Topic: A Vesture of Glory [Tuesday May 24, 2016]
Text: 2 Corinthians 5:1-9
Key Verse: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:1, 2).
Paul here speaks of our body as the ‘house’ in which our real self dwells. We dwell in our body as in a house because the real ‘you’ is the spirit-man within. He explains in metaphoric expressions, in comparison to their spiritual and glorious ‘body’ that is to come, that this present earthly body is likened to a fragile ‘tent’ because it originates from that which is of this earth.
Our hope of being clothed with a body from God motivates inward expectation to be transformed from this earthly ‘body’ in which we presently dwell, into the heavenly body that will dwell painlessly in the eternal heaven, which, of course, is our final goal. The greater our perception of the desired eternal heavenly dwelling, the more we understand that the burden our present ‘body’ does not confine us to this world. Those who feel comfortable in this present ‘dwelling’ and concentrate all their efforts in pleasing it do not fully understand the glory that will be revealed hereafter.
The believer who has his mind on things above “groans” to be relieved of the confinement and limitations of this earthly body and be embodied with the glorious body of immortality. Paul says here, that all that happens to us in time are for the purpose of transiting the faithful into a glorious body for eternal existence. We are therefore to live our lives like that of Abraham who though present in this ‘tabernacle’, was neither subject to its allurements nor moved by its troubles because “he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”.
Thought for the day: The glory ahead surpasses the troubles around.
Bible Reading in one Year: 1 Samuel 10-11
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
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