5:1 What does "our earthly house of this tabernacle" refer to?
5:1 What does "our earthly house of this tabernacle" refer to?
This refers to our present body which is compared to a tent in which we dwell (CP 2Pe 1:13-14).
Tabernacle both here and in 2Cor 5:1 is used figuratively for the body as the frail and temporary abode of the soul. It must be "dissolved" - loosed, destroyed, come to nought - before we can get the other body; "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens".
This is our resurrection body (CP V2 with Ro 8:11, 18-23; 1Cor 15:35-44, 51-54; Php 3:20-21; 1Jn 3:2)