2 Corinthians 5:1

2 Corinthians 5:1. For we know This verse gives the reason for what has gone before. -We are consoled in our present afflictions, sustained in our hope of future glory, supported in our conviction that what is visible is speedily to be replaced by what is eternal, by the knowledge, spiritually acquired, that God has prepared a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44) to replace the present frail and temporary habitation of the soul." Calvin remarks that this with St Paul is not a matter of opinionor belief, but of actual knowledge, a boast which no heathen dare have made.

our earthly house of this tabernacle Earthly, not earthy. That which exists uponthe earth, not what is made of earth. Compare 1 Corinthians 15:40; 1 Corinthians 15:47. See also John 3:12; Philippians 2:10. House of this tabernacleis better rendered tabernacle-house. The Hebraistic genitive is "to define the nature of the house" (Stanley), i.e. as temporary, a tentor tabernacle as opposed to a permanent dwelling. Stanley suggests our English word tenementas best expressing the idea of the original, and supposes the Greek word to have been suggested to St Paul by his Cilician house, as well as by his occupation of tent-making, Acts 18:3. A similar expression is found in 2 Peter 1:13, and in Wis 9:15.

were dissolved or, perhaps, were destroyed. Cf. Matthew 5:17; Matthew 24:2; Matthew 26:61; Galatians 2:18, where the same Greek word is used.

we have a building of God i.e. a building originatingwith God. The present tense signifies either (1) that it awaits us "the moment our present house is destroyed" (Stanley), or (2) that it exists nowin the eternal purpose of God. See next note but one.

a house not made with hand So the earlier copies of the Authorized Version. The later the innovation seems to have been made about 1661 have -hands," which is less correct. "Not as contrasted with the earthly body, which is also -not made with hand," but with otherhouses which are made with hand." Alford. The expression is used to mark the Divine origin of the spiritual body.

in the heavens These words should be joined with -we have," not as is usually done with -eternal." There is a difficulty here. The new body is said in 1 Corinthians 15:52; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 to be given us at the coming of Christ. The condition of the believer between death and the judgment is represented as a sleep. The explanation is that we possess our future body already in the mind and will of God. So the Hebrew prophets frequently speak of a future event as" past, because it is already decreed in the providence of God. We are in said to -have it in the heavens" because its organization and communication to us are not natural, but heavenly and spiritual.