For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord-- for we walk by faith, not by sight-- we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
My thoughts -
I was a Boy Scout. I love camping. You'll never hear me say a bad word about tents. Well, there was that one time we were in West Virginia and, during several days of rain my tent decided to no longer be water resistant. We made jokes about A River Runs Through It but there's nothing funny about sappy Brad Pitt movies or water running through your tent in the middle of the night.
As much as I love tent camping I would not recognize a tent as my "permanent" home, no matter how much time I spent there. David did not think a tent was a good home for the Ark of the Covenant so he made plans to build it a home. God did not allow those plans to proceed under David's rule but the home was built under Solomon. It was a great, beautiful temple. Every detail was meticulously planned and carefully and lovingly crafted. It was truly a sight to behold.
Paul knew a thing or two about tents, as well. Paul was, in a way, what we'd call bi-vocational. He did not make his living in ministry. He supported himself by practicing a craft. While he took no issue with professional ministry he did not choose to receive payment for his ministry in large part to be able to speak freely and prophetically. So, to make ends meet without having to compromise his prophetic voice Paul was a tent maker.
So Paul knows what he's saying when it comes to tents. And here he uses a tent as a metaphor for this earthly life and our earthly bodies. It's not that the tent is a bad thing. The tent is just not a permanent building. It will be torn down. It was not made to last forever.
The things of this life are not made to last forever. Our bodies are not made to last forever. The break down. They get old. They get sick. They get injured. They die. We die. Nothing in this life lasts forever, no matter how much we like it. No matter how much I like the tent eventually, like mine did in West Virginia, it's going to spring a leak, water will freely run through it, and it will no longer be habitable. It will be torn down.
So do we believe what we say we do? Do we believe that these earthly tents that won't last will be replaced by permanent heavenly buildings? Do we long to dwell in them? Do we long to live in our new homes? Or have we become distracted by these temporary things, all of the things of this world that will not last; that can not last?
Have we gotten so accustomed to tent living that we have forgotten where our real, permanent home is? Do the things of this world consume us, and distract us from heavenly living?
These earthly tents may be all we can see now. But we are called to walk by faith. The God who loves us and created us has a permanent home for us. We will not stay in these tents forever. They were not built for forever. Nothing here can take the place of what is to come nor should it distract from what is to come.
Paul wrote these words as he faced death for preaching the gospel. He wrote these words to people who faced death for believing. Though they faced death they still followed Jesus. They were not distracted by these fleeting things. If they were they would not have risked their lives for the gospel.
Most of us, here in America, do not risk our lives for believing. No one's going around arresting and executing Christians here. And yet Jesus demands our lives. Jesus demands that we lay our lives down for him.
How do we do that? We give up our attachment to the fleeting things of this earthly tent. We give up our wealth and our comfort as necessary. We give up our hopes, dreams, and plans. We give up our anxiety, fear, and uncertainty. We give up our selfish, sinful nature. We give up everything that stands between us and God and distracts us from living in God.
We do this knowing that there is a better way. We do this trusting our lives to the Author of Life. We do this knowing these earthly tents are not our homes.
We give up these earthly tents for mansions in heaven.
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