This Week's Scripture & Reflection: 2 Corinthians 5:1-5
The concept of eternity is often difficult to grasp as finite human beings living in a finite world. Furthermore, the ability to perceive and see beyond what we can see with our natural eyes can be challenging. Especially as sickness and death continue to spread across the world, the reality of how finite our lives truly are hits more and more intensely with each casualty report that we hear. Even in the midst of a depressing climate such as this, the believers and followers of Jesus Christ should be reminded of the blessed hope we possess in Him that looks beyond this earthly life!
In his second epistle to the Corinthian church, the apostle Paul encourages his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ with these words: “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” These earthly tents are our physical bodies, vessels in which we groan due to their various aches, sicknesses, and overall weaknesses due to the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. Above all, our bodies groan so intensely because they desire to remove, or strip off, mortality and to be clothed with immortality, our eternal bodies from Heaven.
The beauty of this passage is the assurance we have concerning this promise, which Paul emphasizes in verses 1 and 5 when he says "For we know" and "Now He...gave to us the Spirit as a pledge", or a down payment, of the promise to receive our resurrected, glorified bodies upon Christ's return. The God who gave us His Holy Spirit as a guarantee of this promise is also the God who prepared us for this very purpose, which also serves to remind us that God is not passive concerning His plans. Though the pain and suffering of this world can be tangibly felt, it cannot compare to the glory that shall be revealed both to and in us (cf. Romans 8:18).