2 Corinthians 5:8-9 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
Because God has given us the Holy Spirit, we can have courage and confidence (thauroumen) to stay true to our convictions. Paul’s confidence comes from his hope of resurrected eternal life. He and all who put their hope in Christ (the “we”) believe that when we die, we will be with the Lord. When our bodies die and decay, we will be “at home with the Lord.” This statement is challenging to understand, especially in light of what Paul writes elsewhere, such as 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. In those passages, it seems that the dead exist in a state of waiting for the second coming of Christ in order to be raised from the dead. Yet, here, Paul claims that when we die, we are with the Lord. There are several ways to approach this apparent contradiction. Many people have had theories and ideas. One simple solution is that upon death, time is meaningless to our existence. Another is that we exist in a state of waiting preserved by the power of the resurrected Christ. A third is that we go to heaven when we die and wait for resurrected bodies later. There are other ideas, but this is all just speculation.
Paul’s goal here is not to lay out the step-by-step process of happens to our human existence upon death. Rather, he is showing confidence in the power of God to sustain us through suffering and even death itself. We should not fear what happens to us in this world because we have promises of what is to come. The Lord is always with us, even through death. The separation of Christ we experience in this life now will be ended and we will be with him for eternity.
Verse 9 applies this hope to everyday life. Since we know that we will appear before Jesus Christ who will judge us, we should live lives of holiness and love. Holiness will be a theme in the next chapter. Love was a theme in 1 Corinthians 13 and will be mentioned in a few verses in v. 14. These are two foci of Paul’s letters and get to the heart of how the gospel transforms us. To be holy and loving is the result of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit within us (2 Corinthians 3:18). “To be pleasing to him” is our goal. We want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). Living with this goal will ensure a positive outcome at judgment.
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