After explaining the glory of the new covenant, Paul speaks to why he can endure in ministry despite suffering (4:1-5:10). He had two matching sections that begin with “we do not lose heart” followed by a theological reflection:

• 4:1-6 “we do not lose heart”
  • 4:7-15 Reflection on how God uses frail ministers
• 4:16-18 “we do not lose heart”
  • 5:1-10 Reflection on heavenly hope 

Paul doesn’t lose heart because God’s power is manifested in the gospel (4:1-6). God advances the gospel through frail ministers like Paul who stands in a long-line of faithful ministers (4:7-15). Because God is still at work, Paul does not lose heart (4:16-18). He presses on because he has a heavenly hope (5:1-10). 

Translation

16 Therefore, we do not lose heart, but if even our outer person is perishing, then indeed our inner person is being renewed day-by-day. 17 For our light, momentary afflictions are working within us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we observe not what is seen but what is unseen, because what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.

 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of a tent/tabernalce is torn down, then we have a building from God, an eternal house made without hands in the heavens. 2 For also we groan in this house, because we long to be clothed with our house which is in heaven 3 because when we have put it on, we will not be found naked. 4 For also while we are in this tent, we are groaning being burdened because we do not want to unclothed but clothed so that what is mortal will be swallowed by life. 5 Now the one prepared for this very thing is God, who gave us the downpayment of the Spirit. 

6 Therefore, we always have confidence, even though we know that if we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Now we are confident and would rather be absent from the body but present with the Lord. 9 Therefore, it is also our aim to be pleasing to him, whether present or absent. 10 For it is necessary for all of us to appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one will be repaid for the things of the body, for the things he did whether good or evil. 

Commentary

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1 unfolds in two major sections: the admonition (4:16-18) and the reflection (5:1-10). Paul does not lose heart because God renews the inner person (4:16). In fact, the suffer we undergo cannot even compare to the glory that is is coming to us (4:17). These afflictions help to wean us looking at outward things but seeing our hope on the unseen (4:18). We can also persevere because we have heavenly hope. God promises believers an “eternal house” (5:1). Yet despite the hope of heaven, we still have to live in this world, which causes us to “groan,” longing to be with the Lord (5:2-4). The shocking truth is that it is the God who has purposed us to both suffer and long for hope (5:5). Because of the hope of the gospel, Paul is able to live confidently before the Lord (5:6-10). His confidence grows despite still being on this earthly journey filled with suffering, because he lives by faith (5:6-7). Paul would much rather be present with the Lord but, in the meantime, seeks to live in a way that please him (5:8-9). Paul wants to please the Lord because all people will face Christ at the end time for a reckoning (5:10). 

16 Therefore, we do not lose heart, but if even our outer person is perishing, then indeed our inner person is being renewed day-by-day. 

Paul continues in ministry because even if his physical body is deteriorating, his spiritual self (his relationship with the Lord) grows stronger every day. Paul expresses a sentiment similar to the Psalmist who looked toward God to sustain him, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:26). Elsewhere, Paul indicates that although our physical bodies are sliding towards death, the Holy spirit brings spiritual life (Rom. 8:10). Paul’s words should bring great encouragement to believers. Age does not need to stop believers from growing in their faith or fulfilling God’s purposes for their lives. Paul demonstrates that continued renewal comes through the renewal of the mind, intaking God’s truth and allowing it to shape one’s thinking (Rom. 12:2).  

17 For our light, momentary afflictions are working within us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 

Paul endures in his ministry because the suffering of this lifetime is so small when compared to the eternal hope that believers have (cf. Rom. 8:18). Paul contrasts the “light” suffering of this life is the “weight,” or heaviness of eternal glory. Suffering is “light,” ephemeral or inconsequential. But the coming glory is weighty, significant and full of meaning. But Paul goes beyond merely saying that our hope is great. He says that the afflictions we face actually work “within us” for an eternal weight of glory. The suffering that we go through is actually one of the ways that God causes us to grow in our faith (cf. Rom. 5:1-3; Jas. 1:3-5; 1 Peter 1:6-7; 5:10; Heb. 12:10-11). God uses suffering in this lifetime to wean us off of looking to this world to meet our needs or satisfy us. 

18 while we observe not what is seen but what is unseen, because what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal. 

We are able to see God at work through suffering when we stay transfixed upon God’s plan and purposes. Paul paradoxically tells believers to “observe…what is unseen.” But how is it possible to see the unseen? In the Bible, sight is a metaphor for understanding and spiritual perception (Ps. 119:18; Isa. 6:9–10; 42:6–7; Matt. 13:13–16; Luke 24:31. John 9:39; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 1:18; Rev. 3:18). Therefore, Paul is counseling that believers must continually fill their minds with God’s truth. And the truth is that, despite their outer person wearing away, “their inner person is being renewed day-by-day” (4:16). The reason why focusing on the “unseen” is so important is because it is eternal. Everything else in life, except God and his truth, is going away. Therefore, to place hope in or look for satisfaction in the things of this world are, in the words of author of Ecclesiastes, “vanity of vanities” (Eccl. 1:1). 

5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of a tent/tabernacle is torn down, then we have a building from God, an eternal house made without hands in the heavens.

Paul provides further reasons for endurance anchored into a theological reflection on the nature of our heavenly hope. Paul has assurance that even if our “earthly house of a tent” is torn down, we have an abiding building from God. Paul uses a building metaphor to compare and contrast our bodies in the present age versus our bodies when they will be glorified with Christ (1 Cor. 15:42-44, 50-54). But the “building” we have from God is more than merely a new body. In the Old Testament, the term “house” referred to the temple in Jerusalem (1 Kgs. 6:1; 2 Sam. 7:5, 13; Ps. 27:4). When Jesus came, he fulfilled the meaning of the temple in himself (John 2:19-21). Now believers, in union with Christ, became the true temple in this era of God’s plan (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:5). Yet, in the new creation, God’s temple will now fill the whole-earth and his dwelling place will be everywhere (Rev. 21:2-3; 21:22). So the heavenly “house” that Paul has in mind is both the glorified body of believers and the total new creation, which will be the temple of God. Paul highlights the abiding nature of our heavenly/new creational hope by claiming that it is “made without hand,” a term used in Scripture to indicate a work done by God alone (Mark 14:58; Col. 2:11; cf. also Rom. 2:28-29). If human hands didn’t make it, human hands can’t destroy it!    

2 For also we groan in this house, because we long to be clothed with our house which is in heaven

Paul is confident of the hope that he has for a future glorified body living in a renewed and restored creation. Yet in the meantime, “we groan in this house.” Paul uses the image of groaning in pain to depict the tenor of lives here on earth. So often we literally groan because our bodies are wasting away. Similarly, Paul speaks of people groaning awaiting their “adoption” which is the “redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23). We also groan with dissatisfaction because “we long to be clothed with our house, which is in heaven.” Paul mixes his metaphor here (how could a believer be clothed with a house!) to communicate the deep, primal longing that believers have to be with Christ forever. Paul may be reflecting on his own experience as well as he wrote to the Philippians, “My desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Phil. 1:23). 

 3 because when we have put it on, we will not be found naked. 

Paul longs to bypass death and enter directly into resurrection life. He doesn’t want to exist as a “naked” soul devoid of a body. In fact, God never intended for believers to remain permanently “naked,” that is, existing as a soul without a body. Of course, in the current era, when believers die, their body is laid in the ground and their soul ascends to be with God (cf. 5:8; Phil. 1:23-24; Heb. 12:23; Rev. 6:9-11). Such a disembodied existence is merely temporary, however. Jesus was raised bodily and assures the bodily resurrection of all those who believe in him (1 Cor. 15:1-58). Not only will human bodies be resurrected, but the whole creation as well (Rom. 8:19-20). 

4 For also while we are in this tent, we are groaning being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed so that what is mortal will be swallowed by life. 

Paul reiterates that while we live in our mortal bodies, we groan with many burdens (5:2; cf. Rom. 8:22-23). Some burdens are physical while others may be mental, emotional, or spiritual. Life does not work properly because of the effects of human sin (Gen. 3:8-24). We also groan because our desire is to be clothed with a resurrected body and with Christ forever, instead of existing in a merely disembodied spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:53-54); . Tellingly, Paul never says the physical or material will be obliterated and replaced with the spiritual. Instead, he says, “What is mortal will be swallowed by life” or, as he explains in 1 Corinthians, the “moral will have put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:54)  Paul roots his teaching in the Old Testament where God will “swallow up death forever” (Isa. 25:8; quoted in 1 Cor. 15:54). Eventually, all things which can die and decay will no longer be able to! The great hope of our faith is that “death will be no more!” (Rev. 21:4). 

5 Now the one prepared for this very thing is God, who gave us the downpayment of the Spirit. 

Using a brief aside in 5:5, Paul explains that the one who uses suffering to create an eternal longing in us is God. Some commentators restrict the “very thing” God prepared us for as being only the hope that “what is mortal will be swallowed up with life” (5:4). But the context and flow of the passage seems to indicate the larger dynamic of suffering-yet-hopeful, especially in light of the New Testament’s broader teaching (Rom. 5:3-5; 8:17-18; Phil. 3:10-11; Jas. 1:2-4; 1 Pet. 1:6-7; 5:10; Heb. 12:10-11; 2 Tim. 2:12). Moreover, Paul seems to reflect this suffering-yet-hopeful attitude when mentioned that God gave us the Spirit as a “downpayment” or “pledge” (1:22; Eph. 1:13-14). The downpayment of the Spirit is necessarily precisely because we have not received the full inheritance yet and still suffer. But we can be assured that we will be liberated from yet things one day because we have the Spirit. Having the Spirit now assures us of our full inheritance later. 

6 Therefore, we always have confidence, even though we know that if we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord. 

Paul is able to maintain courage and confidence in his ministry because God has promised him an eternal inheritance. Even in the face of the reality that to be still alive means he is not in the Lord’s presence, Paul presses on. Paul routinely expresses the struggle of what it means to be a redeemed human being: both longing to be Christ and also realizing that life on earth is good as well (Phil. 1:21-24). 

7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 

Paul maintains his courage because he lives by faith, not merely by what he can see. If believers lived by “sight,” mere human perception of reality, they could easily conclude that God did not care about them, or, possibly, did not even exist. Paul faced extraordinary hardships during his life, which he recounts in the book (4:7-11; 6:4-10). Yet he did not give up on his faith in God, because through his faith, he was able to perceive the deeper reality of what was going on: God was building his church through Paul’s suffering. It is faith by which believers continue to live for the Lord even in the midst of horrible suffering (Rom. 1:17; 8:24-25; Gal. 2:20; Heb. 11:1, 6). 

8 Now we are confident but would rather be absent from the body but present with the Lord. 

While being in the body means ministry opportunities for Paul, he would much rather be present with Christ (cf. Phil. 1:21-24). The Bible testifies that when believers die, they go in their soul directly into the presence of the Lord (Luke 23:43; Rev. 6:8-11). Still, Paul recognizes that this state of affairs is not the ideal as being only a soul leaves believers “naked” (5:2). As one author has put it, state of a Christian moves from good, to better, to best. Christians are in a “good” place on earth, for they now have a relationship with God. Once a believer dies, they are in a better place, for they are now immune from suffering and in the presence of the Lord in their soul. And yet, the best is yet to come as they await the resurrection of their body and the reunion with the Lord on the new heavens and new earth (Rev. 21:1). 

9 Therefore, it is also our aim to be pleasing to him, whether present or absent. 

No matter what the circumstance is, Paul seeks to please God. The regular pattern of the Christian life is to live in such a way as to honor the Lord (Rom. 12:1-2; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:4; 4:1; Eph. 5:10; Phil. 1:20-21; Heb. 13:20-21). Jesus himself desires for his disciples to “bear much fruit, demonstrating that you are my disciples” (John 15:8). Yet, notice that Paul does not seek to please God in order to attain his heavenly hope. In fact, the opposite is true, because Paul has been redeemed by God and given hope, it is his aim to please God. 

10 For it is necessary for all of us to appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one will be repaid for the things of the body, for the things he did whether good or evil. Paul seeks to please the Lord because all of God’s people must appear before Christ on the last day. Of course, the Bible envisions a universal judgment on every single person where they will either be deemed saved or damned based upon their faith (or lack thereof) in Christ (Matt. 24:37-51; John 5:22-29). Yet, Paul probably has in a mind an “accountability judgement” of believers (“all of us”) (cf. 3:18). The bema, or judgment seat, was a place for tribunals and renderings of Christ. Paul seems to be echoing his earlier letter to the Corinthians where he speaks of God’s evaluation on the way ministry is conducted (1 Cor. 3:10-15; 4:5). Believers will receive rewards or censure for how they have lived their lives. This type of evaluative judgment does not call into question anyone’s salvation, but it does provide motivation for holy living.