📖WEB · 2 Corinthians 5:9
What does 2 Corinthians 5:9 mean?
"Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him."
— 2 Corinthians 5:9 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
We are courageous, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.
Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him.
For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God; and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences.
For we are not commending ourselves to you again, but speak as giving you occasion of boasting on our behalf, that you may have something to answer those who boast in appearance, and not in heart.
Explanation
2 Corinthians 5:9 comes at the close of a passage where Paul has been reflecting on the tension between our present life in a mortal body and the future hope of resurrection and life with God. He describes the body as a tent that will one day be replaced with a permanent dwelling from God, and he speaks of longing to be "at home with the Lord" rather than "away from him" while still living in the flesh. In this verse, Paul draws a practical conclusion from that reflection: whether he is "at home" (with the Lord, through death) or "absent" (still living in the body, away from the Lord's direct presence), his consuming ambition is the same — to be pleasing to God.
Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, a congregation he had founded but with whom he had a complicated, sometimes painful relationship. He was defending his ministry against critics who questioned his authority and sincerity, while also comforting believers who were troubled by suffering, mortality, and uncertainty about the future. In the verses leading up to this one, Paul acknowledges the very human tension of not wanting to be "unclothed" (to die) but longing to be "further clothed" (to receive the resurrection body) — yet he doesn't let that tension become paralyzing or distracting. Instead, he redirects attention to what matters regardless of one's circumstance: living to please God.
Theologically, this verse captures Paul's settled confidence that death does not sever the believer's relationship with Christ but actually brings one into closer, unmediated fellowship with him ("to be at home with the Lord," v.
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