We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed… (2 Corinthians 5:1)
Destroying the tent is a description of death. The tent (your body) will be taken down. One day, God himself will slacken the ropes, pull out the pegs, and the house God has given you will be destroyed.
Paul says, “If the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed…” Why does he say ‘if’? Because there was always the possibility that the Lord Jesus might return in glory while he was still alive.
Christ may come before your tent is taken down. But that does not keep Paul from facing the reality that has been the experience of every Christian believer for 2,000 years. At some point, the tent gets taken down.
If you start out in the Christian life thinking, “It is going to be heaven on earth,” you will not follow Jesus Christ for long. You will go round in circles wondering, “Why am I suffering? Why is there so much evil in the world? Why is my life so hard?”
Jesus described the Christian life like this: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). He is not saying, “Follow me and I will give you all that you ever wanted.”
It is really hard to be a Christian if you get following Jesus confused with the American dream.
People who do that live in perpetual disappointment. They are always losing heart.
Do you feel that you’re losing heart?
