In addition to the image of a tent, Paul uses a second image, this time of clothing. These bodies of ours are great things but they are mortal. They are weakened by sin, subject to disease, and will eventually die. In a sense they are like clothing that has fallen into rags. What we look forward to is not the death of our body, which is like the taking off of our clothing and being found naked. Rather, what we await is when after death we will be clothed with a new heavenly body. It is with that knowledge that we press on.
Paul is very practical at that point. He says that because we know these things, we live by faith and not by sight. If we operate merely from a worldly point of view and only look at those things we can see, we observe that everybody is passing away. We would then conclude that we may as well live for the moment today because tomorrow we are going to die and our existence will end. But Paul says that is not how we live. We live by faith, which means we live by our knowledge of the things that are unseen and eternal. Then he says in verse 9, “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.”
In the second section of this chapter he deals with the knowledge that concerns other people He begins by talking about his conscience and the fact that it was plain and open before others. That is a great thing to have. We recognize that he was being criticized by the people who had taken over leadership in Corinth and were causing some of the problems there. Paul basically writes that he does not have to defend himself because his life is an open book before the church. They know who he is, and what he does. And the greatest thing of all is that his life is open before God. Paul might be misunderstood by some at Corinth, but God knows Paul’s motives. Paul says that it is out of that kind of openness and sincerity of conscience that he is able to minister as he does.
Paul talks here about his obligation to these Christians at Corinth, as well as to all other people, as the obligation of love. He writes in verse 14: “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
The first motivation of Christian missions is that Jesus Christ tells us to be involved in missions. Jesus, at the end of His earthly life after His resurrection, gave to His disciples what we call the Great Commission. In the most commonly known version, recorded at the end of Matthew’s account, Jesus declares that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him, and that we are to go in His name to all peoples, teaching them everything He has commanded us and baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus then concludes with His great promise: “And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20b).
The second reason we go is out of our concern for the spiritual and physical well-being of other people. Where the Gospel goes, blessing comes to people’s lives. People are changed, relationships are repaired, and families are strengthened. The greatest social advances in history have come as a result of the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For example, it is out of this that hospitals have been built and schools have been established.
