6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
Confidence in future resurrection gives the Christian fortitude under affliction (vv. 6-8). Paul drew this confidence from the previous verse, whereby the believer has the guarantee of the Holy Spirit.
6 So [therefore]
The “so” here gives an implication from verse 5. The groaning, bodyless soul here anticipates a resurrection body. Since God gave the Holy Spirit to believers as a down payment for a resurrected body, the gospel team could have confidence that He would do it.
we are always confident,
Christians can be confident because they are sealed with the Holy Spirit (2 Co 5:5). No matter what trial may come, the believer has assurance that he has an eternal bodily future. The word “always” suggests that in whatever situation the Christian finds himself, he is consistently confident. There is nothing about death that daunts the believer from the assurance of his future with God. Christian confidence rests on the resources that God provides.
knowing
This is the second time Paul used the word for “know.” Christians have the assurance that they have a future ahead based on something they know. The Greek tense indicates that it is something known in the past with continuing results in the present. Christians draw on what God has said and promised.
that while we are at home in the body
Life in the present body is not the end of all for the Christian. It is impossible to comprehend the fullness of resurrection life in the current body. When Christians die, they will be home with the Lord.
we are absent from the Lord.
As long as Christians live in their current physical bodies, they can know that it is only a matter of time until they are with the Lord. While physically alive, they are physically separated from the Lord. The idea is not that the Lord does not fellowship with believers in time (Jn 14:16-18). The Christian’s true home is with the Lord.
PRINCIPLE:
Believers are not their bodies; they are more than bodies.
APPLICATION:
Christians can face their future with confidence. Although the believer’s body goes into the grave at death, he is with the Lord instantaneously and momentarily. This puts trial, suffering, persecution in perspective.
Believers are not their bodies; they are more than their bodies. If people bury the body of a Christian, the person or soul is not buried. People bury the remains, the corpse. The body is simply the house in which the believer lives (1 Th 5:23; 2 Pe 1:14).
