Second Corinthians 5:9 reads: \u201cTherefore we make it our aim, whether present in the body or absent from it, to be pleasing to Him.\u201d<\/b> Some readers see here confirmation that after death the soul lives consciously apart from the body. But to understand Paul\u2019s thought, we need to read the whole context of the chapter.<\/p>\nContext: a chapter about the resurrection<\/h2>\n
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul describes the tension between the present condition and future hope. He uses the image of a tent (the present body) and a house from heaven (the resurrection body). The main point of the chapter is not the soul\u2019s intermediate state, but the resurrection as the final goal.<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cFor we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.\u201d 2 Cor. 5:1<\/a><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Paul uses a paired construction: \u201cwhether in the body\u2014or apart from it.\u201d This is a rhetorical way of covering all possible states.<\/b> He does not give a detailed explanation of the intermediate state\u2014he speaks about motivation: regardless of circumstances, whether I live or die, my goal remains the same: to be pleasing to the Lord.<\/p>\n\u201cAbsent from the body\u201d is not a precise metaphysical statement<\/h2>\n
What the Bible says about the state between death and resurrection<\/h2>\n