Hope in God
Jeremy didn’t realize what he was getting into when he arrived at the university for his three-year course and asked for the cheapest dorm room available. “It was awful,” he recounted. “The room and its bathroom were terrible.” But he had little money and little choice. “All I could do,” he said, “was think, I have a nice home to go back to in three years’ time, so I’ll stick with this and make the most of my time here.”
Jeremy’s story mirrors the everyday challenges of living in an “earthly tent”—a human body that will die (2 Corinthians 5:1), operating in a world that is passing away (1 John 2:17). Thus we “groan and are burdened” (2 Corinthians 5:4) as we struggle to cope with the many difficulties life throws at us.
What keeps us going is the certain hope that one day we’ll have an immortal, resurrected body—a “heavenly dwelling” (v. 4)—and be living in a world free of its present groaning and frustration (Romans 8:19-22). This hope enables us to make the most of this present life God has lovingly provided. He’ll also help us to use the resources and talents He’s given us, so we can serve Him and others. And that’s why “we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it” (2 Corinthians 5:9).
By Leslie Koh - Daily Bread Ministries
2 Corinthians 5:1–10 (NIV):
Awaiting the New Body
5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
