2 Corinthians 5: Pleasing the Lord

Verse 4: For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

◇ Paul uses the metaphor of a tent to describe the limitations of human beings in the flesh. The tent symbolizes the mortal body that we will eventually shed.

Humans cannot escape the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death due to their mortal bodies. This cycle inevitably brings about suffering, causing us to groan and sigh.

Our lives within this cycle are intertwined with complex and numerous events that are beyond words. We live our lives within this mortal tent, laughing, crying, rejoicing, raging, singing, and sighing due to these entangled events.

Paul does not speak of shedding this tent and putting on a new one. He wants to overlay a new tent on top of this worldly one.

Paul's hope is to leave the body and be with the Lord. To resurrect like the Lord, overcoming the limitations and enjoying the joy of being with Him. However, Paul is currently postponing this joy. That day will surely come, but right now, he has other matters to attend to.

His current hope is to be "one who pleases the Lord". His hope is not to escape from the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death, or to overcome it well, or to conquer the sufferings in between. His hope is to be "one who pleases the Lord".

How can those who wear the worldly tent, sighing due to the tumultuous life, and those who struggle to get through life, become ones who please the Lord?

“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)

It is not something we do, but something God does. We just obediently follow, even if we are reduced to ashes.

It's not about shedding the tent, but about putting on the new clothes that God gives us in the tent. It may be uncomfortable and difficult, but we must endure until that day.

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)

♧ Lord, help us to endure and persevere until the end, to become ones who please you! Holy Spirit, lead us in truth!