2 Corinthians 5:1

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 2 Corinthians 5:1

"For" (NASB) or "Now" (NIV, Gr. gar) continues the contrast between things presently seen and things not yet seen (2 Corinthians 4:18). Here Paul contrasted our present and future bodies."The ’clothed upon’ and ’swallowed up by life’ imagery (2 Corinthians 5:2-4), when read alongside 1 Corinthians 15:53-54, leaves little doubt that this ’house’ is the individual’s resurrection body." [Note: Barnett, pp. 257-58. Cf. Keener, p. 179.] As a tentmaker, Paul compared the human body to a tent. Jesus... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

The contrast between our present and our future dwellings 5:1-10Paul continued to give reasons why we need not lose heart. The themes of life in the midst of death and glory following as a result of present suffering also continue."Few chapter divisions are more unfortunate than this one since what follows (2 Corinthians 5:1-10) details the thought expressed in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Failure to appreciate this fact unduly complicates these already difficult verses by removing their contextual... read more

John Darby

Darby's Synopsis of the New Testament - 2 Corinthians 5:1

5:1 house (e-9) 'Tabernacle' is characteristic. read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - 2 Corinthians 5:1-21

The subject of 2 Corinthians 4 is continued. St. Paul has been pointing out that amid bodily weakness and decay he is encouraged by the thought that the temporal is transient, while the spiritual is eternal. He now goes on to speak more particularly of the great prospect that sustains him—the replacement of the earthly material body by an eternal heavenly one. He hopes to survive till Christ’s coming, and receive the heavenly body without passing through the experience of death: but, if it... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 2 Corinthians 5:1

V.(1) For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved.—Better, be broken up, as more in harmony with the image of the tent. The words that follow give the secret of his calmness and courage in the midst of sufferings. He looks beyond them. A new train of imagery begins to rise in his mind: linked, perhaps, to that of the preceding chapter by the idea of the tabernacle; in part, perhaps, suggested by his own occupation as a tentmaker. His daily work was to him as a... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - 2 Corinthians 5:1-21

2 Corinthians 5:10 Carts go along the streets; full of stript human corpses, thrown pell-mell; limbs sticking up: seest thou that cold Hand sticking up, through the heaped embrace of brother corpses, in its yellow paleness, in its cold rigour; the palm opened towards Heaven, as if in dumb prayer, in expostulation de profundis , take pity on the Sons of men! Mercier saw it, as he walked down 'the Rue Saint-Jacques from Mont-rouge, on the morrow of the Massacres': but not a Hand; it was a Foot,... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Chapter 13THE CHRISTIAN HOPE.2 Corinthians 5:1-10 (R.V)THAT outlook on the future, which at the close of 2 Corinthians 4:1-18. is presented in the most general terms, is here carried out by the Apostle into more definite detail. The passage is one of the most difficult in his writings, and has received the most various interpretations; yet the first impression it leaves on a simple reader is probably as near the truth as the subtlest ingenuity of exegesis. It is indeed to such first impressions... read more

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - 2 Corinthians 5:1-21

6. Concerning the Future. The Ministry of Reconciliation. CHAPTER 5 1. The Earthly and the Heavenly House. (2 Corinthians 5:1-8 .) 2. The Judgment Seat of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:9-12 .) 3. The Constraint of Love. (2 Corinthians 5:13-16 .) 4. The Ministry of Reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 .) The certainty of the future things is brought more fully in view. The apostle had given the great doctrines concerning the resurrection of the body, the coming of the Lord and the blessed... read more

John Calvin

Geneva Study Bible - 2 Corinthians 5:1

5:1 For {1} we know that if our earthly house of [this] tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.(1) Taking occasion by the former comparison, he compares this miserable body as it is in this life, to a frail and brittle tabernacle. And contrasts this with the heavenly tabernacle, which he calls that sure and everlasting condition of this same body glorified in heaven. And this is so, he says, in that we are addicted to this... read more

L.M. Grant

L. M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible - 2 Corinthians 5:1-21

Unquestioned certainty as to the future, and present confidence of faith are seen here further developed. "We know" is the proper language of Christianity. "The earthly house of this tabernacle" is of course what is called the "earthen vessel" and "outward man" in chapter 4: that is, our physical body as it is today. There is no cause for alarm if it is dissolved, for it is only intended to be temporary. In fact, it is said (though we are not in present possession of it) that "We have a... read more

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