Clothe that Tent in Permanent Glory
We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”
Paul was not giving in to the stoic idea that the flesh was bad or that material things were evil. Here he is simply establishing that what we see here isn’t all there is to life. There is a bigger heavenly life awaiting us after this.
The naked part gets a little weird unless you slow down. Sure, it’s shameful to be found naked, so what should you do? Get dressed! What should you wear? Your heavenly dwelling!
They translate this tent throughout and in other places in the scripture because that is such a good example of a temporary dwelling. Nobody is surprised when you take down a tent. When the fireworks sale is finally over on July 23rd, nobody drives by the Walmart parking lot and says “Oh, they took down that fireworks tent. tsk tsk.” It’s a TENT because it’s not permanent.
So our mortal tent, instead of passing away into nothing, is further clothed and sealed by the Holy Spirit. While a tent is temporary, you can’t just have any average Joe come along and take it down if it is sealed with authority. Governors, Kings, etc. would seal important documents or packages and they could only be opened by a person designated with the authority to open that seal. If you broke the seal without permission, you’d be killed.
God gives us the Holy Spirit as a seal, as a deposit or assurance, that once our tent is worn out, He’ll be the one who owns it when it’s taken down. (Don’t hear me saying that God takes them down. Death kills people, not God, but that’s a discussion for another day.)
God owns our tent. We put Him on and His righteousness is our clothing and our covering for our shame. We don’t groan that our body would be taken away, but that it would be covered in Christ’s righteousness, and that’s what He is doing every single day.
Sometimes, we even see it.
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