“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
It is when reading such statements made by the apostle Paul one needs to keep in mind a warning written by Peter considering Paul’s letters: “And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation (or, results in our salvation), even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things (how “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”), in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned (in the scriptures, especially the Hebrew scriptures) and (spiritually) unstable wrest (twist, distort, misinterpret), as they do also the other scriptures (not just Paul’s writings), unto their own (spiritual) destruction” (See 2 Peter 3:15-16 and verse 17).
Almost every single time I have heard someone quote 2 Corinthians 5:8, they have misquoted what Paul actually wrote. He did NOT say, “to be absent from the body IS to be present with the Lord,” although that is how most quote his words. He said he was ” WILLING to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” There is a great big difference in those two statements. I have no doubt this is one of Paul’s statements Peter had in mind when he said Paul wrote some things hard to understand and that those who didn’t know the Bible as well as they should would think Paul was saying something he wasn’t saying at all.
I am willing to be absent from Kentucky and present with family members in New Jersey, but for me to be absent from Kentucky does not mean I am in New Jersey. I might be in Indiana or Tennessee or Bora Bora. Can’t you see the difference it makes if you omit the word “willing” from such a statement? All Paul was saying was that he was not married to the idea, or sold out to the proposition of continuing life in a fleshly body. He was quite willing to be changed from mortal flesh and blood to immortal spirit, and in the 15th chapter of his First Letter to the Corinthians he carefully spelled out WHEN this would occur – NOT at the moment he breathed his last, but at the moment of Christ’s return and not before. The Greek believers to whom he was writing had been reared in a culture wherein the human form was greatly admired to the point of worship in some instances. Sculptures of the nude human form were everywhere. To be told by Paul that, if converted, they would spend eternity in some other form was not readily welcome or acceptable to the average Greek. That is why Paul carefully explained the magnificent and awesome characteristics of the resurrected bodies of the redeemed.
Folks, that is rightly dividing the Word of God, putting all the verses together. Looking at the context. Not omitting critical words from the text. The next time you hear someone say, “To be absent from the body IS to be present with the Lord” know that you are listening to someone who does not have a very good understanding of the Holy Scriptures and watch out. He, or she, might unwittingly deceive you, too.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley