5:6-9 How are we to understand what Paul says here?
5:6-9 How are we to understand what Paul says here?
While we live in our earthly bodies we are absent from our heavenly eternal home with Jesus - we cannot see Him as He is (CP 1Jn 3:2).
But we do not have to physically see Jesus to know what we believe. We know, because we walk by faith, not by sight (CP 2Cor 4:18 with Jn 20:29 and 1Pe 1:3-9).
To be absent from the body and present with the Lord means to die and go to heaven to be with Jesus (CP Php 1:21-24; He 12:23; Jas 2:26; Rev 6:9-11).
In view of the fact we leave our mortal bodies when we die and go to be with the Lord, let us do all that makes us accepted of Him, whether we are in the body or out of it (CP 2Cor 5:9).
This clearly refutes the teaching by some in the church that the Spirit and the soul go to the grave with the body at death. The Spirit and the soul of the righteous go straight to heaven at death, while the wicked go to hell (CP Lu 16:19-31; Rev 20:4-6, 11-15).
This also refutes other teaching that there is an intermediate state after death called purgatory, to which the soul and the Spirit of the righteous go to be purged of sins not yet forgiven, while awaiting entry into heaven.
5:10 See comments on Ro 14:10-12