2 Corinthians 5:5 (R.V.)
Detaching.
The idea of this passage is that the change from the mortal to the immortal is no accident. It is the result of a Divine intent. God wrought us for this very thing, and has given us the earnest, the foretaste and pledge of this change, through His Spirit. Our text, therefore, is the expression of the truth that in God's economy this life is a process of disentangling and detachment from its own conditions. Mortal life, so far as related to itself, is a getting loose.
I. Consider the imagery of the text. We mortals are as dwellers in a tent. This tent is being gradually loosened down; such is the literal meaning of the word dissolved.Plainly enough the average man ignores this fact. He strikes out the tabernacle from the text and substitutes a building. He lives and plans as if both he and the world were eternal. God meant that our earthly house should be a tent and not a building; meant that it should be transitory and not eternal.
II. God has made us for the tent, but He has also made us for the building. It is God's intent that the immortal, the spiritual life should be taking shape under the forms of mortal life; that in the tent man should be shaping for the eternal building; that in this frail, fleshly environment we should be growing familiar with the powers of the world to come; should be coming more and more under their influence; should be growing more and more into sympathy with the principles and ideas of the eternal world; growing in aspiration for their larger range, and even welcoming the dissolution of the tent as the signal and medium of entrance into the eternal building. The tent will fall. Shall you be left uncovered? Beware of the wrappings. They are folding you in too closely. You are growing in reputation and wealth, and the world is a very pleasant place to you. All well, perhaps, if these things are not all; if, under your busy life, there is the constant presence of God, a carefully fostered keen consciousness of the touch of God; an unbroken connection between heaven and your tent; a daily interchange between Christ and you; if, in short, your citizenship is in heaven, and the mark of heaven is on your words and your life and your spirit.
M. R. Vincent, The Covenant of Peace,p. 219.
The Expectation and the Earnest.
I. What is it that the Apostle here alludes to in the expression "the selfsame thing" to which believers are wrought of God? It is the confident hope of, and longing desire for, the glories and felicities of the resurrection state. In his bosom and that of his fellow-believers, this hope and desire dwelt fresh and vigorous. They had not a mere vague wish to enjoy a future felicity of some sort, they knew not what. Theirs was a firm anticipation of a well-understood and clearly realised futurity of blessedness and glory.
II. But to what was it owing that the Apostles had this confident expectation, which so inspired, cheered, and ennobled them in the service of the gospel? The answer of the Apostle, in the words before us, is to the effect that God was the Author and Source of the state of mind of which he speaks. He had wrought in them the blessed hope which they exultingly entertained. He had moulded them wholly to it.
III. But the Apostles had something more than mere hope to sustain them and cheer them amid the trials and conflicts of life. They had in actual possession a portion of the promised blessing, and in that the pledge and assurance of the whole. God had given them the earnest of the Spirit.
W. Lindsay Alexander, Sermons,p. 168.
References: 2 Corinthians 5:5. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvi., No. 912; G. Dawson, Sermons on Disputed Points,p. 152; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 99; L. Mann, Life Problems,p. 91. 2 Corinthians 5:5-10. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxii., No. 1303; Homilist,vol. iv., p. 107.