2 Corinthians 5: The Earthly Tabernacle and Reconciliation

I was in the garage last Saturday, staring at a piece of walnut I had been saving for a year. It was a good piece, straight grain, no knots, about eight feet long. I had planned to make a dining table out of it. But every time I walked past it, I found a reason not to start. The wood was too nice, and I was going to mess it up. Better to wait until I was ready.

That piece of walnut sat in the corner for twelve months. It was a tent, not a house. A temporary holding pattern dressed up as permanence.

Paul opens 2 Corinthians 5 with a tent. Not a house, not a temple, not a palace. A tent. The Greek word is skēnos, and it means exactly what you think it means. You pitch it when you are passing through. It flaps in the wind and leaks when the rain comes. And you do not get too attached to it because you know you are going to take it down.

What Does Absent From the Body, Present With the Lord Mean

Here is what I keep coming back to. Paul says we groan in this tent. We groan because we are built for something more permanent. The tent is not the problem. The tent is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. It keeps us alive, it lets us move, it gives us a place to be while we are here. But it was never meant to be permanent.

Verse 8 is the one that stops me every time. "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." That is a remarkable claim. Paul is not saying he wants to die. He is saying that when the tent comes down, he knows where he will be. Present with the Lord, not a waiting room or a long sleep. Just present.

I have thought about this a lot since my father passed a few years ago. He was in a hospital bed, and I was sitting next to him, and I remember thinking that he looked smaller than he used to. The tent was wearing thin, and when he went it was not dramatic. He was there, and then he was not. But I have never believed he went nowhere.

The Meaning of the Earthly Tabernacle in 2 Corinthians 5

Paul uses two images side by side. The earthly tabernacle, which is the tent we live in now. And the building of God, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. He is not talking about a nicer tent. He is talking about a different category of thing entirely.

I think about this when I am working on a piece of furniture. A rough-cut board is not a bad thing, it has potential, but it is not the finished piece. You have to joint it, plane it, sand it, shape it, join it. The board goes through a lot before it becomes a table. And the table is not just a better board. It is something new.

Paul says the same thing about us. The tent is not the final product. The house is something else entirely, something God builds. "Not made with hands." That is the part I keep coming back to. I can build a table or a bookshelf, but I cannot build a house that lasts forever. That is His work.

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. (2 Corinthians 5:4)

How to Be an Ambassador for Christ in Daily Life

Verse 17 is one of those verses that sounds like poetry until you realize it is a job description. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

I read 2 Corinthians 3: Epistles of Christ and the Ministry of the Spirit a few weeks ago, and there is a line in there about how we are letters written not with ink but with the Spirit. That idea comes back here. If we are new creatures, then we are also ambassadors. An ambassador does not speak for themselves. They speak for the one who sent them.

Paul says God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is a big word for a simple thing. Reconciliation means bringing two people back together. In this case, it means God bringing us back to Himself through Christ. And then He turns around and hands that work to us. We are the ones who get to tell people that the door is open.

I do not think being an ambassador means you have to be loud about it. Most ambassadors I have read about spend their time in meetings, writing reports, building relationships. They do not stand on street corners. They show up and listen and represent, and that feels like something I can do. Show up at the neighbor's house when they need help with a fence. Listen to a coworker who is having a hard week. Represent something bigger than myself without making it about me.

The LDS View on the Ministry of Reconciliation

Verse 19 is the center of the chapter. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." That is the gospel in one sentence. God is not keeping score. He is not waiting for us to mess up so He can hold it against us. He is actively working to bring us back.

I read 2 Corinthians 1: The God of All Comfort in Affliction a while back, and Paul talks there about how the comfort we receive is meant to be passed on. The same thing is happening here. The reconciliation we receive is meant to be passed on. We are not the end of the line. We are the next link.

Verse 21 is the one that makes me put the book down and just sit for a minute. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Christ takes what we cannot carry, and we receive what we never earned. It is not fair. That is the point.

What It Means to Become a New Creature in Christ

I have been thinking about what it means to be a new creature. Not in the dramatic, road-to-Damascus sense. Most of us do not get a light from heaven. We get a slow, quiet process. Old things pass away, and new things come, but it happens one day at a time.

I see it in my kids, the way they learn to apologize, to share, to tell the truth even when it is hard. None of that happens overnight. It happens because someone keeps showing them what it looks like. That is what Christ does for us. He keeps showing us what the new creature looks like until we start to recognize ourselves in the reflection.

The tent is temporary. The house is permanent. But the work of becoming happens right here, in the tent, one day at a time. And that is the part that matters.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the earthly tabernacle in 2 Corinthians 5

Paul uses the word tabernacle to mean the mortal body. The Greek word skēnos means a tent, something temporary and portable, and Paul contrasts it with the permanent, eternal body we will receive in the resurrection, which he calls a building of God, a house not made with hands.

What does absent from the body, present with the Lord mean

Paul is expressing confidence that when the spirit leaves the mortal body at death, it enters the presence of the Lord. In LDS understanding, this refers to the spirit world, where the righteous are received into a state of rest and peace, awaiting the resurrection.

How can I be an ambassador for Christ in my daily life

Being an ambassador means representing Christ in your everyday interactions. It does not require a pulpit or a title. It means showing up honestly and helping where you can, living in a way that points people back to God. That is the small, consistent work of being someone others can trust.

What is the ministry of reconciliation

Reconciliation is the process of bringing two estranged parties back into harmony. In this context, God through Christ has removed the barrier of sin that separated humanity from Him. The ministry of reconciliation is the work He has given us of sharing that message and helping others find their way back.

What does it mean to be a new creature in Christ

It means that through faith in Christ and the process of repentance, a person is spiritually reborn. Old habits, old identities, old ways of seeing the world pass away. A new identity in Christ takes their place. The change is real even when it is quiet.

I put the walnut back on the rack after I finished reading. Not because I was still afraid to cut it. Because I realized I had been treating it like a tent. Something to save for later. But the whole point of the tent is that you live in it. You use it. You let it do what it was made for.

The house is coming. That is the promise. But the tent is where we are right now. And there is work to do here.

— D.