Summary of 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5

Paul knows that if he loses his earthly house, his body, he has a building from God, an eternal dwelling, not made by hands, in the heavens. He says he groans, wishing that that heavenly dwelling could be put on on top of the earthly dwelling, the body, so he would not lack clothes at any time, never be naked.

While he is in this tent, this body, he groans and is burdened. He does not like to take off that clothing, that body, but would like to put the new on on top of the old, so that the mortal might be swallowed up in life.

It is God who prepares us for this very thing. He has given us the Spirit as the pledge.

So, in confidence, since he knows that while he is in the body he is away from the Lord -- for we all walk in faith, without seeing -- he gets up his confidence, and decides he would prefer to be away from the body and to be with the Lord. Therefore he is eager no matter where he is, to be pleasing to the Lord. For everyone must appear before the tribunal of Christ, so as to receive what is due for what he/she has done through the body -- good or evil. So, in fear of the Lord, he tries to convince men -- but God knows him fully. He hopes the Corinthians in their consciences know him too. This does not mean he is again trying to present his credentials to them. Rather, he is giving them an opening to make a defense against the claims and boasts of the opponents, who claim outward things, not things of the heart.

So, whether or not he is beside himself, it is all for God, and if he is in his right mind, it is for them. His love for Christ drives him on, for he knows that since one died for all, therefore all have died. Christ died for all so that the living might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose.

From this time on Paul will not look on anyone in a merely human way, according to what is exterior. Even if he once thought of Christ in that way -- he now no longer looks upon Him in a human way. All who now are in Christ are a new creation -- the old way has passed -- everything has become new.

But all things are from God, who reconciles us to Himself through Christ, and gave to Paul the ministry of reconciliation: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, and not holding their transgressions against them, giving to Paul the word of reconciliation. So Paul is a legate on behalf of Christ, and God is giving exhortation through Paul. Hence he begs them on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.

God even made Him who did not know sin to be sin, for us, so we could become the righteousness of God in Him.

Comments on Chapter 5

In a very human way, Paul expresses more than once his desire: He wishes he could have a glorious transformation without dying, so as to have the transformed body he spoke of in First Corinthians 15:42-54 put on on top of his present body.

Of course, he knows this is not possible, and so he says he gets up his nerve, as it were, and would like to be away from the body so as to be with Christ.

Even now, he says, we have the Spirit as the pledge of the vision of God in the next life -- we saw this earlier in 2 Corinthians 1:22.

This is of course the same sort of thought we saw in Philippians 1:21-26 where he could not decide if he wanted to live or to die -- to live is a chance to work for Christ; to die would mean to be with Christ. In our comments on that passage we reviewed the several strange proposals put forth by commentators, with or without an attempted base in Jewish thought. Similarly in this passage, some think Paul speaks of a resurrection body, which he would have before dying. But our answer now is the same as it was in Philippians. We add that when Paul does speak of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 he knows that the transformation of the body does not take place at once after death, but at the end of time. Also Second Timothy 2:17-18 complains against some who thought the resurrection had already taken place.

Commentators are really strangely dull: it is admitted that the Pharisees of Paul's day knew of an intermediate state, between death and resurrection, without a body. Paul beyond doubt was a Pharisee before his conversion. So there is no need to try to force his thought into a strange mold, different from what the Pharisees held.

As a natural result of this desire, Paul says he should try to please the Lord, for we all must appear before Him for judgment, and receive our due.

The thought returns that he is fully known to Christ -- he wishes he were so well understood by the Corinthians. But even so, he is not going to present credentials again. Rather, he tells what qualifications he has as a countermeasure to the false boasting of his opponents. He will rehearse these outward credentials later in 11:22-12:10.

Then it seems some have charged him with being beside himself -- the Greek exestemen can have that meaning, though it can also mean to be in ecstasy. Paul says no matter what, he works for God, and for their sakes. For His love for Christ drives him on.

Since Christ died, and we are members of Christ's Mystical Body, His death is beneficial to us, as if we had died. Christ died so that the living may live for Him, and not for themselves.

At one time Paul looked upon Christ in a merely human way, looking at externals -- this would have been before his conversion, whether or not he had seen Jesus before His death: probably he had not seen Him then. But now he no longer looks at externals, but at the interior.

So anyone who is now a member of Christ is remade, is a new creation (we recall 4:6 above). The old things are gone, all is new. (Again, this hardly fits with Luther's idea of total corruption).

Everything comes from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave Paul the mission of promoting the carrying out of this reconciliation. Paul is a legate for Christ; God exhorts through him.

Even though Christ was sinless, God made Him to bear the sins of all. God "made Christ to be sin" in the sense that He caused Him to bear the weight of all our sins. He overcame sin, and became instead righteousness: we as His members are also made righteous. Paul's astoundingly bold language here is much like what we saw him write in Galatians 3:13 where he said Christ because a curse for us. Please review the comments on that passage.