Please explain 2 Cor. 5:1-10 and what is meant by "this tabernacle," "house not made with hands," "absent from the body," "present with the Lord," etc. Do these things refer to the soul and body? If those interested will read carefully 2 Cor. 5:1-10 they will find three conditions set forth by the apostle. The first condition is expressed in such terms as "earthly house of this tabernacle," "in this we groan," "mortality," "at home in the body," "absent from the Lord." The second condition is expressed by such terms as "unclothed," and "naked." The third condition is "a house not made with hands," "eternal in the heavens," "clothed upon," "being clothed," "not found naked," "swallowed up of life," "present with the Lord." The apostle Paul recognized that he was mortal and in the flesh. This was his condition. He longed for another condition; not that of being unclothed, or found naked, or death, but to be "clothed upon," "that mortality might be swallowed up of life." Mortality will be swallowed up of life when the Lord Jesus Christ comes the second time. 1 Cor. 15:51-54. The same conditions are represented in Rom. 8:23 where the apostle declares that we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the same thing as expressed in Corinthians, but here he tells us what it is; "waiting for the adoption; to wit, the redemption of our body." But the redemption of our body will take place when the Lord Jesus Christ comes the second time. 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. Therefore the thing for which Paul longed and groaned was the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when he would be made immortal. It was not death, it was not to be found naked, it was not to be unclothed, not to lose life, but to be saved eternally. Note in this last reference Paul tells us that we shall be present with the Lord only when He comes the second time; and so that it is by His coming, by resurrection and translation, shall we be ever with the Lord.