Today Paul talks about how eagerly we await the new bodies we will have when Christ returns. He also reassures us as to the location of our souls while they are absent from the body: they are with the Lord.
"For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands." (2 Corinthians 5:1) The word that is translated "tent" (or sometimes "tabernacle") is the Greek "skenoo" which means "a hut, a temporary abode". We are very attached to our earthly bodies, but Paul wants us to remember that they are temporary abodes. The Lord is going to give us a permanent abode, which is a body like that of Christ's.
"Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked." (2 Corinthians 5:2-3) Our bodies are subject to wear and tear, to viruses, to infections, to diseases. We groan in these bodies. I woke up this morning with a headache and a sore back and had to take two ibuprofen with my coffee, but a day is coming when we will never again groan with pain.
We will be free of all the things that befall a mortal body when we die, but we don't want to be permanently without a body. The Lord created our souls to dwell within a body, so we look forward to the day when we will have immortal bodies. This is why Paul says we don't want to be "naked"; we don't want to remain souls without bodies. I don't know what it will be like living in spirit in heaven. I think it will be a wonderful experience. It is going to be a relief to shake off the burden of bodies that have limits and are prone to disease. But it will be an even more wonderful experience to inhabit perfect and eternal physical bodies.
"For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." (2 Corinthians 5:4) Paul says, "We groan while we are in these bodies, but not because we want to die. We groan because we long for the day when we will inhabit bodies that won't have to deal with sickness or pain. We look forward to the time when death will no longer have dominion over our bodies."
The Lord who redeemed our souls is also going to redeem our bodies. The proof of this is that He has already put down a deposit on us. Like a man entering into a contract promising to purchase a piece of property, God has paid "earnest money". He has given us His Spirit while we still live on earth in our mortal bodies. This is the guarantee that God is going to finish what He has started with us. "Now the One who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (2 Corinthians 5:5) Our future is glorious. This is why Paul was able to endure the things that made him groan in the body. He kept his thoughts fixed on what lay ahead of him.
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