Heavenly Dwelling and Earthly Tents

I think I can speak for all of us when I say these past few weeks have been a real struggle. If you’re an extrovert like me, being trapped inside the house with little contact with the outside world drives you mad. If you’re an introvert, while I’m sure the first few days were like paradise, the longer the quarantine lasts, the more you desire some sort of contact with the people you love. 

At first, I didn’t understand why The Lord would allow the world to experience this chaos. COVID-19 is quickly taking over the world’s thoughts, including my own. And yet I can’t help but marvel at the way the Lord brings me back to His Word in the midst of my worrying . In this particular season, The Lord has pointed me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 this week, and though this is a passage I’ve studied many times before, I always seem to glean something new from new every time I read it. His Word is alive, and while I’m certainly not perfect, I hope some of my thoughts can help strengthen your spirit as we get through this trial together. 

“For we know that if our temporary, earthly dwelling is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this body, desiring to put on our dwelling from heaven, since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. And the One who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. 

So, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight, and we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord. Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the tribunal of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or worthless.

Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we seek to persuade people. We are completely open before God, and I hope we are completely open to your consciences as well. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in the outward appearance rather than in the heart. For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we have a sound mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died. And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised. 

From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:1-21‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

Let’s start with verses 1 through 8. I don’t know about you, but I can definitely relate to these verses during this COVID-19 crisis. As long as we’re on this earth, we desire to be “at home with the Lord.” We crave His presence. Right now this earthly “tent” feels far away from the perfect heavenly “dwelling” which God promises to those who follow Him, and I’ve personally been doing a whole lot of groaning lately. I’m at home trying to make it through online class, missing my friends and the life I was accustomed to in New Orleans, and trying to get used to this new normal. I long for the day when we will see an end to the sickness and for the day that the church can gather together in person again. But the cool thing through all of this is that in verse 5, the Lord promises that His Spirit will be with us through our groanings. He guarantees the presence of His Spirit, so even while we are in our earthly “tent,” we get a taste of His presence through the Spirit. 

Now let’s jump to verses 16 through 21 for a second. In these verses, Paul writes that those who are in Christ are a new creation. Through Christ, the Father forgives our sins, reconciles us to Himself, and renews us. During this process, we await the day when we get to experience the new earth promised to us because of Christ’s sacrifice for us. We’re made for a perfect world, but we’re still living in the sinful one. That’s why things like COVID-19 cause the world so much grief. 

All of us, as the church, know that we now belong to the new creation, and unbelievers can feel that this world that we live in is imperfect. As believers, the Lord leaves us in this earthly “tent” so that we can share the gospel with the lost, and we see this mandate in verses 9 through 21.

In verse nine, Paul tells us that no matter where we find ourselves, whether we’re here on earth or in the presence of the Lord, our aim should be to please Him. The Lord leaves us in our earthly “tent” so that we can be His ambassadors. He entrusts His message of reconciliation to us so that we can implore others to be reconciled to God as well. To put it simply, the Lord leaves us on this imperfect earth so that we can obey Him by loving and sharing the Gospel with our neighbors. As a church, we should use this time of sickness to point others to the Source of True Healing.

So let me ask you, how are you using this time of groaning to share the gospel with others? How can we as the church act as ambassadors for the message of reconciliation when we’re all stuck in a period of social distancing? I’m having to ask myself these questions, and I certainly don’t have all the answers. But the cool thing is we live in a time with technology and access to people even through the separation, and I’ve been encouraged to see the church’s creativity when it comes to continuing our ministries. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is this: It’s completely natural to groan and struggle during this COVID-19 crisis. As the Lord reconciles us and makes us into new creations, it makes perfect sense that we would feel the weight of this imperfect world and desire His true presence. Yet in the meantime, He guarantees His Spirit so we can have strength to endure the trials and share His message of reconciliation with others. My prayer is that believers embrace this time and take advantage of it because the Lord wants to use us to grow His church if only we will obey Him and maintain hope in the midst of the trial.