Because God guarantees eternal life through the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), Paul is able to approach life on this earth with confidence. The Greek word used here,\u00a0tharrheo<\/i>, means to be of good cheer, to have good courage, to be full of hope. It is consistently his attitude; it wasn’t something that came and went. Paul knew that while we are here in this body, the Lord is waiting for us. The word endemeo<\/i>, translated as “home,” means to be in one’s own country or with one’s own people (Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 11:13-16; 13:14). It should not be taken as meaning that the physical body is our permanent home. Rather our body represents being in this physical world. This world is our current place of residence, but we have our true home awaiting us with Jesus (Philippians 1:23). “Absent” is translating the Greek word\u00a0ekdemeo<\/i>, which means to be away from one’s own country or people.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t matter that we haven’t seen our future home. We choose our path of living based on faith, not sight (Hebrews 11:1; Romans 8:24-25). It is the same point Paul made earlier in II Corinthians 4:18 (I Peter 1:8).<\/p>\n
Paul plays further with\u00a0endemeo<\/i>\u00a0(in one’s own country) and\u00a0ekdemeo<\/i>\u00a0(away from one’s own country) in II Corinthians 5:8-9. When we see this world as our home, we are away from our true home. When we leave this home, we will be at home, and that is a preferable state which leaves us happy, of good courage, and full of hope (I Thessalonians 4:13-17).<\/p>\n
Because we are well pleased to make heaven our home, our goal is to be well-pleasing to our Lord whether we are at home or away from home. “Goal” or “aim” is translating phileotimeomai<\/i>, which means a loving honor. Christians see it as an honor to please our Lord (Romans 12:1; 14:18; Ephesians 5:10). Because we know that everyone must face Christ in judgment (Matthew 25:31-32; I Corinthians 4:5). The word “appear” translates the Greek word\u00a0phaneroo<\/i>, which means to be shown, manifested or declared. There everyone will receive recompense for what he has done – good or evil (Romans 2:6; Colossians 3:24-25; Revelation 22:12).<\/p>\n
While the Christian is confident to appear before the Lord, we understand the terror that will fill those unprepared for such an appearing (Hebrews 10:31; Jude 23). Therefore, Paul and other preachers seek to persuade men out of their sins. But for the Christian, he knows he is manifested before God and doesn’t have that fear. God sees his sincere efforts on His behalf. And Paul trusts he is equally manifested to the Corinthians. They too know of his sincere efforts (II Corinthians 4:2), and, by implication, there will be no fear when Paul comes to them.<\/p>\n
Paul is not saying these things to boast about his accomplishments. Rather, he desires to inspire confidence about himself in the Corinthians so they would know how to answer who come boasting about themselves. Paul’s boast, if you would is about his sincerity (II Corinthians 1:12-14). These men commend themselves by their outward appearance, but it isn’t from the heart and, thus, not sincere (Galatians 6:12-14).<\/p>\n
It appears that one angle of attack against Paul was to claim he was a religious nut, perhaps on the same order as Festus’ charge (Acts 26:24). Jesus too was charged with this (Mark 3:21). The phrase here means to be out of place. Basically, Paul is saying that if his thinking doesn’t fit in with what is considered “normal,” then it is because he is serving God. Or if he was seen to be sound in his mind it is because he is serving the brethren. How people claim to perceive him doesn’t matter. Madness is an easy charge to throw at a person you don’t want to reason with and gives you an excuse not to attempt it.<\/p>\n
What motivates Paul is not how others look at him but the love Christ had for the world (Romans 5:6-8; 8:35; John 15:9-10). Paul is convinced that if one died for all people, then it must mean that all died with him (Hebrews 2:9; John 3:16; Matthew 20:28; Ephesians 2:1; Romans 5:15). Christ died so that Christians might live, not for themselves but for Christ (Romans 6:11-12; 14:7-9; I Corinthians 6:19; Galatians 2:20; I Peter 4:1-2).<\/p>\n
Because Christ died for us and we died with him (Romans 6:3-4), from that point on our view of men changes. We don’t look at people from a worldly standpoint. We don’t judge their worth based on nationality, social status, or popularity (John 8:15; Galatians 2:6; 3:28; Philippians 3:4-6; James 2:1-4). Just as we no longer look at Christ the same way as before we began to follow him. The apostles, as an example, kept looking for Christ to set up an earthly kingdom (Matthew 20:21; Acts 1:6). Now they realized how much they misunderstood (I Corinthians 15:25).<\/p>\n
Paul’s Service: Courageous and Confident Courage in Judgment\u00a0(II Corinthians 5:6-11) Because God guarantees eternal life through the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), Paul is able to approach life on this earth with confidence. The Greek word used here,\u00a0tharrheo, means to be of good cheer, to have good courage, to be full of hope. It is consistently his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":19928,"menu_order":56,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-30586","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30583,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/pauls-service-life-from-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":30586,"position":0},"title":"Paul\u2019s Service: Life from Death","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul's Service: Life from Death Life from Death\u00a0(II Corinthians 4:11-15) Having talked about the gospel being spread by mortal man, Paul focuses on the mortality of preachers. Christians, especially preachers, who are alive in Christ (Romans 6:4; Romans 8:10-11), are delivered up for death (Romans 8:36; I Corinthians 15:31). In\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40048,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/liberty-a-study-of-galatians\/marks-of-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":30586,"position":1},"title":"Marks of Service","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Marks of Service Galatians 6:11-18 In My Own Hand (Galatians 6:11) Paul didn't write most of his letters personally. Instead, he dictated them and someone else served as the scribe (Romans 16:22). Paul is stating that either this letter was personally penned by him or that he is writing this\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19928,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/","url_meta":{"origin":30586,"position":2},"title":"The Corinthian Letters","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Corinthian Letters by Jeffrey W. Hamilton July 2011 I Corinthians Getting Familiar with the Text Introduction to Studying the Corinthian Letters Background to I Corinthians Overview of I Corinthians Understanding What Was Said in I Corinthians Segmenting I Corinthians The Start of the Letter Salutations and Thanksgiving (I Corinthians\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Corinth.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Corinth.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Corinth.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30514,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/transformed\/","url_meta":{"origin":30586,"position":3},"title":"Transformed","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Transformed Transformation of the Dead\u00a0(I Corinthians 15:35-49) Having proved there is a resurrection, Paul addresses a related question: In what body are the dead raised? People have often asked this question. Do we come back to the same body that you currently have? What happens if your body was damaged?\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61879,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/pauls-letter-to-the-romans\/the-law-binds-sin-to-the-sinner\/","url_meta":{"origin":30586,"position":4},"title":"The Law Binds Sin to the Sinner","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 15, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Law Binds Sin to the Sinner The Law only binds while in effect (Romans 7:1-3) Speaking to the members of the church who came out of Judaism, Paul appeals to their knowledge of the Law. A prevalent problem in the early church was the insistence among Jewish teachers that\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30589,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/pauls-service-ambassadors-with-a-message\/","url_meta":{"origin":30586,"position":5},"title":"Paul\u2019s Service: Ambassadors with a Message","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul's Service: Ambassadors with a Message A message of reconciliation\u00a0(II Corinthians 5:17-19) Because a Christian's outlook changes when he becomes a follower of Christ, he is a new person (Romans 6:3-4; Psalms 51:10; Ezekiel 18:31; Galatians 6:15). The old way of life is gone (Romans 6:5-11; Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:1-10;\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30586\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}