2 Coríntios 5
Samuel Johnson · Citado em PreceptAustin
2 Coríntios 5:1-3
Johnson adds that in "Paul’s case, he knew it not simply by divine revelation, but he knew it also by his own experience. In the 2Cor 12:1-10, he will tell us that he has been caught up to the third heaven (2Co 12:2) and there he has seen things that it is not lawful for him to even mention (2Co 12:4). So the apostle then can say, we know in a special sense that even you and I cannot know. But if we say know based upon the divine revelation as taught us by the Holy Spirit, we have the same assurance and the same certainty that the apostle had, even though he had an experience that is beyond ours. (Clothed, Unclothed and Clothed Upon - 2 Corinthians 5:1-5) As
2 Coríntios 5:1-3
Johnson writes that naked is a figure of speech and does not literally "mean without any clothes on. This means naked in the sense...(that) He wants to avoid the disembodied state. He doesn't want to be a spirit or soul without a body. The intermediate state is just such a state. Those who have died as Christians and have gone on from our presence now are with the Lord but they don't have their bodies yet. (Ed comment: ) (Clothed, Unclothed and Clothed Upon - 2 Corinthians 5:1-5) Comment: Dr Johnson (who is highly respected expositor) favors interpretation #1 in the preceding table. Scripture in fact is silent on what some like Dr Johnson refer to as "the intermediate state" Philip E Hughes has this note on the "disembodied state" "To be without a body is to be "naked"—a manner of speech well established in Paul's day. The same figure is found in Plato, who speaks of "the soul naked of the body", but for whom soul-nakedness was welcomed as a desirable state. The Pythagorean doctrine, that the body is the prison-house of the soul from which the soul of the wise longs to be liberated so that without restraint it may soar upwards and be reunited to the supreme soul of the world was characteristic not only of Platonism and of the contemporary Philonism but also of Gnosticism which, in its various forms, presented such a serious threat to the early Church. The Apostle's teaching, however, is anything but Pythagorean. (Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians)
2 Coríntios 5:4-5
Johnson asks the question of 2Cor 5:1 - Paul, why did you say for? (at the beginning of 2Cor 5:1-+) Well, his answer, I think would be something like this. I've been talking to you about afflictions (2Co 4:17-+). I've been telling it you how they lead to the eternal weight of glory. The dissolution of the body, the dismantling of this tent does not bring annihilation, it brings translation to glory. And that's why I look at the things that are not seen, not the things that are seen (2Co 4:18), for we know that if that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down we have a building from God. (The "for" explains) why the apostle can experience those things that he is experiencing, why he can look to the things that are invisible rather than the things that are visible, and pass through all of these experiences with confidence and assurance, because even if I lose my life in the midst of them, I know I have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. So that little word for gives a clue as to what Paul is really concerned about. (Clothed, Unclothed and Clothed Upon - 2 Corinthians 5:1-5) As an aside when you encounter the "little word for" in a passage, especially at the beginning of a verse where it is usually a term of explanation, always pause and interrogate it with the 5W/H questions. As you practice this discipline of a "questioning mindset" you will find that (1) You will be forced to slow down. Remember, the Bible is not designed for speed reading. Far too often I fear one's "Thru the Bible in a Year" reading program becomes a speed reading contest to make sure we do not fall too far behind. Beloved, this Book is a love letter and should be lovingly lingered over. In fact, tarrying over one verse can be of far greater value to our spiritual lives, than rushing through one chapter in order to achieve a goal, rather than to meet with our God. And one can even fall into the trap of subtle legalism of "having" to read your 4 chapters each day. In a sad sense, love for God's law becomes legalism for God's law. So to paraphrase a popular commercial from past years, try the pause that refreshes! (2) You will find that you are more actively engaging the text, the Holy Word, and giving yourself more time to interact with your Teacher, the Holy Spirit (1Jn 2:28). Speed reading promotes passive reading. Slowing down promotes active reading. (3) You will be far more likely to remember what you have just read (cp Memorizing His Word). (4) You will find yourself beginning to practice the blessed spiritual discipline of meditation. (another discussion on meditation). Considering the spiritual dividends of meditation in Joshua 1:8 (+) and Psalm 1 (read Ps 1:1-+, Ps 1:2-+, Ps 1:3-+), as my old medical school professor used to say at 6AM rounds every morning - "You can't not know" (to which I add)… how to meditate on the Scriptures! Although 2Cor 5:4 is on a separate page of these study notes, it should be interpreted in the context of the preceding verses, 2Co 5:2-+ and 2Co 5:3-+. In 2Co 5:2-4 Paul expresses his preference for the resurrection body ("clothed with our dwelling from heaven"). In 2Cor 5:2 he uses the metaphor of a house and in verse 4 the metaphor of a tent. In verse 2 and verse 4 he is groaning because of his present body (the burdens of life, the limitations of the this body, the superiority of the body to come) 2Corinthians 5:1-4 Simple Summary of Three Interpretations Present Mortal, Corruptible Body (1) Intermediate State: No Body Future Immortal, Incorruptible Body (2) Intermediate State: Temporary Body (3) Intermediate State: Unknown Scripture Not Definitive Comment: The "Intermediate State" is what some theologians have termed the time between a believer's death (at which time they go to be present with the Lord) and the time the Lord returns, resurrects the dead and gives believers their glorified, immortal, incorruptible bodies which will last throughout eternity. The table summarizes the possibilities of this "intermediate state" - no body, a temporary body and status of the current state of believers in heaven as unknown. I personally favor the last "interpretation", because Scripture makes no definitive statement regarding the "intermediate state", which suggests that speculation should be avoided. David Lowery summarizes the interpretative approaches to 2Cor 5:1-4… A number of commentators and theologians have seen in these verses reference to an “intermediate state,” a period between death and resurrection. This view takes one of two forms: (a) Dead (though conscious) believers are without a body while awaiting their resurrection bodies, or (b) dead (though conscious) believers receive an “intermediate body” that somehow differs from their forthcoming resurrected bodies. (According to either of these intermediate-state views, Paul was suggesting that he hoped to live till the return of Christ so that he would not experience an “intermediate state.”) These views, however, seem unwarranted. Paul had only two conditions in view since 2Cor 4:16, the temporal and the eternal. The introduction of a third is therefore unlikely. It seems clear from 2Co 5:4 that being in this tent (cf. 2Pe 1:13-+), and unclothed describe mortality while being clothed and possessing a heavenly dwelling depict immortality, without specifying any intervening stages. (Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., et al: The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 1985. Victor) For indeed - Paul is emphasizing the point of the believer's groaning (just noted in 2Co 5:2+), a fact also mentioned in Romans… And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits (this means there is more to come!) of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan (stenazo = present tense) within ourselves, waiting eagerly (apekdechomai = present tense which pictures the believer in a continual state of eager anticipation and expectation to see our Bridegroom! Practically, such an attitude will serve to motivate us to resist temptations and commission of sin. If we are expecting Him any moment, we will seek to be ready - 1Jn 2:28) for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. (Ro 8:23-+). While we are in this tent - While we are still alive in these physical bodies and in this present world. Tent (4636) (skenos from skene ["from root ska = to cover" - A T Robertson] = tent, booth, cloth hut, habitation, tabernacle Mt 17:4 Mk 9:5) refers to a temporary residence (tabernacle, tent, booth) but is used figuratively (metaphorically) by Paul here and in the only other use (2Co 5:1-+) to refer to the human body as the habitation of the spirit (some lexicons say "dwelling place of the soul"). As Thayer says skenos pictures the body as a "tent taken down at death." (Ed: And I would add "either at death or the rapture", whichever comes first! Maranatha [Our Lord come!]). Mounce refers to skenos as our "corporeal tabernacle"! Skenos is used figuratively by Paul to refer to the human body as the habitation of the soul (the "tabernacle of the soul" - As an aside, beloved, recall that in the OT the "tabernacle" was where people met with God (Ex 25:22)! Is that true of your "tabernacle"? More to the point, have you met with Him yet today? This week? Remember you are under grace not law - let that love of God [which has been poured out in your heart by the Spirit -Ro 5:5-+, 1Jn 4:19] motivate your meeting with Him.). Peter uses a similar word skenoma to describe his body writing… And I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling (skenoma), to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside (Used of laying off old clothes, as the runners who participated in the Olympic Games) of my earthly dwelling (skenoma) is imminent (tachinos = near at hand, impending, used only here and 2Pe 2:1-+ = swift), as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me (When? Some 40 years prior Jesus had prophesied the "taking down" of Peter's dwelling - Jn 21:18,19). (2Pe 1:13, 14-+) Comment: Dwelling is skenoma from skenoo = to pitch a tent, this verb derived from the root word skenos = tent. Peter's "dwelling" was actually a frail "tent" (skenoma) erected just for a night. And so Peter, like Paul here in 2Co 5:4, alludes to death as laying aside of one’s temporary, frail tent of our mortal bodies. "Peter feels the nearness of death and the urgency upon him." (A T Robertson) Longman sums up the imagery of tent in regard to the body noting "In the OT a comparison is also drawn between the human body and a tent. The body’s well-being is like a secure tent (Ps 16:9), and its vulnerability through illness, age or death is like a tent under siege or a tent whose cords are pulled up (Job 19:12; 4:21; Is 38:12). In the NT the impermanence of the body is compared to a tent that “I will soon put away” (2Pet 1:13, 14-+). This happens most fully and eloquently in the writings of Paul, himself a tentmaker, who emphasizes the burden and longing of our earthly existence for heavenly permanence: “we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven” (2Co 5:1-+; also 2Co 5:2-5). Our future form will be eternal, not something that can be easily destroyed like a vulnerable man-made tent but rather firm and sure, built by God himself. (It should be noted that nowhere here is the notion of an immortal soul in a temporary body.) (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery) We groan - Groan is in present tense describing continuous action. Groaning alludes to a condition which is unsatisfying and sorrowful (certainly compared with our future hope of glory!). Thus the groaning serves in a sense as a cry for deliverance from our physical bodies. The pain and sorrow believers feel now is because of the fact that we still live in mortal bodies indwelt by the flesh (the old sin nature inherited from Adam - Ro 5:12-+) which causes us to daily stumble and grieve the Holy Spirit which in turn grieves us. Murray Harris comments that "The passage does not define the precise nature of the “sighing” or “groaning,” but the immediate context and Paul’s thought elsewhere (Ro 8:19-23+; Php 3:20, 21+) suggest it was his sense of frustration with the limitations and disabilities of mortal existence, knowing as he did that he was destined to possess a spiritual body perfectly adapted to the ecology of heaven. Paul sought liberation only from the imperfection of present embodiment, from “bondage to decay,” not from any and every form of corporeality. After all, it is to Paul that Christian theology owes the doctrine of the “spiritual body” (1Co 15:35-49). (Expositor's Bible Commentary) Groan (complain, sigh) (4727)(stenazo from stenos = narrow or contracted as when one is squeezed or pressed by circumstances) literally describes an internal squeezing and thus denotes a feeling of inner sorrow. Stenazo means to express grief by inarticulate or semi-articulate sounds. A groan is an audible expression of anguish due to physical, emotional, or spiritual pain. Stenazo refers to the utterances of a person who is caught in a situation (usually dreadful) with no immediate prospect of deliverance. We get a picture of the meaning of stenazo with Luke's use of the noun form (stenagmos - used in Romans 8:26-+ of Spirit's prayers expressed to God inarticulately) to describe the enslavement of Israel in Egypt… (God declares) I HAVE CERTAINLY SEEN THE OPPRESSION OF MY PEOPLE IN EGYPT, AND HAVE HEARD THEIR GROANS (stenazo), AND I HAVE COME DOWN TO DELIVER THEM; COME NOW, AND I WILL SEND YOU TO EGYPT.' (Acts 7:34+ cp Ex 2:24, 25+) SPURGEON'S PICTURE OF GROANING Spurgeon gives a lengthy exposition of our present groaning (this is a long note but definitely worth reading slowly, as you take time to ponder the picture that Spurgeon is painting as he contrasts your present with your future)… This earnest desire, of which the apostle has been speaking in the preceding verses, is made up of two things — a painful groaning and sense of being burdened while we are in this present life, and a supreme longing after our promised portion in the world to come. Dissatisfaction with the very idea of finding a continuing city here, amounting even to groaning, is the condition of the Christians mind. “We look not at the things which are seen,” (2Co 4:18-+) they are not worth a glance; they are temporal, and therefore quite unfit to be the joy of an immortal spirit. The Christian is the most contented man in the world, but he is the least contented with the world. He is like a traveler in an inn, perfectly satisfied with the inn and its accommodation, considering it as an inn, but putting quite out of all consideration the idea of making it his home. He baits by the way, and is thankful, but his desires lead him ever onward towards that better country where the many mansions are prepared. The believer is like a man in a sailing vessel, well content with the good ship for what it is, and hopeful that it may bear him safely across the sea, willing to put up with all its inconveniences without complaint; but if you ask him whether he would choose to live on board in that narrow cabin, he will tell you that he longs for the time when the harbour shall be in view, and the green fields, and the happy homesteads of his native land. We, my brethren, thank God for all the appointments of providence; whether our portion be large or scant we are content because God has appointed it: yet our portion is not here, nor would we have it here if we might! “We’ve no abiding city here, Sad truth were this to be our home.” No thought would be more dreadful to us than the idea of having our portion in this life, in this dark world which refused the love of Jesus, and cast Him out of its vineyard. We have desires which the whole world could not fulfill, we have insatiable yearnings which a thousand empires could not satisfy. The Creator has made us to pant and long after Himself, and all the creatures put together could not delight our souls without His presence. “Hopeless of joy in aught below, We only long to soar, The fullness of His love to feel, And lose His smile no more.” In addition to this dissatisfaction, there reigns within the regenerate heart a supreme longing after the heavenly state. When believers are in their right minds, their aspirations after heaven are so forcible that they contemn death itself. When faith is weak, then the pains and the groans of dying make a black cloud of forebodings which darken the spirit, and we shrink from the thought of departing; but when we know that our Redeemer liveth, and look forward to the resurrection and to the glory to be revealed, we cry- “Oh, if my Lord would come and meet, My soul should stretch her wings in haste, Fly fearless through death’s iron gate, Nor fear the terrors as she passed.” Whatever the separation of the soul from the body may involve of pain or mystery, the believer feels that he could dare it all, to enter at once into the unfading joys of the glory-land. Sometimes the heir of heaven grows impatient of his bondage, and like a captive who, looking out of the narrow window of his prison, beholds the green fields of the unfettered earth, and marks the flashing waves of the ocean, ever free, and bears the songs of the uncaged tenants of the air, weeps as he views his narrow cell, and hears the clanking of his chains. There are times when the most patient of the Lord’s banished ones feel the home sickness strong upon them. Like those beasts which we have sometimes seen in our menageries, which pace to and fro in their dens, and chafe themselves against the bars-unresting, unhappy, bursting out every now and then into fierce roarings, as though they yearned for the forest or the jungle; even so we also chafe and fret in this our prison-house, longing to be free. As by the waters of Babylon the sons of Zion sat them down and wept, even so do we. Dwelling in Kedar’s tents and sojourning with Mesech, we long for the wings of a dove that we might fly away and be at rest. “O my sweet home, Jerusalem, Would God I were in thee! Would God my woes were at an end, Thy joys that I might see.” Having thus seen that the groaning wrought in us by God is made up of dissatisfaction with this world and anxious desire for the world to come, we may profitably consider it yet a little further. What is it that makes the Christian long for heaven? What is that within him which makes him restless till he reach the better land? It is, first, a desire for the unseen. The carnal mind is satisfied with what the eyes can see, the hands can handle, and the taste enjoy, but the Christian has a spirit within him which has passions and appetites which the senses cannot gratify. This spirit has been created, developed, enlightened, and instructed by the Holy Ghost, and it lives in a world of unseen realities, of which unregenerate men have no knowledge. While in this sinful world and earthly body, the spirit feels like a citizen exiled from his native land; it stands upon the outmost borders of its own region, and longs to penetrate into the center of spiritual things. Hampered with this body of clay, the spirit, which is akin to angels, cries after liberty; it longs to see the Great Father of Spirits, to commune with the bands of the pure spirits forever surrounding the throne of God, both angels and glorified men; it longs, in fact, to dwell in its true element. A spiritual creature, begotten from above, can never rest till it is present with the Lord. Oh! to see the things which we have heard of in metaphor and simile, to enjoy them really with our spirits, the harps, the crowns, the palms — what must it be to possess such joys? The streets of transparent gold, the river of the water of life, the glassy sea, the throne of the Great King — what must all these be? Until these joys and glories be all our own our souls will ever cry and sigh. Moreover, the Christian spirit pants after holiness. He who is born again of incorruptible seed, finds his worst trouble to be sin. While he was in his natural state be loved sin, and sought pleasure in it, but now being born of God and made like to God, he hates sin, the mention of it vexes his ears, the sight of it in others causes him deep sorrow, but the presence of it in his own heart is his daily plague and burden. If he could be clean rid of sin this mortal body might not be to him a load, but because the tendencies of the animal passions are always towards evil, he longeth to be rid of this vile body, that he may be clothed upon with his house which is from heaven, from which all these passions will be expelled. Oh, to be without the tendency to sin, without the possibility to sin! What bliss the prospect affords! My brethren, if we could be placed in the meanest and most destitute condition, and yet could be perfect, we would prefer it to being sinful, even though we should reign in the palaces of kings. Our spirit, therefore, crieth after the immortal state, because sin will be for ever banished from it. In the Christian’s spirit there is also a sighing after rest. “There remaineth a rest for the people of God,” as though God had put in us the longing for what he has prepared; we labor daily to enter into that rest. Brethren, we long for rest, but we cannot find it here. “This is not our rest.” We cannot find rest even within ourselves. Wars and fightings are continuous within the regenerate spirit; the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit warreth against flesh. As long as we are here it must be so. We are in the camp of war, not in the chamber of ease. The trumpet must sound, and the clash of arms must be heard, and we must go to our watch-tower, and continue there both night and day, for we are militant as yet, and not triumphant. Our soul pines to be at rest. When shall the rowers of our spirit indulge themselves to the full without the fear of falling into sin? When shall my memory recollect nothing but what will glorify God? When shall my judgment always rightly balance all events? When shall my desires be after nothing but my Lord? When shall my affections cling to nought but Him? O when shall I possess the rest of the sinless, the rest of the satiated, the rest of the secure, the rest of the victorious? This longing for rest helps to inflame the Christian’s desires for the house not made with hands. This divinely-wrought desire is made up of another element, namely, a thirst for communion with God. Here, at the nearest, our state is described as being “absent from the Lord.” We do enjoy fellowship with God, for “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ,” but it is remote and dark. “We see through a glass darkly,” and not as yet face to face. We have the smell of His garments from afar, and they are perfumed with myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, but as yet the King is in His ivory palaces, and the gate of pearl is between us and Him. O that we could come at Him! O that He would even now embrace us, and kiss us with the kisses of His mouth. The more the heart loves Christ, the more it longs for the greatest possible nearness to Him. Separation is very painful to a bride whose heart is burning for the bridegroom’s presence; and such are we, longing to hear the most sweet voice of our Spouse and to see the countenance which is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. For a saved soul to long to be where its Savior is, is no unnatural desire! To be with Him is far better than earth’s best, and it would be strange if we did not long for it. God, then, hath wrought in us this in all its forms, He has made us to dread the thought of having our portion in this life, He has created in us a supreme longing for our heavenly home, has taught us to value unseen and eternal things, to pant after holiness, to sigh after sinless rest, and to yearn after closer fellowship with God in Christ Jesus. My brethren, if you have felt a desire such as I have described, give the glory of it to God; bless and love the Holy Spirit Who hath wrought this selfsame thing in you, and ask Him to make the desires yet more vehement, for they are to His glory. Bear with a word in praise of this God-wrought groaning. This desire after the world to come is above ordinary nature. All flesh is grass, and the grass loves to strike its root deep into the earth; it has no tendrils with which to clasp the stars. Man by nature would be content to abide on earth forever. If you long for a holy and spiritual state, your desire is not of nature’s creation. God has wrought it in you. Yea, I will venture to say that the desire for heaven is contrary to nature; for as there is an inertia in matter which makes it indisposed to move, so is there in human nature an indisposition to leave the present for the future. Like the limpet, we stick to the rock on which we crawl. We cling to earth like the ivy to the wall. We are afraid to set sail upon that unknown sea of eternity, and therefore shiver on the shore. We dread to leave “the warm precincts of this house of clay,” and hovel as this body is, we count it dear. It is the Lord who forbids our lying among the pots, and gives us the wings of a dove to mount aloft. As soon would a clod seek the sun as a soul seek its God, if a miracle of grace were not wrought upon it. While they are contrary to the old nature, such aspirations prove the existence of the new nature. You may be quite sure that you have the nature of God in you if you are pining after God; and if your longings are of a spiritual kind, depend upon it you are a spiritual man. It is not in the animal to sigh after mental enjoyments, neither is it in the mere carnal man to sigh after heavenly things. What your desires are, that your soul is. If you are really insatiably hungering after holiness and after God, there is within you that which is like to God, that which is essentially holy, there is indeed a work of the Holy Ghost within your hearts. I shall detain you awhile to notice the means by which the Holy Spirit quickens these desires within our spirits. HUNGERING AFTER HOLINESS AND AFTER GOD This desire after a portion in the unseen world is first infused in us by regeneration. Regeneration begets in us a spiritual nature, and the spiritual nature brings with it its own longings and desires; these longings and desires are after perfection and God. Imagine an angel imprisoned in a stable: it is perfectly certain that it would be discontented with the place where the horned oxen lay. If it felt that the divine will commanded it to tarry there for awhile, I doubt not that the bright visitant would contentedly put up with the confinement; but if it had liberty to leave the society of beasts, how gladly would the bright spirit ascend to its native place. Yes, heaven is the place for angels, the true abode of holy spirits and we, too, since our spiritual nature is born from above, long to be there, nor shall we be content until we are. These desires are further assisted by instruction. The more the Holy Ghost teaches as of the world to come the more we long for it. If a child had lived in a mine it might be contented with the glimmer of candle light; but if it should hear of the sun and the green fields, and the stars, you may depend upon it the child would not be happy until it could ascend the shaft and behold for itself the brightness of which it had heard and as the Holy Ghost reveals to us the world to come we feel longings within us, mysterious but mighty, and we sigh and cry to be away where Jesus is. These desires are farther increased by sanctified afflictions. Thorns in our nest make us take to our wings; the embittering of this cup makes us earnestly desire to drink of the new wine of the kingdom. We are very much like our poor, who would stay at home in England and put up with their lot, hard though it be; but when at last there comes a worse distress than usual, then straightway they talk of emigrating to those fair and boundless fields across the Atlantic, where a kindred nation will welcome them with joy. So here we are in our poverty, and we make the best of it we can; but a sharp distress wounds our spirit, and then we say we will away to Canaan, to the land that floweth with milk and honey, for there we shall suffer no distress, neither shall our spirits hunger any more. Heavenly desires are still farther inflamed by communion with Christ. The sweets as well as the bitters may be made to increase our longings after the world to come. When a man has once known what fellowship with Jesus is then he pines to enjoy it forever; like the Gauls on this side the Alps who, when they had once drank the Italian wines, said one to another, “It must be a fair land where they grow such wine as this, come, brethren, let us draw our swords and cross the Alps and take the vineyards for ourselves.” Thus does the love of Jesus set us longing to be with him. “Since I have tasted of the grapes, I oft times long to go Where my dear Lord the vineyard keeps, And all the clusters grow.” Communion with Christ sharpens the edge of our desire for heaven. And so, to close this vein of thought, does elevation of soul. The more we are sanctified and lifted above the grossness of earthliness into conformity with Jesus, the more we long for the world to come. A peasant at the plough is quite content to mix with his fellow laborers, but suppose he forms a passion for the study of the stars, feels a poet’s frenzy, or develops mathematical powers, or learns the science of flowers, or in any way discovers the treasure hidden in the field of learning, he will be sure to be uneasy in ignorance, and will pine for books and education. He dreams of schools, and colleges, and libraries. His fellow ploughmen laugh at him, and count him but a fool. If they have enough to eat and drink and clothe themselves, they are content therein, but he has wants for which the village has neither sympathy nor supply. His elevation of mind has brought with it groanings, to which, has he grovelled like his fellows, he would have been a stranger. So is it with the regenerated man, in proportion as he is elevated by the Holy Spirit by growth in grace. The higher he rises the more he longs to rise. To him that hath it is given, and he desireth to have in abundance; with a sacred covetousness he panteth after yet higher degrees of grace, and after glory itself. Thus have I opened up to you the desire which the Holy Spirit works in us. “He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God.” (2Co 5:5KJV) (2Corinthians 5:5 The Glorious Hereafter and Ourselves) Ron Mattoon writes that… The promise of a heavenly body caused Paul and other believers to groan for it. What an appropriate description… "groan." Doctors today make their living listening to groaning tents. A dermatologist tries to keep the canvass of our tent in good shape. The family doctor spends his life patching up and stitching up this tent of ours. The orthopedic doctor tries to keep our tent legs from pulling loose. Someone once asked John Quincy Adams how he was personally doing. Adams replied, "I am very well, thank you. However, the house in which John Adams lives, is growing old. The thatch is wearing thin, and it trembles in every gale. I think John Quincy Adams will have to soon move out, but he himself is very well, sir." We groan, especially as we get older. Why do we groan? We groan today, as they did back then, because we feel the pains associated with mortality, namely our physical limitations, sickness, heartaches, and the increasing disabilities that accompany advancing age. We groan also because of the stress, mess, tests, unrest, and distress of this life. How many times in frustration or great stress have we said or felt, "Lord, just go ahead and take me home! Lord, please come today and get me out of here!" The Christian does not groan in his or her present body because he or she wants to get rid of it. We really are not going around hoping, begging, or longing to die today! We groan because we long to receive the immortal heavenly bodies that God has promised us. God's promises of something better make us dissatisfied with what we have now. We are yearning and pining for what we don't have right now, but what we will have someday. Paul said he "earnestly desired" his glorified body (2Co 5:2-+). He longed or pined for it. Having put on our heavenly bodies, we will not be naked. In other words, we will not be spirits without bodies. In this body that we have, we groan because we are burdened, weighed down or pressed by the pressures of this life. We groan, not because we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us now. We groan because we want to put on our new glorified body so that our earthly decaying body will be swallowed up by life eternal in Heaven. Not only the promise of a glorified body, but pining for it and the blessings of Heaven will help us to keep one eye on eternity. (Treasures from 2 Corinthians, Volume 1). Matthew
2 Coríntios 5:4-5
Johnson comments that Paul "doesn't want to be naked. Jews have a horror of that, and that -- in that sense, the apostle's thought should be understood. the question with Paul is on the one hand dying and living in a disembodied state for a time until the coming of Christ. 1 Corinthians 15 makes it very plain that the resurrection takes place when our Lord comes. So the apostle, on one hand, has the option -- or shall I put it this way -- the alternative. The alternative is dying and living in the disembodied state until the coming of our Lord or surviving until the coming of our Lord, the parousia. And the apostle has simply expressed his viewpoint that he wants to survive to the parousia if that should be within the will of God in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. That's his hope, mortal swallowed up by life. The change. No fear nor unmanly monkish wish to die characterizes the apostle, but he looks forward to the future in that sense. (Clothed, Unclothed and Clothed Upon - 2 Corinthians 5:1-5) James Denney says "Nothing could be less like the apostle than a monkish, unmanly wish to die. He exalted 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, among 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 (Ep 1:13, Ep 1:14KJV+), he knew he had an inheritance there as well as here. It is his consciousness of the dimension of life that makes him so immensely interesting." ILLUSTRATION - A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed: "Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!" SO THAT WHAT IS MORTAL WILL BE SWALLOWED UP BY LIFE: hina katapothe (3SAPS) to thneton upo tes zoes.: we that: 2Pe 1:13 Groan: 2Co 5:2 but: 2Co 5:3 mortal: Isa 25:8 1Co 15:53,54 2 Corinthians 5 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries See also "shorter version" of commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:4 So that (hina) explains the purpose for what Paul has just stated. Be alert to these terms of conclusion taking a moment to stop (the Bible was never meant to be a speed reading exercise) and ask the 5W/H questions. Plummer comments "Only what is mortal perishes; the personality, consisting of soul and body, survives." R B