These words were also referred to in the question, and they fit so naturally with the text considered in the preceding article that we will give them a brief study in the same connection. As is always the case, the misunderstanding of them arises from not giving thought to the connection in which they stand. Let us avoid the mistake, and come to an understanding of the words, by reading what goes with them. "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that has wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him." (2 Corinthians 5:1-9)
It is impossible fully to grasp the force of these words, and of the entire chapter in which they stand, without a study of the two preceding chapters; for this we have not time at present. Our work now is more negative, to show what they do not teach; some other time we shall make a study of the grand truth, the statement which begins in the second chapter, and continues without a break in the sixth.
You will see that in the verses quoted three states are presented, namely,
a) Clothed,
b) Unclothed [or Naked], and
c) Clothed Upon.
These are three different conditions, and one of them is so plainly defined that from that we can know the meaning of the other two.
Clothed Upon: Mortality Swallowed Up of Life
In verse four we have learned that "clothed upon," is identical with "mortality swallowed up of life." (2 Corinthians 5:4)
This is called being "clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." (2 Corinthians 5:2)
Therefore our "building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," (2 Corinthians 5:1) is the state of immortality, incorruptibility. When is it that "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality?" (1 Corinthians 15:53)
It is "at the last trump," when "the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ... Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Corinthians 15:52,54)
Thus we see that here, as in the first chapter of Philippians, the Apostle Paul talks of the coming of the Lord as the thing to be desired above all others.
Since being clothed upon with the house which is from heaven is the swallowing up of mortality by life, it is evident that "our earthly house of this tabernacle" (2 Corinthians 5:1) is mortality, our present mortal state. In it we groan, being burdened, for the whole creation groans under the weight of the curse; (Romans 8:22) and although "Christ has redeemed us from the curse," (Galatians 3:13) we still have to bear the burden of mortality; the flesh is not redeemed, but power is given us over it, until Christ shall come and exchange our fleshly bodies for spiritual bodies. (Read 1 Corinthians 15:35-46)
Unclothed: The State of Death
What then is the state of being "unclothed," (2 Corinthians 5:4) "found naked," (2 Corinthians 5:3) a condition which the Apostle Paul did not desire? Evidently it is death. He wished to be released from the burden of this present earthly tabernacle,--this mortal body, but only that he might immediately "be clothed upon" (2 Corinthians 5:2) with the heavenly house, "that mortality might be swallowed up of life." (2 Corinthians 5:4)
He did not wish for any waiting in the grave, and no healthy mind can long for that place. In this mortal state we are absent from the Lord, because: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherent incorruption." (1 Corinthians 15:50)
If we were "absent from the body," (2 Corinthians 5:8) we should also be absent from the Lord, unless we were "clothed upon;" for death is corruption, and the seeming triumph of it. What the apostle desired, therefore, was to be "absent from the body," (2 Corinthians 5:8) but only in such a way as to be "present with the Lord," (2 Corinthians 5:8) that is, to have mortality immediately ... "swallowed up of life." (2 Corinthians 5:4)
Made for Immortality
One thing more, in order that we may not, by this partly negative treatment of the text, lose the whole of the blessedness of it. "He that has wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also has given us the earnest of the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 5:5)
What is the selfsame thing for which God has wrought us? The words immediately preceding show that it is "that mortality might be swallowed up of life." (2 Corinthians 5:4)
That is, God has made us for immortality, and He has given us the assurance of it in the gift of His Spirit, by which even now the lusts and infirmities of mortal flesh are controlled. In this we are confident, and so we give ourselves to the one end, namely, that, "whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him," (2 Corinthians 5:9) that is, that whether we live or die, we may be the Lord's. (Romans 14:8)--Present Truth, March 21, 1901.