Therefore we are always confident - The word used here (θαῤῥοῦντες tharrountes) means to be of good cheer. To have good courage, to be full of hope. The idea is, that Paul was not dejected, cast down, disheartened, discouraged. He was cheerful and happy. He was patient in his trials, and diligent in his calling. He was full of hope, and of the confident expectation of heaven; and this filled him with cheerfulness and with joy. Tyndale renders it: “we are always of goud cheere.” And this was not occasional and transitory, it was constant, it was uniform, it always (πάντοτε pantote) existed. This is an instance of the uniform cheerfulness which will be produced by the assured prospect of heaven. It is an instance too when the hope of heaven will enable a man to face danger with courage; to endure toil with patience; and to submit to trials in any form with cheerfulness.
Knowing - see 2 Corinthians 5:1. This is another instance in which the apostle expresses undoubted assurance.
While we are at home in the body - The word used here (ἐνδημοῦντες endēmountes) means literally to be among one’s own people, to be at home; to be present at any place. It is here equivalent to saying, “while we dwell in the body;” see 2 Corinthians 5:1. Doddridge renders it, “sojourning in the body;” and remarks that it is improper to render it “at home in the body,” since it is the apostle’s design to intimate that this is not our home. But Bloomfield says that the word is never used in the sense of sojourning. The idea is not that of being “at home” - for this is an idea which is the very opposite of that which the apostle wishes to convey. His purpose is not at all to represent the body here as our home, and the original word does not imply that. It means here simply to be in the body; to be present in the body; that is, while we are in the body.
We are absent from the Lord - The Lord Jesus; see the notes, Acts 1:24; compare Philippians 1:23. Here he was in a strange world, and among strangers. His great desire and purpose was to be with the Lord; and hence, he cared little how soon the frail tabernacle of the body was taken down, and was cheerful amidst all the labors and sufferings that tended to bring it to the grave, and to release him to go to his eternal home where he would be present forever with the Lord.