Absent from the Body and Present with the Lord 2 Corinthians 5:8

Paul the apostle told the Corinthian church members, “we walk by faith, and not by sight” as he referred to being “clothed with a heavenly body” after he died, and in chapter five and verse eight of Second Corinthians, Paul told the church members how he and his companions desired to be, “absent from the body” and “present with the Lord” where we read:

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

The verse begins, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, ...” Paul began with the words, “we are confident” which means “Paul and his companions were bold, of good courage and cheer”, “I say” or “Paul and his companions uttered, proclaimed and declared”, “and willing rather” or “have thought it good, chosen, determined and decided” “to be absent” which means “gone abroad, emigrated and departed” “from the body” or “away and out of the living corpse”. Paul and his companions were of good “courage and cheer” and “determined” that it would be good to be “away from the body”.

The verse goes on to say, “...and to be present with the Lord.” Paul added the words, “and to be present” which means “among one's own people, dwell in one's own country, stay at home” “with the Lord” which refers to “he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master and the title given to God the Messiah”. Paul and his companions desired to be with Jesus.

When we consider these words of Paul, we see how he and his companions wanted to be “away from or out of their own earthly bodies” and in their “heavenly bodies with Jesus”. This is the desire of anyone who knows Jesus as their personal “Savior and Lord”, and when people “believe and trust” in Him, they too shall desire to be “away from their earthly tents” and “present with the Lord”.

Next time Paul shares with the church members how he and his companions, “labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then,

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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