowledge of the future Bp. Patrick. 1. The description which the apostle makes of the present state in which we now are. 2. His description of the future state, in which the faithful shall be hereafter. 3. The certainty of that happy state. The one habitation is certain as the other. But what certainty is there of such things, may some say? May we not abuse ourselves, if we look for that which no man ever saw? Is not this to build castles in the air? The apostle answers to such surmises, here, in my text: "We know that we have a building of God," etc. We have solid grounds for this persuasion that it amounts to a knowledge. I. HE SAITH IT WAS A THING KNOWN; A MATTER THAT WAS DEMONSTRABLE BY PROPER ARGUMENTS. It was not a probable opinion, but an undoubted conclusion. There were sound arguments which led them to this unmovable belief. What were they? 1. For they knew that Jesus their Master, who made discovery of these things to them, had certain knowledge of them himself, and could not deceive them. He was not like to many idle persons, who draw maps of such territories as they never saw. 2. They knew likewise that this person, who could not but speak the truth, had promised to purified souls, that they should see God ( Matthew 5:8 ). How can we behold, then, the glory of God, unless all our powers be mightily widened beyond the highest of our present conceptions. 3. Of this change they saw an instance in our Lord Himself. 4. Accordingly they knew that He did ascend up to heaven forty days after His resurrection ( Acts 1:10, 11 ). 5. For they knew withal that their very bodies should be made like unto His ( John 17:24 ). 6. And this truly they knew, as well as anything else, that He lives for evermore, and can make good His kind intentions and gracious promises ( Revelation 1:18 ). 7. Especially they knew by the change that He had wrought in their souls that He could easily do as much for their bodies. It was no harder for Him to give a luminous body than it was to illuminate their minds; to turn this earthly house into an heavenly than to fill the spirits of common men with the spirit and wisdom of God. 8. To conclude, they knew likewise there had been some alteration already made, upon occasion in the body of some of them, and that others also felt an higher elevation of their soul. As for the body, St. Stephen's face was seen as it had been the face of an angel ( Acts 6 . ult.). Let us believe the testimony of men so well assured. For to think that there is no habitation for us in the heavens, because we were never there, is as foolish as if a man that had never stirred beyond the door of his cottage should imagine that all the goodly buildings he hears of at London are but so many clouds in the air, and have no real being. Let us but a little awaken our souls to look beyond this house of clay. II. IT IS CONSIDERABLE THEN THAT THIS WAS A MATTER GENERALLY KNOWN; A THING WHEREIN THEY WERE ALL AGREED. They had a knowledge and not a mere opinion. And yet an opinion that is not private, but common, carries no small authority with it. We are all very much overawed by that which is universally received. They were all satisfied that this was the very truth of God, there was no dispute or division among them about this doctrine. It was the common faith of God's elect; the common hope of their heavenly calling, and, in one word, the common salvation ( Titus 1:1, 2, 4 ; Ephesians 4:4 ; Jude 1:3 ). It was not the belief of St. Paul alone. This shows that they had no superficial thoughts of the life to come, but that they were exceeding serious in the belief of it. III. They knew these things so clearly that THEY MADE THEM THE AIM TO WHICH THEY DIRECTED ALL THEIR DESIRES AND ENDEAVOURS. This particle "for" sends our thoughts back to the words before, and gives us an account of that character which we there find of the Apostles of our Lord, who "looked not at the things which were seen, but at the things which were not seen." They were so persuaded of this happy state hereafter that it was always in their eye. They slighted and trod upon all other things in compare with this, A great token of the sincerity of their belief; for otherwise they would not have been so foolish and unthrifty as not to have made some present temporal benefit of that great knowledge and power wherewith they were endowed. IV. But more than this; they were so sure of this building of God in the heavens THAT THEY ENDURED ALL SORTS OF MISERIES AND PAINS IN THIS LIFE MERELY IN EXPECTATION OF IT. V. THEY WERE SO SURE OF THIS THAT IT SEEMED TO THEM AS IF THEY HAD THIS HOUSE NOT MADE WITH HANDS IN PRESENT POSSESSION. They speak as men that belong to two countries, and have estates in this and in another kingdom. Such men say, "We have a building." Though they cannot dwell in both their houses at once, yet they call them both theirs. They had a right and title to it. They had good deeds and evidences to show for it, which proved that it was settled on them by the will and testament of Jesus Christ their Lord and Master, to which they had the witness of the Spirit in their hearts. They might challenge it as their own, and lay hold on eternal life, which words instruct us that we must work in this earthly house wherein we dwell. We are in a place of labour and not of idleness and sport. ( Bp. Patrick. )

Benson Commentary 2 Corinthians 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 Corinthians 5:1-4 . For we know — We pursue, not seen, but unseen things, and do not faint in our work, because we know that if our earthly house — Which is only a tabernacle or tent, a mere temporary habitation; were dissolved — Were mouldered back to the dust out of which it was formed; or if our zeal in the service of the gospel should expose us to martyrdom, which should destroy it before its time; we have — And should immediately enjoy; a building of God — A building of which he is the great architect and donor; a house not made with mortal hands — Nor to be compared with the most magnificent structure which hands ever raised, exceeding them all in its lustre, as much as in its duration, though that duration be eternal in the heavens — Placed far above either violence or decay. “Whether we consider this divine building as particularly signifying the body after the resurrection, in which sense Whitby takes it; or any vehicle with which the soul may be clothed during the intermediate state, considerable difficulties will arise.” “I therefore,” says Doddridge, “am inclinable rather to take it in a more general view, as referring to the whole provision God has made for the future happiness of his people, and which Christ represents as his Father’s house, in which there are many mansions.” For in this — While we are in this state of suffering, or while our soul sojourns in this mortal body; we groan earnestly — Eagerly long for that future state, and the felicity of it, and grieve that we do not yet enjoy it; desiring to be clothed upon — That is, upon this body, which is now covered with flesh and blood; with our house which is from heaven — To enter the heavenly mansion which God hath provided for us. To be clothed upon with a house, is a very strong figure; which yet the apostle uses here and in 2 Corinthians 5:4 , having in his thoughts the glory which each should wear, instead of being clothed, as now, with that mortal flesh which he calls a tabernacle, as it is so mean, inconvenient, and precarious an abode. If so be that being clothed — With the image of God, while we are in the body; we shall not be found naked — Of the wedding garment. He seems to allude to Genesis 3:7 ; Exodus 32:25 ; our natural turpitude of sin being a nakedness abominable to God. See 1 Peter 5:5 ; Colossians 3:12 , where the same metaphor of being clothed with divine graces is made use of. For we that are in this tabernacle — Who still dwell in these frail and corruptible tents; do groan, being burdened therewith. The apostle speaks with exact propriety, a burden naturally exciting groans: and we are here burdened with numberless afflictions, infirmities, and temptations. Not that we would be unclothed — Stripped of our bodies, for that is what we cannot consider as in itself desirable; .but rather, if it might be left to our choice, we would desire to pass into the immortal state without dying, or to be clothed upon with the heavenly glory, such as that which will invest the saints after the resurrection; that mortality, ?? ?????? , that which is mortal — Corruptible, and obnoxious to so many infirmities, disorders, burdens, and sorrows; might be swallowed up of life — As if it were annihilated by the divine power, which at the resurrection will exert itself in and upon us; namely, as the case was with Enoch and Elijah when they were translated, and as it shall be with the saints that are found alive at Christ’s second coming. The meaning of this and the following verses is evidently this; “That though it appeared most desirable of all to pass to future glory without dying, yet a state in which mortality should be swallowed up of life, was, at all events, desirable; and an absence from the body to be not only submitted to, but wished for, in a view of being so present with the Lord, as even in the intermediate state they expected to be.” — Doddridge. 2 Corinthians 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 2 Corinthians 5:3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 2 Corinthians 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. 2 Corinthians 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. 2 Corinthians 5:5-8 . Now he that hath wrought us for — Or to, this longing for immortality; is God — For none but God, none less than the Almighty, could have wrought this in us; who also hath given us his Spirit — In its various gifts and graces; as an earnest — Of our obtaining the heavenly habitation. We are confident, therefore — Or courageous in all dangers and sufferings, and dare venture even upon death itself; knowing that while we are at home — Or rather sojourn (as ??????????? here signifies) in the body, we are absent, ?????????? , we are exiles; from the Lord — Christ, in the enjoyment of whom our chief happiness consists. For — While on earth; we walk by faith — Are influenced, guided, and governed in our whole course of life, by our faith in objects yet unseen; not by the sight — Of heavenly glories. In other words, we cannot now see heavenly and eternal things, as we expect to do after death. It is true our faith gives us an evidence of them, ( Hebrews 11:1 ,) which implies a kind of seeing him who is invisible, and the invisible world; yet this is as far beneath what we shall have in eternity, as that evidence of faith is above the evidence of bare, unassisted reason. We are confident, I say — And bold, through the influence of these views which God hath given us; and willing — ?????????? , take complacency and delight, in the expectation of being absent from the body — And from all intercourse with the persons and things of this world, however dear some of them may have been formerly to us; and present with the Lord — This demonstrates that the apostle had no idea of his soul sleeping after death, but expected it to pass immediately into a state of felicity with Christ in paradise; and consequently that the happiness of the saints is not deferred till the resurrection. See 2 Corinthians 12:4 . 2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 2 Corinthians 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 2 Corinthians 5:8 We are confident, I say , and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 . Wherefore we labour — ????????????? , we are ambitious, (the only ambition which has place in a Christian,) that, whether present in the body, or absent from it, we may be accepted of him — ????????? ???? ????? , to be well-pleasing to him, or to receive the tokens of his favour and approbation. For we must all — Apostles as well as other men, whether now present in the body, or absent from it; appear — Openly, without covering; before the judgment-seat of Christ — Where all hidden things will be revealed, probably the sins even of the faithful, which were forgiven long before: for many of their good works (their humiliation, contrition, godly sorrow, striving against sin, mortification of it) cannot otherwise appear; but this will be done at their own desire, without grief and shame; that every one may receive the things — That is, the due reward of the things; done in his body, whether good or bad — In full proportion to his actions, and the secret springs thereof, which will then be all laid open; and according to the principles from which the Searcher of hearts knows his actions to have proceeded. Some read the latter clause, that every one may receive in the body, (namely, in his body raised,) according to what he hath done. That is, as in the body he did either good or evil, so the body being raised, he is recompensed therein accordingly. 2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. 2 Corinthians 5:11-12 . Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord — The strict judgment which must then pass on all impenitent sinners; we the more earnestly persuade men — To repent and believe the gospel, that, instead of being objects of the divine wrath, they may live and die happy in his favour. But, as we are made manifest to God — And he knows our integrity; I trust also it is evident to you. For we commend not ourselves — We do not say this as if we thought there was any need of again recommending ourselves to you, but give you occasion to glory — To rejoice and praise God, and furnish you with an answer to those false apostles; who glory in appearance, but not in heart — We may infer from this, and from the beginning of chap. 3., that some of the Corinthians were disposed to represent the care which Paul took to vindicate himself, as pride and vainglory. On the other hand, it seems they would have interpreted his silence as the effect of guilt and confusion. He therefore plainly and very properly tells them, that he said this only in his own necessary defence; and to furnish his friends with an answer to those whose consciences condemned them, while they endeavoured to asperse him. 2 Corinthians 5:12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. 2 Corinthians 5:13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. 2 Corinthians 5:13-15 . For whether we be beside ourselves — As they affirm we are, because we expose ourselves to so many sufferings, and even to the danger of imprisonment and death, by persevering in our work of preaching the gospel. Or whether we appear to be transported beyond ourselves — By our speaking or writing with uncommon vehemence; it is to God — It is zeal for his glory that animates us; and he understands, if men do not, the emotion which himself inspires. Or whether we be sober — In shunning persecution as much as may be, or proceed in a more calm and sedate manner; it is for your cause — We have your good in view, and proceed in our course in order to promote your best interests. In other words, love to God and benevolence to man, are the grand principles by which we are actuated; and we cannot be cold and unaffected, while we have such grand and noble subjects under our consideration as those which we treat of among you. Mr. Locke, from comparing 2 Corinthians 11:1 ; 2 Corinthians 11:16-21 ; 2 Corinthians 12:6 ; 2 Corinthians 12:11 , is of opinion that the Corinthians censured Paul as a fool or madman, for what he said in commendation of himself. In that case the meaning is, “You say I am distracted for my present conduct, but this is between God and myself; I am sure you Corinthians ought not to say it, for all my sober thoughts and most painful labours are for you.” For the love of Christ — So illustriously displayed toward us in our redemption, and our love to him in return; constraineth us — ??????? , bears us on, with a strong, steady, prevailing influence, such as winds and tides exert when they waft the vessel to its destined harbour; ????????? ????? , judging thus, or while we thus judge — Thus consider and reflect; that if one died for all — Which Jesus assuredly did, even gave himself a ransom for all mankind, without exception, ( 1 Timothy 2:6 ,) yea, tasted death for every man, for every human being; ( Hebrews 2:9 ;) then were all dead — Even the best of men were in a state of spiritual death entailed upon them by the sin of the first man, (see on Genesis 2:17 ,) and liable to death eternal. For had it been otherwise with any man, Christ would not have had need to die for him. And that he died for all — That all might be saved; that they who live — That all who live upon the earth, or all who, believing in him, are put in possession of spiritual life through his death and grace procured thereby; should not henceforth — From the moment they know and are united to him; live unto themselves — Seek their own honour, profit, or pleasure, or do their own will; but live unto him who died for them — And thereby procured for them pardoning mercy and renewing grace, to enable them so to live; and rose again — That he might receive for them, and confer upon them, these inestimable blessings. 2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 2 Corinthians 5:15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 2 Corinthians 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 2 Corinthians 5:16 . Wherefore henceforth — So that from this time that we knew the love of Christ; know we no man — Neither ourselves nor you, neither the rest of the apostles, ( Galatians 2:6 ,) nor any other person; after the flesh — According to his former state, country, descent, nobility, riches, power, wisdom. We fear not the great. We regard not the rich or wise. We account not the least less than ourselves. We consider all, only in order to save all. Who is he that thus knows no one after the flesh? In what land do these Christians live? Yea, if we have known Christ after the flesh — So as to love him merely with a human love; or, so as to regard our external relation to him, as being of the same nation with him, or our having conversed with him on earth, or so as to expect only temporal benefits from him; or have governed ourselves by any carnal expectations from the Messiah as a temporal prince who should exalt our nation to dignity, wealth, and power. Mr. Locke thinks this is said with a reference to “their Jewish false apostle, who gloried in his circumcision, and perhaps in his having seen Christ in the flesh, or being some way related to him.” Yet now, henceforth — Since our illumination and conversion; know we him no more — In that way, but wholly after a spiritual and divine manner, suitable to his state of glory, and our expectations of spiritual and eternal salvation from him. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 . Therefore — Since all Christ’s true disciples do thus live to him, and not to themselves, and only know him in a spiritual manner; if any man be in Christ — By living faith and the indwelling of his Spirit; if any man have an interest in and union with him; he is a new creature — ????? ?????? , there is a new creation, in the soul of that man. His understanding is enlightened, his judgment corrected, and he has new ideas and conceptions of things. His conscience is informed, awakened, and purged from guilt by the blood of Jesus, Hebrews 9:14 . His will is subjected to the will of God, his affections drawn from earth to heaven, and his dispositions, words, and actions, his cares, labours, and pursuits, are all changed. Old things are passed away — All old principles and practices; behold — The present, visible, undeniable change! all things are become new — He has new life, namely, a spiritual and divine life; new spiritual senses, new faculties, new desires and designs, hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, passions and appetites. His whole tenor of action and conversation is new, and he lives as it were in a new world. God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, angels, men, sinners, saints, and the whole creation — heaven, earth, and all therein, appear in a new light, and stand related to him in a new manner, since he was created anew in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 . And all things, &c. — These new things are all of God, the author of them, considered in this view as reconciling us to himself — Removing our carnal mind, which was enmity against him, and taking us into his favour; by Jesus Christ — Through whose sacrifice and intercession, merits and Spirit, these blessings are obtained. And hath given to us — His ministers, and especially to his apostles; the ministry of reconciliation — The gospel ministry, offering reconciliation and peace with God to all mankind, and ensuring these privileges to all the truly penitent that believe in Jesus. To wit — The sum of which is; that God was in Christ — United to him and manifesting himself by him; reconciling the world — Which was before at enmity with God; to himself — So taking away that enmity which could no otherwise be removed, than by the mediation and grace of the Son of God: not imputing their trespasses unto them — Freely forgiving all their sins, Ephesians 1:7 ; and hath committed unto us — As a trust of the highest importance; the word, the message, of reconciliation. We then are ambassadors for Christ — Divinely commissioned and sent to treat with you in his name and stead, on a matter of infinite importance to you. As though God did beseech you by us — By whom he speaks to you. We pray you in Christ’s stead — ???? ??????? , or, for Christ’s sake; be ye reconciled to God — Who is now ready to be reconciled to you, on terms which, if you apply to him, he will enable you to comply with, and thankfully to accept that friendship and protection which he graciously vouchsafes to offer you. Herein the apostle might appear to some transported beyond himself: for in general he uses a more calm, sedate kind of exhortation, as in the beginning of the next chapter. What unparalleled condescension and divinely tender mercies are displayed in this verse! Did the judge ever beseech a condemned criminal to accept of pardon? Does the creditor ever beseech a ruined debtor to receive an acquittance in full? Yet our almighty Lord, and our eternal Judge, not only vouchsafes to offer these blessings, but invites us, entreats us, and with the most tender importunity solicits us not to reject them! 2 Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 . For he made him, who knew no sin — A commendation peculiar to Christ; to be sin — Or a sin-offering rather, (as the expression often signifies both in the Old Testament and the New;) for us — Who knew no righteousness, who were inwardly and outwardly nothing but sin, and who must have been consumed by the divine justice, had not this atonement been made for our sins; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him — Might be accounted and constituted righteous by God, or might be invested with that righteousness; 1st, imputed to us; 2d, implanted in us; and, 3d, practised by us; which is, in every sense, the righteousness of God by faith. See note on Romans 10:4 ; Php 3:9 . Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 2 Corinthians 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. Chapter 13 THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 (R.V) THAT outlook on the future, which at the close of 2 Corinthians 4:1-18 . is presented in the most general terms, is here carried out by the Apostle into more definite detail. The passage is one of the most difficult in his writings, and has received the most various interpretations; yet the first impression it leaves on a simple reader is probably as near the truth as the subtlest ingenuity of exegesis. It is indeed to such first impressions that one often returns when the mind has ceased to sway this way and that under the impact of conflicting arguments. The Apostle has been speaking about his life as a daily dying, and in the first verse of this chapter he looks at the possibility that this dying may be consummated in death. It is only a possibility, for to the end of his life it was always conceivable that Christ might come, and forestall the last enemy. Still, it is a possibility; the earthly house of our tabernacle may be dissolved; the tent in which we live may be taken down. With what hope does the Apostle confront such a contingency? "If this befall us," he says, "we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens." Every word here points the contrast between this new house and the old one, and points it in favor of the new. The old was a tent; the new is a building: the old, though not literally made with hands, had many of the qualities and defects of manufactured articles; the new is God’s work and God’s gift: the old was perishable; the new is eternal. When Paul says we have this house "in the heavens," it is plain that it is not heaven itself; it is a new body which replaces and surpasses the old. It is in the heavens in the sense that it is God’s gift; it is something which He has for us where He is, and which we shall wear there. "We have it" means "it is ours"; any more precise definition must be justified on grounds extraneous to the text. The second verse { 2 Corinthians 5:2 } brings us to one of the ambiguities of the passage. "For verily," our R.V reads, "in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven." The meaning which the English reader finds in the words "in this we groan" is in all probability "in our present body we groan." This is also the meaning defended by Meyer, and by many scholars. But it cannot be denied that ?? ????? does not naturally refer to ? ???????? ???? ????? ??? ??????? . If it means "in this body" it must be attached specially to ??????? , and ??????? is only a subordinate word in the clause. Elsewhere in the New Testament ?? ????? means "on this account," or "for this reason," (see 1 Corinthians 4:4 ; John 16:30 : ?? ????? ?????????? ??? ??? ???? ??????? ) and I prefer to take it in this sense here: "For this cause-i.e., because we are the heirs of such a hope - we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven." If Paul had no hope, he would not sigh for the future; but the very longing which pressed the sighs from his bosom became itself a witness to the glory which awaited him. The same argument, it has often been pointed out, is found in Romans 8:19 ff. The earnest expectation of the creation, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, is evidence that this manifestation will in due time take place. The spiritual instincts are prophetic. They have not been implanted in the soul by God only to be disappointed. It is of the longing hope of immortality that very hope which is in question here-that Jesus says: "If it were not so, I would have told you." The third verse { 2 Corinthians 5:3 } states the great gain which lies in the fulfillment of this hope: "Since, of course, being clothed [with this new body], we shall not be found naked [i.e., without any body]." I cannot think, especially looking on to 2 Corinthians 5:4 , that these two verses ( 2 Corinthians 5:2-3 ) mean anything else than that Paul longs for Christ to come before death. If Christ comes first, the Apostle will receive the new body by the transformation, instead of the putting off, of the old; he will, so to speak, put it on above the old ( ???????????? ); he will be spared the shuddering fear of dying; he will not know what it is to have the old tent taken down, and to be left houseless and naked. We do not need to investigate the opinions of the Hebrews or the Greeks about the condition of souls in Hades in order to understand these words; the conception, figurative as it is, carries its own meaning and impression to every one. It is reiterated, rather than proved, in the fourth verse: "For we who are in the tabernacle groan also, being burdened, in that our will is not to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life." It is natural to take ?????????? ("being burdened") as referring to the weight of care and suffering by which men are oppressed while in the body; but here also, as in the similar case of 2 Corinthians 5:2 , the proper reference of the word is forward. What oppresses Paul, and makes him sigh, is the intensity of his desire to escape "being unclothed," his immense longing to see Jesus come, and, instead of passing through the terrible experience of death, to have the corruptible put on incorruption, and the mortal put on immortality, without that trial. This seems plain enough, but we must remember that the confidence which Paul has been expressing in the first verse is meant to meet the very case in which this desire is not gratified, the case in which death has to be encountered, and the tabernacle taken down. "If this should befall us," he says, "we have another body awaiting us, far better than that which we leave, and hence we are confident." The confidence which this hope inspires would naturally, we think, be most perfect, if in the very act of dissolution the new body were assumed; if death were the initial stage in the transformation scene in which all that is mortal is swallowed up by life; if it were, not the ushering of the Christian into a condition of "nakedness," which, temporary though it be, is a mere blank to the mind and imagination, but his admission to celestial life; if "to be absent from the body" were immediately, and in the fullest sense of the words, the same thing as "to be at home with the Lord." This is, in point of fact, the sense in which the passage is understood by a good many scholars, and those who read it so find in it a decisive turning-point in the Apostle’s teaching on the last things. In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, they say, and indeed in the First to the Corinthians also, Paul’s eschatology was still essentially Jewish. The Christian dead are ?? ??????????, or ?? ??????????? ("those that sleep"); nothing definite is said of their condition; only it is implied that they do not get the incorruptible body till Jesus comes again and raises them from the dead. In other words, those who die before the Parousia have the soul-chilling prospect of an unknown term of "nakedness." Here this terror is dispelled by the new revelation made to the Apostle, or the new insight to which he has attained: there is no longer any such interval between death and glory; the heavenly body is assumed at once; the state called ????????? ("being asleep") vanishes from the future. Sabatier and Schmiedel, who adopt this view, draw extreme consequences from it. It marks an advance, according to Schmiedel, of the highest importance. The religious postulate of an uninterrupted communion of life with Christ, violated by the conception of a ????????? , or falling asleep, is satisfied; Christ’s descent from heaven, and a simultaneous resurrection and judgment, become superfluous; judgment is transferred to the moment of death, or rather to the process of development during life on earth; and, finally, the place of eternal blessedness passes from earth (the Jewish and early Christian opinion, probably shared by Paul, as he gives no indication of the contrary) to heaven. All this, it is further pointed out, is an approximation, more or less close, to the Greek doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and may even have been excogitated in part under its influence; and it is at the same time a half-way house between the Pharisaic eschatology of First Thessalonians and the perfected Christian doctrine of a passage like John 5:24 : "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life." There is no objection to be made in principle to the idea that the Apostle’s outlook on the future was subject to modification-that he was capable of attaining, or even did attain, a deeper insight, with experience, into the connection between that which is and that which is to come. But it is surely somewhat against the above estimate of the alleged change here that Paul himself seems to have been quite unconscious of it. He was not a man whose mind wrought at unawares, and who passed unwittingly from one standpoint to another. He was nothing if not reflective. According to Sahatier and Schmiedel, he had made a revolutionary change in his opinions-a change so vast that on account of it Sabatier reckons this Epistle, and especially this passage, the most important in all his writings for the comprehension of his theological development; and yet, side by side with the new revolutionary ideas, uttered literally in the same breath with them, we find the old standing undisturbed. The simultaneous resurrection and judgment, according to Schmiedel, should be impossible now; but in 2 Corinthians 4:14 the resurrection appears precisely as in Thessalonians, and in 2 Corinthians 5:10 the judgment, precisely as in all his Epistles from the first to the last. As for the inconsistency between going to be at home with the Lord and the Lord’s coming, it also recurs in later years: Paul writes to the Philippians that he has a desire to depart and to be with Christ; and in the same letter that the Lord is at hand, and that we wait for the Savior from heaven. Probably the misleading idea in the study of the whole subject has been the assumption that the ?????????? -the dead in Christ- were in some dismal, dreary condition which could fairly be described as "nakedness." There is not a word in the New Testament which favors this idea. Where we see men die in faith, we see something quite different. "Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." "I saw the souls of them which had been slain for the Word of God and there was given them, to each one, a white robe." When Paul speaks of those who have fallen asleep, in First Thessalonians, it is with the express intention of showing that those who survive to the Parousia have no advantage over them. "Jesus Christ died for us," he writes, { 1 Thessalonians 5:10 } "that, whether we wake or sleep, we may live together with Him." And he uses one most expressive word in a similar connection: { 1 Thessalonians 4:14 } "Them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring [ ???? ] with Him." Suave verbura , says Bengel: dicitur de viventibus. May we not say with equal cogency, not only " de viventibus ," but " de viventibus cum lesu ?" Those who are asleep are with Him; they are in blessedness with Him; what their mode of existence is it may be impossible for us to conceive, but it is certainly not a thing to shrink from with horror. The taking clown of the old tent in which we live here is a thing from which one cannot but shrink, and that is why Paul would rather have Christ come, and be saved the pain and fear of dying. With death in view he mentions the new body as the ground of his confidence, because it is the final realization of the Christian hope, the crown of redemption. { Romans 8:23 } But he does not mean to say that, unless the new body were granted in the very instant of dying, death would usher him into an appalling void, and separate him from Christ. This assumption, on which the interpretation of Sabatier and Schmiedel rests, is entirely groundless, and therefore that interpretation, in spite of a superficial plausibility, is to be decidedly rejected. It is to be rejected all the more when we are invited to see the occasion which produced Paul’s supposed change of opinion in the danger which he had lately incurred in 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 . Paul, we are to imagine, who had always been confident that he would live to see the Parousia, had come to very close quarters with death, and this experience constrained him to seek in his religion a hope and consolation more adequate to the terribleness of death than any he had yet conceived. Hence the mighty advance explained above. But is it not absurd to say that a man, whose life was constantly in peril, had never thought of death till this time? Can any one seriously believe that, as Sabatier puts it, "the image of death, with which the Apostle had not hitherto concerned himself, (here) enters for the first time within the scope of his doctrine?" Can any one who knows the kind of man Paul was deliberately suggest that fear and self-pity conferred on him an enlargement of spiritual vision which no sympathy for bereaved disciples, and no sense of fellowship with those who had fallen asleep in Jesus, availed to bestow? Believe this who will, it seems utterly incredible to me. The passage says nothing inconsistent with Thessalonians, or First Corinthians, or Philippians, or Second Timothy, about the last things: it expresses in a special situation the constant Christian faith and hope-"the redemption of the body"; that is the possession of the believer ( ?????? ); it is ours; and the Apostle is not concerned to fix the moment of time at which hope becomes sight. "Come what will," he says, "come death itself, this is ours; and because it is ours, though we dread the possible necessity of having to strip off the old body, and would fain escape it, we do not allow it to dismay us." The Apostle cannot look to the end of the Christian hope without referring to its condition and guarantee. "He that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave us the earnest of the Spirit." The future is never considered in the New Testament in a speculative fashion; nothing could be less like an apostle than to discuss the immortality of the soul. The question of life beyond death is for Paul not a metaphysical but a Christian question; the pledge of anything worth the name of life is not the inherent constitution of human nature, but the possession of the Divine Spirit. Without the Spirit, Paul could have had no such certainty, no such triumphant hope, as he had; without the Spirit there can be no such certainty yet. Hence it is idle to criticize the Christian hope on purely speculative grounds, and as idle to try on such grounds to establish it. That hope is of a piece with the experience which comes when the Spirit of Him who raised up Christ from the dead dwells in us, and apart from this experience it cannot even be understood. But to say that there is no eternal life except in Christ is not to accept what is called "conditional immortality"; it is only to accept conditional glory. The fifth verse { 2 Corinthians 5:5 } marks a pause: in the three which follow Paul describes the mood in which, possessed of the Christian hope, he confronts all the conditions of the present and the alternatives of the future. "We are of good courage at all times," he says. "We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from home as far as the Lord is concerned-at a distance from Him," This does not mean that fellowship is broken, or that the soul is separated from the love of Christ: it only means that earth is not heaven, and that Paul is painfully conscious of the fact. This is what is proved by 2 Corinthians 5:7 : We are absent from the Lord, our true home, "for in this world we are walking through the realm of faith, not through that of actual appearance." There is a world, a mode of existence, to which Paul looks forward, which is one of actual appearance: he will be in Christ’s presence there, and see Him face to face. { 1 Corinthians 13:12 } But the world through which his course lies meanwhile is not that world of immediate presence and manifestation; on the contrary, it is a world of faith, which realizes that future world of manifestation only by a strong spiritual conviction; it is through a faith-land that Paul’s journey leads him. All along the way his faith keeps him in good heart; nay, when we think of all that it ensures, of all that is guaranteed by the Spirit, he is willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. "For, ah! the Master is so fair, His smile so sweet on banished men, That they who meet it unaware Can never turn to earth again; And they who see Him risen afar, At God’s right hand to welcome them, Forgetful stand of home and land Desiring fair Jerusalem." If he had to make his choice, it would incline this way, rather than the other; but it is not his to make a choice, and so he does not express himself unconditionally. The whole tone of the passage anticipates that of Php 1:21 ff.: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if to live in the flesh, -if this is the fruit of my work, then what I shall choose I wot not. But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and to be with Christ; for it is very far better: yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake." Nothing could be less like the Apostle than a monkish, unmanly wish to die. He exulted in his calling. It was a joy to him above all joys to speak to men of the love of God in Jesus Christ. But nothing, on the other hand, could be less like him than to lose sight of the future in the present, and to forget amid the service of men the glory which is to be revealed. He stood between two worlds; he felt the whole attraction of both; in the earnest of the Spirit he knew that he had an inheritance there as well as here. It is this consciousness of the dimensions of life that makes him so immensely interesting; he never wrote a dull word; his soul was stirred incessantly by impulses from earth and from heaven, swept by breezes from the dark and troubled sea of man’s life, touched by inspirations from the radiant heights where Christ dwelt. We do not need to be afraid of the reproach of "other worldliness" if we seek to live in this same spirit; the reproach is as false as it is threadbare. It would be an incalculable gain if we could recover the primitive hope in something like its primitive strength. It would not make us false to our duties in the world, but it would give us the victory over the world. In bringing this subject to a close, the Apostle strikes a graver note. A certain moral, as well as a certain emotional temper, is evoked by the Christian hope. It fills men with courage, and with spiritual yearnings; it braces them also to moral earnestness and vigor. "Wherefore also we make it our aim"-literally, we are ambitious, the only lawful ambition-"whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto Him." Modes of being are not of so much consequence. It may agree with a man’s feelings better to live till Christ comes, or to die before He comes, and go at once to be with Him; but the main thing is, in whatever mode of being, to be accepted in His sight. "For we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad." The Christian hope is not clouded by the judgment-seat of Christ; it is sustained at the holy height which befits it. We are forbidden to count upon it lightly. "Every man," we are reminded, "that hath this hope, set on Him purifieth himself even as He is pure." It is not necessary for us to seek a formal reconciliation of this verse with Paul’s teaching that the faithful are accepted in Christ Jesus; we can feel that both must be true. And if the doctrine of justification freely, by God’s grace, is that which has to be preached to sinful men, the doctrine of exact retribution, taught in this passage, has its main interest and importance for Christians. It is Christians only who are in view here, and the law of requital is so exact that every one is said to get back, to carry off for himself, the very things done in the body. In this world, we have not seen the last of anything. We shall all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ; all that we have hidden shall be revealed. The books are shut now, but they will be opened then. The things we have done in the body will come back to us, whether good or bad. Every pious thought, and every thought of sin; every secret prayer, and every secret curse; every unknown deed of charity, and every hidden deed of selfishness: we will see them all again, and though we have not remembered them for years, and perhaps have forgotten them altogether, we shall have to acknowledge that they are our own, and take them to ourselves. Is not that a solemn thing to stand at the end of life? Is it not a true thing? Even those who can say with the Apostle, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and rejoice in hope of His glory," know how true it is. Nay, they most of all know, for they understand better than others the holiness of God, and they are especially addressed here. The moral consciousness is not maintained in its vigor and integrity if this doctrine of retribution disappears; and if we are called by a passage like this to encourage ourselves in the Lord, and in the hope which He has revealed, we are warned also that evil cannot dwell with God, and that He will by no means clear the guilty. 2 Corinthians 5:11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. Chapter 14 THE MEASURE OF CHRIST’S LOVE. 2 Corinthians 5:11-15 (R.V) THE Christian hope of immortality is elevated and solemnized by the thought of the judgment-seat of Christ. This is no strange thought to St. Paul; many a time he has set himself in imagination in that great presence, and let the awe of it descend upon his heart. This is what he means when he writes, "Knowing the fear of the Lord." Like the pastors addressed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he exercises his office as one who must render an account. In this spirit, he says, he persuades men. A motive so high, and so stern in its purifying power, no minister of Christ can afford to dispense with. We need something to suppress self-seeking, to keep conscience vigorous, to preserve the message of reconciliation itself from degenerating into good-natured indifference, to prohibit immoral compromises and superficial healing of the soul’s hurts. Let us familiarize our minds, by meditation, with the fear due to Christ the judge, and a new element of power will enter into our service, making it at once more urgent and more wholesome than it could otherwise be. The meaning of the words "we persuade men" is not at once clear. Interpreters generally find in them a combination of two ideas-we try to win men for the Gospel, and we try to convince them of our own purity of motive in our evangelistic work. The word is suitable enough to express either idea; and though it is straining it to make it carry both, the first is suggested by the general tenor of the passage, and the second seems to be demanded by what follows. "We try to convince men of our disinterestedness, but we do not need to try to convince God; we have been manifested to Him already; and we trust also that we have been manifested in your consciences." Paul was well aware of the hostility with which he was regarded by some of the Corinthians, but he is Confident that, when his appeal is tried in the proper court, decision must be given in his favor, and he hopes that this has really been done at Corinth. Often we do not give people in his position the benefit of a fair trial. It is not in our consciences they are arraigned-i.e., in God’s sight, and according to God’s law-but at the bar of our prejudices, our likes and dislikes, sometimes even our whims and caprices. It is not their character which is taken into account, but something quite irrelevant to character. Paul did not care for such estimates as these. It was nothing to him whether his appearance made a favorable impression on those who heard him-whether they liked his voice, his gestures, his manners, or even his message. What he did care for was to be able to appeal to their consciences, as he could appeal to God, to whom all things were naked and opened, that in the discharge of his functions as an evangelist he had been absolutely simple and sincere. In speaking thus, he has no intention of again recommending himself. Rather, as he says with a touch of irony, it is for their convenience he writes; he is giving them occasion to boast on his behalf, that when they encounter people who boast in face and not in heart they may not be speechless, but may have something to say for themselves-and for him. It is easy to read between the lines here. The Corinthians had persons among them-Jewish and Judaizing teachers evidently-who boasted "in face"; in other words, who prided themselves on outward and visible distinctions, though, as Paul asserts, they had nothing within to be proud of. There are suggestions of these distinctions elsewhere, and we can imagine the claims men made, the airs they gave themselves, or at least the recognition they consented to accept, on the ground of them. Their eloquence, their knowledge of the Scriptures, their Jewish descent, their acquaintance with the Twelve, above all acquaintance with Jesus Himself-these were their credentials, and of these their followers made much. Perhaps even on their own ground Paul could have met and routed most of them, but meanwhile he leaves them in undisturbed possession of their advantages, such as they are. He only sums up these advantages in the disparaging word "face," or "appearance"; they are all on the outside; they amount to "a fair show in the flesh," but no more. He would not like if his disciples could make no better boast of their master, and all the high things he has written, from 2 Corinthians 2:14 on to 2 Corinthians 5:10 , especially his vindication of the absolute purity of his motives, furnish them, it they choose to take it so, with grounds of counter-boasting, far deeper and more spiritual than those of his adversaries. For he boasts, not "in appearance, but in heart." The ironical tone in this is unmistakable, yet it is not merely ironical. From the beginning of Christianity to this day Churches have gathered round men, and made their boast in them. Too often it has been a boast "in face," and not "in heart"-gifts, accomplishments, and distinctions, which may have given an outward splendor to the individual, but which were entirely irrelevant to the possession of the Christian spirit. Often even the imperfections of the natural man have been gloried in, simply because they were his; and the Lutheran and Calvinistic Churches, for example, owe some of their most distinctive features to an exaggerated appreciation of those very characteristics of Luther and Calvin which had no Christian value. The same thing is seen every day, on a smaller scale, in congregations. People are proud of their minister, not for what he is in heart, but because he is more learned, more eloquent, more naturally capable, than other preachers in the same town. It is a pity when ministers themselves, like the Judaists in Corinth, are content to have it so. The true evangelist or pastor will choose rather, with St. Paul, to be taken for what he is as a Christian, and for nothing else; and if he must be spoken about, he will be spoken of in this character, and in no other. Nay, if it really comes to glorying "in face," he will glory in his weaknesses and incapacities; he will magnify the very earthenness of the earthen vessel, the very coarseness of the clay, as a foil to the power and life of Christ which dwell in it. The connection of 2 Corinthians 5:13 with what precedes is very obscure. Perhaps as fair a paraphrase as any would run thus: "And well may you boast of our complete sincerity; for whether we are beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we are of sober mind; it is unto you; that is, in no case is self-interest the motive or rule of our conduct." Connection apart, there is a further difficulty about ???? ????????? . The Revised Version renders it "whether we are beside ourselves," but in the margin gives "were" for "are." It makes a very great difference which tense we accept. If the proper meaning is given by "are," the application must be to some constant characteristic of the Apostle’s ministry. His enthusiasm, his absolute superiority to common selfish considerations such as are ordinarily supreme in human life, his resolute assertion of truths lying beyond the reach of sense, the unearthly flame which burned unceasingly in his bosom, and never more brightly than when he wrote the fourth and fifth chapters of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians-all these constitute the temper which is described as being "beside oneself," a kind of sacred madness. It was in this sense that the accusation of being beside himself was brought on a memorable occasion against Jesus. { Mark 3:21 , ?????? } The disciple and the Master alike seemed to those who did not understand them to be in an overstrained, too highly wrought condition of spirit; in the ardor of their devotion they allowed themselves to be carried beyond all natural limits, and it was not improper to speak of applying some kindly restraint. At first sight this interpretation seems very appropriate, and I do not think that the tense of ????????? is decisive against it. Those who think it is point to the change to the present tense in the next clause, ???? ??????????? , and allege that this would have no motive unless ????????? were a true past. But this may be doubted. On the one hand, ?????? in Mark 3:21 can hardly mean anything but "He is beside Himself"-i.e., it is virtually a present; on the other, the grammatical present ?????????? would not unambiguously convey the idea of madness, and would therefore be inappropriate here. But assuming that the change of tense has the effect of making ????????? a real past, and that the proper rendering is "whether we were beside ourselves," what is the application then? We must suppose that some definite occasion is before the Apostle and his readers, on which he had been in an ecstasy, {cf. ?? ???????? , Acts 11:5 ; ??????? ??´ ????? ???????? , Acts 10:10 } and that his opponents availed themselves of this experience, in which he had passed, for a time, out of his own control, to whisper the malicious accusation that he had once not been quite right in his mind, and that this explained much. The Apostle, we should have to assume, admits the fact alleged, but protests against the inference drawn from it, and the use made of the inference. "I was beside myself," he says; "but it was an experience which had nothing to do with my ministry; it was between God and my solitary self; and to drag it into my relations with you is a mere impertinence." That the "ecstasis" in question was his vision of Jesus on the way to Damascus, and that his adversaries sought to discredit that, and the apostle, ship of Paul as grounded on that, is one of the extravagances of an irresponsible criticism. Of all experiences that ever befell him, his conversion is the very one which was not solely his own affair and God’s, but the affair of the whole Church; and whereas he speaks of his ecstasies and visions with evident reluctance and embarrassment, as in 2 Corinthians 12:1 ff., or refuses to speak of them at all, as here (assuming this interpretation to be the true one), he makes his conversion and the appearance of the Lord the very foundation of his preaching, and treats of both with the utmost frankness. It must be something quite different from this-something analogous perhaps to the speaking with tongues, in which "the understanding was unfruitful," but for which Paul was distinguished { 1 Corinthians 14:14-18 } -that is intended here. Such rapt conditions are certainly open to misinterpretation;