2 Corinthians 5
Earthly Tent, Heavenly Home 1–5
Walking by Faith, Not by Sight 6–10
Motivation for Ministry 11–15
The New Creation and Reconciliation 16–21
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for 2 Corinthians 5
Verse 1
an house not made with hands — The body is a skenos, a tent, which the KJV renders ‘tabernacle’ (the word occurs only here and in v.4); against it stands a ‘building’ (oikodome) from God. ‘Not made with hands’ (acheiropoietos) is the word of Mark 14:58, ‘made without hands’, and of Col 2:11.
Verse 4
swallowed up of life — Stenazo, to groan, is the verb of v.2 and of Rom 8:23, ‘even we ourselves groan within ourselves’. The wish is not to be ‘unclothed’ but ‘clothed upon’ (ependuomai), the new put on over the old, so that ‘mortality’ (thnetos) is taken up into life. Isaiah foretold it: ‘He will swallow up death in victory’ (Isa 25:8).
Verse 5
the earnest of the Spirit — Arrabon, a word of Hebrew origin for a pledge: the first part of a payment that binds the whole. It occurs only three times, here, in 2 Cor 1:22 and in Eph 1:14, each time of the Spirit. Ephesians says what it secures: ‘the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.’
Verse 6
at home in the body — Two verbs built on demos, a people or country: endemeo, to be at home, and ekdemeo, to be away from home. Each occurs only in vv.6, 8 and 9. While at home in the body the believer is ‘absent from the Lord’; ‘confident’ (tharrheo) is the courage that v.8 repeats.
Verse 7
by faith, not by sight — The parenthesis explains v.6. Eidos is outward form or appearance, not the act of seeing. What is unseen is the eternal: ‘While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen’ (2 Cor 4:18); faith is ‘the evidence of things not seen’ (Heb 11:1).
Verse 8
present with the Lord — Endemeo and ekdemeo again, now reversed: to leave the body is to be at home with the Lord. Paul voices the same preference in Phil 1:23, ‘a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.’ ‘Willing’ is eudokeo, to be well pleased.
Verse 10
the judgment seat of Christ — Bema, a magistrate’s raised seat: Pilate sat ‘in the judgment seat’ (John 19:13) and Gallio’s was the one Paul was brought to (Acts 18:12). Rom 14:10 has the same phrase. ‘Appear’ is phaneroo, to be made manifest, the verb of v.11; the matter judged is ‘the things done in his body’, ‘good or bad’ (cf. Eccl 12:14).
Verse 11
the terror of the Lord — ‘Terror’ is phobos, fear, and rests on the judgment of v.10. ‘We persuade’ (peitho) men, while openly ‘made manifest’ (phaneroo, as in v.10) to God and to their consciences. Heb 10:31 states the same awe: ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’
Verse 12
in appearance, and not in heart — Prosopon, the face or outward show, against kardia, the heart. It is the standard of 1 Sam 16:7: ‘man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.’ To ‘commend’ (sunistano) himself again is what Paul declines (cf. 2 Cor 3:1; 10:18), giving the Corinthians ground to answer boasters.
Verse 13
beside ourselves — Existemi, to be put out of one’s wits, is the verb of ‘He is beside himself’ (Mark 3:21), said of Christ by his friends; Paul too heard ‘thou art beside thyself’ from Festus (Acts 26:24). His ecstasy is ‘to God’; his sophroneo, soundness of mind, is ‘for your cause’.
Verse 14
the love of Christ constraineth us — Sunecho is to hold in, press on every side: the crowd ‘throng’ Christ (Luke 8:45), and he himself is ‘straitened’ until his baptism is accomplished (Luke 12:50). What presses Paul is Christ’s love in dying ‘for all’ (huper, on behalf of); cf. Gal 2:20, ‘who loved me, and gave himself for me.’
Verse 15
unto him which died for them, and rose again — The aim of the death is a change of direction: not ‘unto themselves’ but unto him. Paul puts it the same way in Rom 14:7–9: ‘none of us liveth to himself’, and Christ ‘both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.’
Verse 16
after the flesh — The verse has two verbs of knowing: eido in ‘know we no man’, ginosko in ‘we have known Christ’. ‘After the flesh’ (kata sarka) is by outward standing; Paul gave up such standards: ‘what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ’ (Phil 3:7). Christ is now known as the one who ‘rose again’ (v.15).
Verse 17
a new creature — ‘Creature’ is ktisis, a creation, and ‘new’ is kainos, new in freshness. Paul has the phrase in Gal 6:15: ‘neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.’ ‘Old things’ (archaia) are ‘passed away’, as Isa 43:19 promises: ‘Behold, I will do a new thing.’
Verse 18
the ministry of reconciliation — Katallasso and katallage occur only in Rom 5:10–11, Rom 11:15, 1 Cor 7:11 and here in vv.18–20. ‘All things are of God’: he reconciled ‘us to himself by Jesus Christ’ (cf. Rom 5:10, ‘reconciled to God by the death of his Son’), and gave ‘the ministry’ (diakonia, service) of it.
Verse 19
not imputing their trespasses — Logizomai, to reckon to an account, is the verb of Rom 4:8, ‘Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.’ ‘Trespasses’ are paraptomata, falls or lapses. God acted in Christ himself, ‘God was in Christ’, and the ‘word’ (logos) of it was committed to the apostles (cf. Isa 43:25).
Verse 20
ambassadors for Christ — Presbeuo, to act as a representative, occurs only here and in Eph 6:20, ‘I am an ambassador in bonds’. ‘Beseech’ (parakaleo) and ‘pray’ (deomai) are the envoy’s appeal, made ‘in Christ’s stead’: the message is God’s own entreaty, ‘be ye reconciled to God.’
Verse 21
who knew no sin — Hamartia is used twice: Christ ‘knew no sin’ (ginosko, by experience), and was made ‘sin for us’ (huper, on behalf of). His sinlessness is stated elsewhere: ‘Who did no sin’ (1 Pet 2:22); ‘yet without sin’ (Heb 4:15). The exchange is that ‘we might be made the righteousness of God in him’ (cf. Rom 5:19).