ACC ~ 2 Corinthians 5 v1 - 5

OVERVIEW:

Once this body, our earthly home (AMBROSIASTER), is left behind, the soul will enter the heavenly realm (CHRYSOSTOM). It will receive its body back, transformed into a heavenly body (DIDYMUS THE BLIND). We do not look toward being delivered from a body but only from the corruption that is in it. Some will rise to honor and others to dishonor (CHRYSOSTOM, DIDYMUS THE BLIND, SEVERIAN OF GABALA). Our groanings are like those of a woman in labor, awaiting a new birth (PELAGIUS). Since God the Creator foresaw the sin of Adam, he prepared a remedy for it (CHRYSOSTOM, THEODORET OF CYR). God has given us the Spirit as a guarantee so that we might know that he will not allow the temple of his Spirit to perish (AMBROSIASTER, PELAGIUS).

5:1 | A Building from God

OUR PRESENT BODY. AMBROSIASTER: Our present body is our earthly home. Our resurrection body is our heavenly one. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Paul is talking here about two different worlds. One is the earthly, made with hands and visible. The other is invisible, made without hands and heavenly. On earth, our soul is clothed in flesh and blood, which is the visible and organic body. But once this body is left behind, the soul will move to the heavenly realm, where it will receive its body back, but one that has been transformed into a heavenly body. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

NOT MADE WITH HANDS. CHRYSOSTOM: Once again, Paul is alluding to the resurrection, which many of the Corinthians did not understand or accept. The earthly tent is our body. Admittedly, it was not made with hands, but Paul is simply comparing it with the houses we live in. He was not trying to make an exact contrast between the earthly and the heavenly but rather to exalt the latter in every possible way. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 10.1.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE BODY. ORIGEN: In regard to our bodily nature we must understand that there is not one body which we now use in lowliness and corruption and weakness and a different one which we are to use hereafter in incorruption and power and glory, but that this same body, having cast off the weaknesses of its present existence, will be transformed into a thing of glory and made spiritual. The result is that what was a vessel of dishonor shall itself be purified and become a vessel of honor and a habitation of blessedness. And we must believe that our body remains in this condition forever unchangeably by the will of the Creator. We are made certain of this fact by the statement of the apostle Paul in which he says, “We have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.6.

THE PROMISE OF AN IMMORTAL BODY. AUGUSTINE: Should anyone say that the cause of vices and evil habits lies in the flesh because when the soul is influenced by the flesh it lives in such a manner, he cannot have sufficiently considered human nature as a whole. … But notice that the apostle who, in discussing the corruptible body, had used the words “even though our outer man is decaying,” goes on, a little further, to declare: “For we know that if the earthly house in which we dwell be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made by human hands, eternal in the heavens.” … On the one hand, our corruptible body may be a burden on our soul; on the other hand, the cause of this encumbrance is not in the nature and substance of the body. Therefore, aware as we are of its corruption, we do not desire to be divested of the body but rather to be clothed with its immortality. In immortal life we shall have a body, but it will no longer be a burden since it will no longer be corruptible. CITY OF GOD 14.3.

5:2 | Our Heavenly Dwelling

WE GROAN NOW. CHRYSOSTOM: The heavenly dwelling is the incorruptible body which we shall put on in the resurrection. We are groaning now because what is to come is far better than what we now have. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 10.2.

AS IN LABOR. PELAGIUS: Our groanings are like those of a woman in labor, awaiting a new birth. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 5.

A TRANSFORMED BODY. THEODORET OF CYR: The heavenly body is not some different one but the one we have now, which will be transformed. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 313.

5:3 | Putting On the New Body

NOT FOUND NAKED. AMBROSIASTER: People are earnest in their prayers that they should not be excluded from the glory which is promised. This is what being found naked means. For when the soul is clothed in a body, it must also be clothed with the glory by which it is transformed into brightness. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CLOTHING THE INNER PERSON. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: The unbeliever and the evil man, even if by chance he puts on a heavenly body, will still be found naked, because he has done nothing to acquire the clothing of the inner man. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

INCORRUPTIBLE. CHRYSOSTOM: When we discard our present body, we shall receive in heaven the same body in an incorruptible form. It is however possible to be clothed in this body and yet still be found naked, that is, without glory or security. The resurrection is common to all, but the glory is not. Some will rise to honor and others to dishonor, some to a kingdom and others to punishment. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 10.2.

IMMORTAL. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: Everyone, righteous and unrighteous alike, will put on immortality. But if the latter are consigned to hell, that is the same thing as being found naked. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

5:4 | Mortality Swallowed by Life

WE SIGH WITH ANXIETY. AMBROSIASTER: Paul is saying here that we are oppressed by bodily sufferings and death. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

TAKING AWAY CORRUPTION. CHRYSOSTOM: We do not want to be delivered from the body but only from the corruption which is in it. Our body is a burden to us, not because it is a body but because it is corruptible and liable to suffering. But when the new life comes, it will take away this corruption—the corruption, I say, not the body itself. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 10.3.

5:5 | The Spirit as a Guarantee

THE AGENT OF OUR ADOPTION. AMBROSIASTER: The Spirit is our guarantee because he is the agent of our adoption. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

A GUARANTEE. PELAGIUS: God has given us the Spirit as a guarantee so that we might know that he will not allow the temple of his Spirit to perish. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 5.

PREPARED FROM CREATION. CHRYSOSTOM: Here Paul shows that these things were prepared from the beginning. It is not now that they have been decreed but from the moment of creation, when he fashioned Adam. God did not create the first man in order that he should die but in order to make him immortal. To prove this, Paul adds that we have been given the Spirit as a guarantee. God is presented as having made a commitment to us to fulfill his promises. Paul does this in order to make what he says more credible to those less attentive. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 10.3.

A REMEDY FORESEEN. THEODORET OF CYR: Since God the Creator foresaw the sin of Adam, he prepared a remedy for it. For he himself has given us the first fruits of the Spirit, so that by the miracles which the Spirit does in our midst we may be reassured that the promises of future glory are true. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 314.

CLARITY FROM THE SPIRIT. AUGUSTINE: However, now we see obscurely but then face to face; now we see partially but then completely. But the present ability to see in the Scriptures obscurely and partially something which, nonetheless, is in accord with Catholic faith is the work of the pledge which was received by the virgin church at her bridegroom’s lowly coming. She will be wed at his final coming when he will come in glory and when she will then behold face to face, for he has given to us a pledge which is the Holy Spirit, as the apostle says. QUESTIONS 59.4.

THE PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT TIME. AUGUSTINE: For this period in God’s plan, in which the Lord has deigned to appear in time and visibly as a man and has given to us as a pledge the Holy Spirit, by whose sevenfold working we are given life (apostolic authority having been added like the seasoning of a few fish), what else therefore does this period in God’s plan effect but the possibility of attaining the prize of the heavenly calling without [our] powers failing us? “For we walk by faith and not by sight.” QUESTIONS 61.7.