Although it comprises a mere twenty-one verses, 2 Corinthians chapter five contains some of the best known, most important, and most beloved passages in all the Bible. For instance, the following noteworthy portions of Scripture are found here in 2 Corinthians chapter five…
- “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
- “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
- “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
- “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).
- “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
But first, Paul the Apostle will begin this portion of his letter to the Corinthians with a construction analogy that serves to contrast the differences between the earthly and the eternal…
“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).
Before we continue, we should pause to remember that the Biblical chapter and verse divisions we see today did not appear within the original Biblical text. These reference aids were later added to assist in identifying each individual portion of Scripture. Because of this, it might be easy to miss the link between 2 Corinthians 5:1 and the portion of Paul’s letter that immediately precedes it in chapter four…
“…our light and transient troubles are achieving for us an everlasting glory whose weight is beyond description. We concentrate not on what is seen but on what is not seen, since things seen are temporary, but things not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-8 CJB).
So having just spoken about the importance of balancing the challenges, afflictions, and difficulties of life with the glory of eternity, 2 Corinthians 5:1 marks a progressive transition to the subjects of life and death. Just as Paul sought to value his life experiences in terms of their eternal significance, he similarly viewed his physical existence in terms of what was temporal and what was eternal.
We’ll take a closer look at the analogies that Paul used to communicate those differences next.