"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Wednesday, 10 June 2009 | |||
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Gnosticism from Paul? This week's text is difficult as Paul
appears to express a desire to escape from this present embodied life,
seeking a life out of the body in heaven. Verse 8 in
II Corinthians 5:6-17 is often misquoted as "To be absent from
the body is to be present with the Lord." The misquotation
effectively equates a bodiless state with being in God's
presence. Yet what Paul is longing for is not bodilessness (he refers to such a state pejoratively as "nakedness" just before this in 5:3-4). It is just that, at present, short of the resurrection, becoming absent from the body is the only way to come completely into the presence of the Lord. But that does not at all imply the body is bad or merely a shell needing to be shucked off in order to obtain a more perfect spiritual existence. It's that, given the choice, to be at home in the body or to be at home with the Lord, Paul would prefer the latter. And so might we all. Paul derives confidence, expressed in both verse 6 and verse 8, from his assurance that even if forced to leave his body, to die, he will be in the presence of the Lord. In other words, the Christian has absolutely nothing to lose. If we live in the body, we live for the Lord and (v. 9) make it our goal to please Him. If we die and depart our bodies, we find ourselves in His presence. This leads ultimately to the conclusion in verses 16 and 17 that we are all becoming "new creations" in Christ. In some sense the newness is already here in the confidence we are given that, come what may, we will live in and with our Lord. I pray for that sort of confidence to fill my own heart in the days ahead. | |||
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Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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