{"id":1733,"date":"2017-10-01T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielgoepfrich.com\/?p=1733"},"modified":"2022-08-29T13:35:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T17:35:59","slug":"2-corinthians-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/2-corinthians-5\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Corinthians 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter five<\/strong> is a kind of \u201creverse parallel\u201d of chapter four. In the previous chapter, the first section focused on Paul\u2019s ministry and the second on his perspective on this life. Chapter five reverses this, with the first section continuing his perspective from chapter four (2 Corinthians 5:1-10) and the second section focusing back on his ministry (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). Some well-known verses are found here and some key truths that make this a favorite chapter of Scripture for many believers.<\/p>\n

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 provides us with a great deal of information regarding the afterlife. Paul referred to his temporary physical body as an \u201cearthly house\u201d<\/em> and a \u201ctent,\u201d<\/em> noting that there is a \u201cheavenly dwelling\u201d<\/em> awaiting us so that \u201cwe will not be found naked\u201d<\/em> (apparently a reference to a bodiless soul). God created us to be both physical and spiritual beings, and Paul said that the afterlife will be no different. Our bodies will be different, but they will still be physical bodies. 1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

A second major truth in this section deals with the believer\u2019s state of existence between death and the resurrection. Although some people believe in \u201csoul sleep\u201d (where the soul is unconscious), the apostle knew of only two states: \u201calive here on earth\u201d<\/em> (or \u201cat home in the body\u201d<\/em>) and \u201cat home with the Lord\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). He specifically noted that being on earth means to be \u201cabsent from the Lord\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 5:6). Thus, when a believer dies, he immediately goes into the presence of Jesus in a conscious state of existence, one of many points of lasting encouragement or comfort from this letter.<\/p>\n

Following the resurrection \u201cwe must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 5:10). Paul had already written about this in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, explaining the trial of our works by fire. Here he confirmed that it will be not the works themselves that Jesus will judge but the quality<\/u> of our works. The Greek words translated \u201cgood or evil\u201d<\/em> are quality words (rather than moral words) and should be understood as \u201cbeneficial or worthless.\u201d Since Paul\u2019s ultimate \u201cambition\u201d<\/em> was \u201cto please\u201d<\/em> Christ because of this judgment (2 Corinthians 5:9), we can interpret this to mean that the motives behind our service for God contribute to their worthiness of reward. Good deeds that come out of a wrong motive are worthless when it comes to rewarding our faithfulness.<\/p>\n

The second half of the chapter focuses again on Paul\u2019s ministry based on his perspective of pleasing God during this life. \u201cBecause we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 5:11). Knowing God well results in knowing and living our mission well. In other words, significant ministry is the result of significant maturity. Paul insisted that, regardless of what it might look like to his accusers or the Corinthians themselves, it was the love of Christ that controlled him or compelled him in his work (2 Corinthians 5:14). Knowing what Christ did for us changed the way Paul saw other people, both believers and unbelievers (2 Corinthians 5:16-17).<\/p>\n

In the final four verses, Paul used some form of the word \u201creconcile\u201d four times. This message that he preached was not just \u201cJesus died for you.\u201d Paul knew that one aspect of the good news was a complete change in status from enemies against God to friends with God (Romans 5:6-11). This was part of God\u2019s intent in Jesus\u2019 death \u2013 reconciling all things back to himself (2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Colossians 1:19-23). Paul insisted that even believers must continually \u201cbe reconciled to God\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 5:20) on a practical level, even after salvation. Jesus became \u201csin for us,\u201d<\/em> not just so that we could go to heaven but \u201cso that in him we would become the righteousness of God\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is the daily aspect of salvation \u2013 becoming in practice what God has already declared us to be.<\/p>\n

\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. First Corinthians 15 is clear that all believers will receive a glorified body at the Rapture. However, there is a debate over whether there is a temporary body for those who die before then. Some take this passage to indicate that there is a temporary body while others believe Paul was referring to the final resurrected body. This may be one of the things that we cannot be certain about. \u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Chapter five is a kind of \u201creverse parallel\u201d of chapter four. In the previous chapter, the first section focused on Paul\u2019s ministry and the second on his perspective on this life. Chapter five reverses this, with the first section continuing his perspective from chapter four (2 Corinthians 5:1-10) and the second section focusing back on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[34,32,30,35],"class_list":["post-1733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-studies","tag-1corinthians","tag-2corinthians","tag-colossians","tag-romans"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"widget-thumbnail":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Goepfrich","author_link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/author\/dgoepfrich\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Chapter five is a kind of \u201creverse parallel\u201d of chapter four. In the previous chapter, the first section focused on Paul\u2019s ministry and the second on his perspective on this life. Chapter five reverses this, with the first section continuing his perspective from chapter four (2 Corinthians 5:1-10) and the second section focusing back on…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}