Reconciliation

At the beginning of the two major sections of this portion of 2 Corinthians, 5:1-10 and 5:11-6:2, you notice that they each begin with the words “we know.” 2 Corinthians 5:1 says, “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” And then in the first half of verse 11 we read, “Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.” That introduces us to a theme that ties these two sections together, which is the theme of Christian knowledge. It causes us to raise the question: How is it that Christians know or claim to know anything—that is, anything spiritual?