2 Corinthians 5
BSASBPaul faces the frailty of the body with hope. A better home awaits believers, and meanwhile they aim to please the Lord who will judge their lives. The love of Christ, who died for all, makes believers new creations and sends them as ambassadors with God’s own appeal: be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:1
Paul calls the body a tent, a temporary shelter that can be taken down. Yet believers are certain that God has an everlasting home waiting, made by Him and not by people. Death is not the end of the story.
BSA: tent (“temporary dwelling, body”): The body is a passing shelter, not the permanent home. eternal (“lasting forever, age-during”): The coming home belongs to God’s unending age and will never be taken down.
Greek: σκῆνος (skēnos, G4636) — “tent.” Paul himself made tents, so the picture is vivid: a light, movable shelter that is easily pulled down, set against a solid building from God.
See also: John 14:2.
2 Corinthians 5:2-3
In this present body believers groan, not out of despair but out of longing for their heavenly dwelling. Paul pictures it as putting on new clothing. He is confident that when God clothes us, we will not be left bare or incomplete.
BSA: groan (“sigh with deep longing”): The groaning is homesick desire for what God has promised. clothed (“wrapped, covered”): Our future body will cover us fully, like a garment put on over the old.
See also: Romans 8:23.
2 Corinthians 5:4
Life in a frail body brings real burdens, and believers feel them. Yet Paul’s hope is not to escape the body but to be fully clothed, so that all that is perishable is swallowed up in life. God finishes what He began and does not leave us as ghosts.
BSA: swallowed up (“completely overcome, engulfed”): Death and weakness are not merely set aside; life overwhelms them completely. mortality (“liability to die, fragile existence”): Our dying nature is what resurrection life will replace.
See also: 1 Corinthians 15:53-54.
2 Corinthians 5:5
This longing is no accident. God Himself has been preparing believers for this change. As proof, He has already given the Holy Spirit, a first installment and a guarantee that the rest will follow.
BSA: pledge (“guarantee, down payment”): The Spirit within us is the first payment that assures the full inheritance.
Greek: ἀρραβῶνα (arrabōna, G728) — “deposit, down payment.” This was a business word for earnest money paid at the start of a purchase. The Spirit is God’s deposit, binding Him to complete what He promised.
See also: Ephesians 1:13-14.
2 Corinthians 5:6-7
Because of the Spirit’s pledge, believers are always of good courage, even knowing that life in the body means not yet seeing the Lord face to face. For now they live by trusting what God says, not by what they can see.
BSA: confident (“having courage, being bold”): Paul’s courage is steady and ongoing, resting on God’s promise. walk (“live, follow”): Faith is the way we conduct daily life, step by step.
See also: Hebrews 11:1.
2 Corinthians 5:8
Paul repeats his confidence and says he would rather leave the body and be at home with the Lord. Death for the believer means being with Christ. This is not a wish for death for its own sake, but a desire to be near Him.
BSA: at home (“present, dwelling”): Being with the Lord is like finally arriving home.
See also: Philippians 1:21-23.
2 Corinthians 5:9
Whether alive in the body or with the Lord, Paul has one ambition: to please Him. The hope of heaven does not make life here unimportant. It gives every day its purpose.
BSA: aspire (“make it our aim, labor”): Pleasing the Lord is a goal pursued with effort and love of honor, not a passing wish.
Greek: φιλοτιμούμεθα (philotimoumetha, G5389) — “we are ambitious, we make it our honor-loving aim.” The word describes a driving ambition. Paul takes the energy people put into earning honor and aims it wholly at pleasing the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:10
Every believer will stand before Christ, who will weigh what was done in this life. This is not about losing salvation but about being made accountable and receiving what is due. It gives weight to ordinary choices and reminds us that Christ judges rightly.
BSA: judgment seat (“tribunal, place of evaluation”): It is the place where each life is examined and answered for. receive his due (“what is owed to him, reward or punishment”): Actions carry real consequences, as Christ assesses them fairly.
Greek: βήματος (bēmatos, G968) — “judgment seat, raised platform.” This was the raised seat where a magistrate sat to hear cases. Corinth had such a platform in its public square, so the readers knew the picture well.
See also: Romans 14:10-12.
2 Corinthians 5:11
Knowing that Christ will judge, Paul takes the Lord seriously and works to persuade people. He is open before God and hopes the Corinthians’ own consciences can see that he is sincere.
BSA: fear (“have a profound reverence for, stand in awe of”): This is deep respect for the Lord, not terror. clear (“visible, transparent”): Paul has nothing hidden; his motives are open to view.
See also: Proverbs 9:10.
2 Corinthians 5:12
Paul is not boasting to promote himself. He wants the Corinthians to have good reasons to stand by him, so they can answer critics who judge by impressive appearances rather than by what is in the heart.
BSA: appearances (“outward show, face”): Some people value polish and show over real character. heart (“the seat of thoughts, feelings, and emotions”): God looks to the inner person, and so should we.
See also: 1 Samuel 16:7.
2 Corinthians 5:13
Critics may call Paul’s zeal extreme. He says that when he is passionate in devotion, it is toward God, and when he is calm and careful, it is for the Corinthians’ good. Either way, he is not serving himself.
BSA: out of our mind (“completely beside ourselves, out of our wit”): His devotion to God may look excessive to others.
2 Corinthians 5:14
What drives Paul is Christ’s love. Christ died on behalf of all, and so, in Him, all have died. Believers share in His death. Their old life of self-rule has ended with Him.
BSA: compels (“constrains, holds”): Christ’s love hems Paul in and directs him, like a current carrying him along. died (“have undergone death, are considered dead”): Christ’s death counts as the death of all who are joined to Him.
Greek: συνέχει (synechei, G4912) — “holds together, presses in on, controls.” The word suggests being gripped from every side, like a river held within its banks. Christ’s love both drives and restrains him.
See also: Galatians 2:20.
2 Corinthians 5:15
Christ died and rose again so that those who have new life would stop living for themselves. Life now has a new center: the One who died for us and was raised. Love answered by love.
BSA: live (“are spiritually alive”): Those made alive in Christ are meant to live for Him, not for self.
See also: Romans 14:7-9.
2 Corinthians 5:16
Because of the cross, Paul no longer sizes people up by status, background or outward standing. He once viewed even Christ in a merely human way. Now he knows who He truly is: Lord and Savior.
BSA: flesh (“humanly, physically, as a mere mortal”): It means judging by earthly, outward standards alone.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Anyone joined to Christ is part of a new creation. The old life, with its guilt and slavery, is past, and something fresh has begun. This is God’s work, not self-improvement, and it gives every believer a hopeful start.
BSA: new creation (“a new being”): God makes something that did not exist before, not merely a repaired old self. Behold (“see, perceive”): Paul invites us to look in wonder at what God has done.
Greek: καινὴ κτίσις (kainē ktisis, G2537) — “new creation.” Kainē means new in kind, not just recent. The word for creation is the one used of God’s original making of the world, so this is a fresh act of God.
See also: Isaiah 43:18-19; Galatians 6:15.
2 Corinthians 5:18
All of this begins with God. He took the first step to turn enmity into friendship, through Christ, and then entrusted those He reconciled with the work of telling others. Those who receive peace become messengers of it.
BSA: reconciled (“made peace with, changed from enmity to friendship”): God ended the hostility between us and Himself and made us friends. ministry (“service, work”): Sharing this peace is a task given to every believer.
Greek: καταλλάξαντος (katallaxantos, G2644) — “reconciled, changed from enmity to friendship.” The word describes a real exchange from hostility to peace. Notably, God is the one who acts to restore the relationship.
See also: Romans 5:10-11.
2 Corinthians 5:19
In Christ, God was acting to win the world back to Himself. He does not hold their sins against them, and He has trusted His people with this message. The offer reaches the whole world.
BSA: not counting (“imputing, reckoning”): God does not write our offenses on our account, because Christ has borne them. committed (“entrusted, placed”): God places this message in our hands as a sacred trust.
See also: Colossians 1:19-20; Psalm 32:2.
2 Corinthians 5:20
An ambassador speaks for a king, not for himself. So believers speak for Christ, and through them God makes His own appeal. The message is a warm plea: be reconciled to God, who has already made peace possible.
BSA: ambassadors (“representatives, messengers”): We carry the King’s message with His authority and not our own. implore (“beg, pray”): The appeal is earnest and personal, not a cold order.
Greek: πρεσβεύομεν (presbeuomen, G4243) — “we act as ambassadors.” An ambassador represents his ruler in a foreign land. Believers are in this world as envoys of heaven, speaking for another.
See also: Ephesians 6:20.
2 Corinthians 5:21
Here is the heart of the gospel. Christ had no sin of His own, yet God treated Him as sin for us, bearing its judgment. In exchange, those who are in Him are given the righteousness of God. It is a gift, not something we earn.
BSA: sin (“a sin offering, punished for our sins”): Christ took the place of the guilty and bore sin’s penalty. righteousness (“justness, uprightness, having God’s nature”): In Christ we stand right before God, as He is right.
See also: Isaiah 53:5-6; 1 Peter 2:24.