◄ 2 Corinthians 5 Devotional Commentary ►
2 Corinthians 5:1
The beginning of 2 Corinthians chapter 5, is closely linked with earlier chapters where we are encouraged not to lose heart because of the inevitable suffering and pain we all experience in our fallen, dying bodies. We may be living in an earthen vessel, a frail and deteriorating human frame, but as believers, we have the indwelling Spirit of the eternal God in our heart and have received absolute assurance of our secure, heavenly destination.
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2 Corinthians 5:2
Paul was a tentmaker who supplied portable shelters to the many nomads and travellers living in Israel. He used the picture of a tent as an illustration of a human body. A tent is a portable home in which pilgrims and wayfarers shelter. It is not a permanent residence, and Paul compared this deteriorating, mortal body in which dwells our eternal spirit and soul, with a temporary, transitory tent that is taken down, or 'dissolved' at death.
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2 Corinthians 5:3
Because there are many anomalies in the Christian faith, Paul often sets out the truth of our great salvation and the glory that is ours in Christ, in a very systematic way. For instance, he points out that the suffering we undergo for Christ's sake, brings with it great reward and equips us for the ministry of comfort, in that when we are weak in ourselves we are strong in the Lord, but when we are proud of our self-sufficiency, we will suffer a tremendous read more...
2 Corinthians 5:4
Paul used Christ's own death and resurrection to lay the foundation for a very important teaching about our future... that a day is coming when all Christians will be clothed in a new, resurrected body - after we have travelled through the portal of death. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the power of God, so too the believer-in-Christ will be raised into newness of life, through the same wonder-working power of the almighty God.
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2 Corinthians 5:5
So much of Paul's ministry to the Church is reminding us of our eternal inheritance and our heavenly citizenship. Although we have no tangible evidence of our future hope, nevertheless we accept it by faith because God has spoken in His Word, and God is faithful to His Word for God has even set His Word above His holy name.
We may have no tangible proof of our home in heaven, but faith is the evidence of unseen and invisible read more...
2 Corinthians 5:6
God breathed the breath of life into man, and Adam became a living being. Life is one of the most precious things we have in this world. We desire long life, a good and challenging life, a fulfilled and happy life. There is much research into extending life and combating death, for God has set eternity in the heart of man.
But there is much intrigue into what happens after death, for death is that looming shadow on the horizon of read more...
2 Corinthians 5:7
Justification, like sanctification, is a gift of grace. The former is God's gift of grace to the unsaved sinner, and the latter is God's gift of grace to the saved saint. Both are accessed by faith, as demonstrated throughout Scripture.
It was the constraining love of Christ that motivated Paul to proclaim the gospel of God and present the glory of the Christian faith to the people of his day. Paul needed these believers to read more...
2 Corinthians 5:10
Having given the Corinthians Christians additional insight into the glories of the new body that awaits every Church-age believer at the resurrection / rapture of the Body of Christ, Paul reminds us that following this event, each one of us will also stand before the judgement seat of Christ. All those who are saved by grace through faith, during the dispensation of grace, will appear before Christ's judgement seat.
We will not be read more...
2 Corinthians 5:10
Paul was reminding the carnal Christians at Corinth to stop behaving like worldly unbelievers and to start living as children of God. They had been saved by grace through faith, and ought to be living godly lives; lives surrendered to the Spirit rather than lives living in the lusts of the flesh.
The reason we are given this reminder in God's Word is because all Church-age believers must appear before the judgement seat of Christ read more...
2 Corinthians 5:14
The Cross of Christ most certainly paid the price for the sin of the whole world so that whosoever will may come. None are excluded from the forgiveness that flowed from the veins of the Messiah, which paid the price for all sin. None are excluded from this gift of God's grace. The only reason that some are condemned is through their own unbelief. They are condemned because they have not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.
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2 Corinthians 5:15
Christ died for ALL. No one is excluded for all have sinned and so all need a Saviour, but sadly not all will choose to accept God's free gift of salvation. Not all will make that specific response to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." The price for all the sins of the whole world collectively, which includes all the accumulated sin of every individual man and woman, was forgiven at Calvary. The only response required by God to be saved unto read more...
2 Corinthians 5:16
The God of the universe, with all His divine attributes and entitlements, became the man Christ Jesus. God incarnate was born into the fallen race of man. The Creator of the universe came from heaven to earth in human flesh.
The almighty everlasting Word, willingly became flesh and dwelt amongst us, and humbly and obediently carried out the word and will of the Father in every area of His life, even to death on the Cross.
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2 Corinthians 5:17
Having outlined the frailty of man's flesh and the mysterious glory of Christ's cross, Paul reaches his climactic conclusion, that anyone, who is in union with Christ, by believing His finished work on Calvary paid the price for their sins, has been made a new creation. Trusting that Christ's death burial, and resurrection is the core of the glorious gospel... "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away; behold, read more...
2 Corinthians 5:18
There is a great truth that threads its way through Scripture - that all things are of God, and from God, and for God, and culminate in God Who returned us into close relationship with Himself, through Christ. This is a subject that is close to the heart of Paul and a theme that can be seen flowing through all of his writings.
All things are made by Him, directed by Him, and held together by Him, whether it be the old cursed read more...
2 Corinthians 5:19
The Lord Jesus Christ was fully human - yet He was born without sin. He came into this world without a sin nature for He was Son of the most high God. The Lord Jesus was fully God for He was the Word made flesh Who was with the Father from all eternity. In the beginning, He was with God and from the beginning, He was God.
The Lord Jesus was truly God, but He was also fully Man. Indeed, if He had not been a member of the read more...
2 Corinthians 5:20
Because of our sin and rebellion against God, man has become an arrogant enemy of the most holy Creator, but through the death of Christ alone Whose sinless blood was poured out to pay the full price for our sins, we can be reconciled to God and returned into full fellowship with Him, simply by trusting Christ as Saviour and Lord.
The righteousness of a holy God is incompatible with the unrighteousness of sinful man, for there is read more...
2 Corinthians 5:21
Jesus is the personification of love, and the message of the Cross is written in His blood. Christ's sacrificial death at Calvary is the greatest demonstration of the love of God for mankind, for God demonstrated His deep love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. The Son of God was made sin for us and the great design of the gospel of grace is full and free reconciliation; unconditional peace with God.
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