2 Corinthians 5:8 - At Home With the Lord

2 Corinthians 5:8 - We are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. -- World English.

2 Corinthians 5:8 is often presented as proof of the idea that the human soul is immortal, and that continues to be alive after the death of the body. Many would have it that Paul said, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." They would change Paul's wording to suit the idea of going to heaven at death. This is often used in connection with Ecclesiastes 12:7. (See our study: The Spirit that Returns to God) Of course, if such an idea is proof that the human soul is immortal such would mean that everyone when they died, not matter how evil they might have been in this life, would be present with the Lord when he died. However, Paul did not say that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord". Indeed, Paul made no mention at all of the human soul. Paul, speaking only of himself, said that he would rather be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.

Does the Bible ever say that the soul continues to be alive after death? No. Does the Bible ever speak of man's "soul" as being immortal? No. Does the Bible speak of a human soul as dying, or dead? Yes. One should note that in the original creation of man, the first man was not a living soul until after God formed his body from the dust of the ground, and then blew into that body the spirit, the breath, of life, and then Adam became a living soul (Genesis 2:7); before Adam became a living soul, he had no consciousness. The Hebrew word for soul is often transliterated as "nephesh". Adam, thus, knew what death would mean: the absence of life; he knew that -- if he disobeyed, he would become a “dead soul” (Hebrew, transliterated, “meth nephesh” – Leviticus 21:11; Numbers 6:6; 9:10; 19:11,16; 2 Chronicles 20:24; Psalm 79:2; 110:6; Haggai 2:11), a soul that no longer has sentiency. In the New Testament, the corresponding word for "soul" is the Greek word often transliterated as "psuché" (Strong's #5590 -- used as being dead or dieable in Matthew 2:20; 10:28,39; 20:28; Mark 10:45; John 10:11,17; 13:37; Revelation 16:3) Of course, most translators, based acceptance of the extra-Biblical doctrine that the soul is immortal, refuse to render "nephesh" or "sheol" and in many of these verses as "soul". We should note also that God did not say that Adam would be dead for a few days, or for a few years, or even for many thousands of years and that then he would be brought back to life. Nor did God say to Adam that the wages of sin would be to spend an eternity in conscious torture. The death sentence would bring Adam back to the very condition that he had been in before Adam was created, a condition of oblivion. (Ecclesiastes 9:5,10; 12:7) The sentence was, transliterated from the Hebrew, “muth temuth” – to die, you will die. The death sentence upon Adam and all of his descendants would have been eternal had it not been for the sacrifice of Jesus. Correspondingly, there would not be any resurrection of the dead, nor a future day of judgment, had it not been for Jesus' sacrifice. -- Romans 5:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21,22; 1 Timothy 2:5,6.

When Paul said he would rather be absent from the body and be present with the Lord, he said nothing about a soul that continues to be alive while dead. Indeed, he did not say that immediately upon death that he expected to be with the Lord. Nor was he contradicting what he had stated earlier about the resurrection, that is, that if there is no resurrection, then all who have died in Christ have perished. (1 Corinthians 15:12-19) The only hope given in the Bible for future life is in the resurrection of the dead, not of being conscious while dead due to having an immortal soul or spirit that is supposed to continue having consciousness while dead.

In 2 Corinthians 5:8, he had just spoken of being unclothed, naked, that is, unclothed without a habitation. (2 Corinthians 5:3,4) We believe that Paul was here referring to the condition of being dead, before one is raised and with his new body (referred to in verse 1) in the resurrection on the last day. Rather than be unclothed, we believe that Paul may have meant that he had rather be without the [present body] and be at home with the Lord when he returns in the last day (John 6:39,40,44,54; 11:24; 14:3)  If this is what he meant, then it would mean that in the resurrection during the last day he would be clothed with the body reserved for him and thus be at home with the Lord. -- John 14:3.

Paul does say in Romans 8:17: "if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him." When are the saints glorified with Jesus? Paul states in Ephesians 3:4: "When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory." This obviously corresponds to what Paul wrote as recorded in Romans 8:19, "For the creation (the world of mankind through Adam -- Romans 5:12-19) waits with eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed." The time when the Lord and his saints are revealed to the world of mankind is during the 1,000 years of Christ's reign with his joint-heirs, after Satan is abyssed. (Revelation 20:2-4) It is at that time that the glory of Jehovah Himself will be revealed to the world, and the world will come to know of his ways through Jesus and the saints. -- Isaiah 2:2-4; 40:5; Habakkuk 2:14; Acts 17:31; 1 Corinthians 6:2.

Nevertheless, Paul stated, "Now he who made us for this very thing is God, who also gave to us the down payment [or, token] of the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 5:5) What is saying? While the new life belongs to the "age to come" (Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30), God has already given to the believer a token, or down payment, of that life through the spirit, the power of the age to come (Hebrews 6:5), so that even now the regenerated children of God are reckoned as being alive as new creatures, for whom the old is already reckoned as having passed away. -- 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Related to this, the question could be raised, concerning verse 8: Was Paul actually speaking of dying, and that once his body was dead, that his soul would be in heaven with the Lord? As we have seen, If Paul was speaking of the death of his physical body, he would have to be referring to being with the Lord -- not at the time of his death, but in the last day when he is raised from the dead. 

Nevertheless, it is possible that Paul was speaking the same thing that Jesus spoke of as recorded in John 14:23: "Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him." 

Some thoughts supporting this is that the apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, is writing concerning the pilgrimage of the believer (those seeking to become joint-heirs with the Messiah) during the present evil age. In 2 Corinthians 5:6,7, we read: “Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, while we are at home [Strong’s Greek No. 1736, to be in one's own country] in the body, we are absent [Strong’s 1553, to emigrate, i.e., (fig.) vacate or quit] from [Jehovah]; for we walk by faith, not by sight.” This is very similar to Asaph’s psalm. (Psalm 73:24,25) As long as we are feeling “at home” in our present fleshly surroundings, we are not walking with Jehovah, therefore we are absent from him. “We are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent [Strong’s Greek 1553, to emigrate] from the body, and to be at home [Strong’s Greek No. 1736, to be in one own country] with [Jehovah].” (2 Corinthians 5:8) It is our desire, not to be at home in the body so as to make our present surroundings our country, but to mortify the deeds of the body, so as to walk with Jehovah in the spirit. (Romans 8:1-13) “Therefore also we make it our aim, whether [Strong’s 1535, if too] at home [Strong’s Greek No. 1736, to be in one’s own country] or [Strong’s 1535, if too] absent [from our body, Strong’s 1553, to emigrate, i.e., (fig.) vacate or quit], to be well pleasing to him.” (2 Corinthians 5:9) If we are finding our home or dwelling with God, or if we are not making our home in our present body, we are also striving to make ourselves acceptable to Jehovah, so that He and Jesus will make their home with us. “For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10) It is the things that the disciple of Jesus does now, in his present conditions, that determines how he is judged before the judgment seat of the Messiah. This is the reason we are to keep striving to be well-pleasing to Jehovah while serving him. (verse 9) From this perspective, we see that 2 Corinthians 5:8 says nothing about what happens to the believer at death.

Regardless, what we do not find in 2 Corinthians 5 is any thought that the human soul is immortal or that at death the believers go to heaven to be with Jesus. The idea of an inherent immortal soul has to be imagined and assumed beyond anything stated in the Bible, and then assumptions have to made to accommodate the added-on doctrine, and then all this has to be added to and read into any scripture thought to be speaking of the alleged inherent immortal soul.