II Corinthians
Chp. 5
Vs.1 Paul says, When this “earthly tent” “tabernacle” meaning our bodies which are temporary——–die, our spirits leave our bodies.
(For believers Our spirits go directly to God in heaven.)
We will have a home in heaven. We will have a new body an “eternal” body. It will be made for us by God. Not made by human hands. (Not created or begotten by 2 humans coming together.)
This is my comment: However, even so, that body created by humans has to be given a living spirit of life by God or that body does not live.
Vs. 2 Our earthly bodies get tired, and we desire for the day when we will put off this earthly body and put on our new heavenly body.
Vs.3 We will not be a spirit without a body. We will have a new heavenly body.
Vs. 4 Our earthly bodies make us groan and sigh. It is not that we want to die and have no body at all. We want new bodies and we want the old ones to be done and gone.
Vs. 5 God has prepared us for this. As a guarantee or promise he has given us the Holy Spirit now in us in our earthly body.
Vs. 6 We know that as long as we live in these earthly bodies we are not home with the Lord.
Vs.7 That is why we live by believing not by seeing. (In other words, until these things happen to us, we keep having faith that they will happen. Once they happen we will not need faith any more.)
Vs.8 We would think it better to be away from these earthly bodies because then we would be at home with the Lord in heaven.
Vs. 9 Our goal is always to please him. No matter if we are in our earthly body or in our heavenly body.
Vs. 10 We must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will receive what we deserve or should be given according to the good or evil we have done in our bodies.
Vs.11 Because of this (judgment) we have a fear and respect of the Lord. So we work hard to get others to know and believe. God knows we are sincere. We hope you know it, too.
Vs. 12 Do you think we are trying to “pat ourselves on the back” and praise ourselves?
No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us and have confidence in us. So that when others talk to you about some other person having this wonderful ministry, you do not need to feel that you missed out. We have been sincere. We have given you the truth.
Vs. 13 If it seems we are being crazy or foolish in talking this way it is because we want to bring glory to God. We are talking this way for your benefit.
Whatever we do we do it because God’s love controls us.
We believe that Christ died for everyone, so we believe that to follow Christ we need to die to the old life we lived before we believed.
Christ died so that those who believe can die to the old life of sin and will receive a new life in Christ. They will live to please Christ who died for them and was raised from the dead.
Vs. 16 We no longer judge others or give them value because of what other people in the world say about them.
Before, I used to think of Christ in this way. I depended on what other people were saying about him. Now I think differently about him.
Those who become believers and Christians become new persons.
They are not the same any more. A new life has begun.
Vs. 18. This new life is from God who brought us back to himself because of what Christ did.
Christ has given us the work of bringing others to understand and believe in what Christ did for them. God was in Christ. Bringing the world back to a right relationship with God. He no longer counted their sins against them.
This is a wonderful message for us to tell others. We are Christ’s ambassadors or representatives. God is using us to speak to you.
We encourage you as if Christ were talking to you Be reconciled to God. Be made right with God.
God begot Christ and Christ never sinned. He was to be the offering for sin so that our sin debt of death could be paid.