Read & explore together
Our Eternal Dwelling
In this part of the letter, the writer uses the picture of a tent and a building to teach about mortal life, future life with God, and how that hope shapes life now.
Understanding the passage
The setting of these words
These verses are teaching within a letter. The writer speaks as "we" about present groaning, God’s gift of the Spirit, confidence while in the body and absent from the Lord, walking by faith, and appearing before Christ’s judgement seat.
2 Corinthians 5:1–10Main takeaway
This passage joins future hope from God with a present aim to live by faith in a way that pleases the Lord.
Follow the letter’s teaching
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A tent now, a building from GodThe writer contrasts the present body with an "earthly house of our tent" and a future "building from God".
Explanation
The writer contrasts the present body with an "earthly house of our tent" and a future "building from God". A tent suggests something temporary. The future dwelling is "not made with hands", "eternal", and "in the heavens". The emphasis is on what God provides.
02Groaning and longing for lifeThe passage says "we groan" and are "burdened". Yet the desire is not simply to be "unclothed".
Explanation
The passage says "we groan" and are "burdened". Yet the desire is not simply to be "unclothed". The writer longs to be "clothed" with the heavenly habitation, so that "what is mortal may be swallowed up by life". The direction is towards life, not away from it.
03God gives assurance for this hopeThis hope rests on God’s action. He "made us for this very thing" and gave "the down payment of the Spirit".
Explanation
This hope rests on God’s action. He "made us for this very thing" and gave "the down payment of the Spirit". The Spirit is described as a present gift from God connected to the future he has prepared. Confidence begins with God’s work.
04Faith now, accountability before ChristWhile "at home in the body", believers are "absent from the Lord", so "we walk by faith, not by sight".
Explanation
While "at home in the body", believers are "absent from the Lord", so "we walk by faith, not by sight". The writer would rather be "at home with the Lord", and therefore aims to be "well pleasing to him". That aim matters because all will appear before Christ’s judgement seat.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What does the contrast between a tent and a building from God show about present life and future hope?
Compare the "earthly house of our tent" with "a building from God", "eternal", and "in the heavens".
02According to these verses, what change is the writer longing for?
Notice the repeated words "clothed" and "unclothed", and the phrase "what is mortal may be swallowed up by life".
03How do faith, pleasing the Lord, and judgement connect here?
Follow the passage from "walk by faith" to "make it our aim" and then to "the judgment seat of Christ".
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
2 Corinthians 5:1–10
1For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.
2For most certainly in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
3if indeed being clothed, we will not be found naked.
4For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened, not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5Now he who made us for this very thing is God, who also gave to us the down payment of the Spirit.
6Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;
7for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8We are courageous, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
9Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him.
10For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.