Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;
- BSB Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
- NKJV So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
- NASB Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—
- NLT So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Believers can be confident because, though present life keeps us away from the Lord's immediate presence, the future is secure. Courage rests on the certainty of being with Christ.
Overview
Paul affirms continual confidence, recognizing that life in the mortal body means a measure of distance from the Lord's full presence. This is not despair but realism paired with hope. It prepares for his statement that he would prefer to depart and be with the Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- 2 Cor 5:1For 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.
- Phil 3:20–21For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
- Ps 39:12Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
- Heb 13:14For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
- 1 Chr 29:15For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
- Heb 11:13These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
- 2 Cor 5:8We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
- Heb 10:35Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
- Ps 27:3–4Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
- Prov 14:26In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.
- Ps 119:19I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
- Isa 30:15For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
- Rev 1:9I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
- Isa 36:4And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
- 1 Pet 5:1The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:
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Christ at the center
In Christ all God's promises are 'Yes and Amen'; though rich, he became poor to make us rich, and in him God reconciles the world, making us new creations.
How 2 Corinthians 5:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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