5/26/2008

The Apostle Paul's Thoughts About the "Spirit"

We try to understand the apostles' minds because their thoughts were established by Jesus' teachings. The apostles understood that our flesh is merely the house of our spirit.

2 Cor. 5:1 『Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed [if our flesh dies], we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.』

Our spirit lives in a temporary earthly tent?our flesh?now, but it will live in an eternal house that God has built for us.

2 Cor. 5:6 『Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord....We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.』

In this letter, the Apostle Paul says that the Lord [Jesus] dwells in the world of spirit and that we dwell in the world of flesh. Thus we are away from the Lord as long as we are in the body. The Apostle Paul also reveals that he, and the rest of the saints, would prefer to be away from their bodies and at home with the Lord.
In the above verses, what is the entity that dwells in the body and then leaves the body? Paul's spirit, the very essence of Paul, is the one who wants to leave the body. The body he wore was not the essence of his life, but instead, Paul's spirit?dwelling within his body?was his true self. To say it again, the Apostle Paul lived not for the temporary life in his earthly tent [his flesh], but he longed for the life that he would live in the eternal house. God would give him this everlasting home only after his spirit left its earthly tent.


(continuation)

1 comment:

Elice said...

Amen! God made man with combining two elements, body and spirit. Apostle Paul explained the body as the tent. Body is like clothes of spirit.
The Bible testifies that Our spirit was with God in heaven. Then, by commiting a grave sin against God, our spirit expelled from heaven and came to the earth.
And when we came to the earth, our spirit wear clothes of sinner-body.
Therefore apostle Paul testified
" if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed[if our flesh dies]".