‘You are so heavenly minded, you’re no earthly use.’ Not infrequently I have this spoken over me, having neglected some basic domestic duty because ‘my head was in the clouds’! Perhaps you can identify with me.

Paul’s head (and heart) are most certainly in the clouds as he passionately expresses his desire to depart this life and be with Christ. His passion for what is to come puts to shame my own easy satisfaction with my material existence. 

But, of course, it is not a question of either/or. Paul explains that the Spirit of God is given to whet his appetite for the life to come and at the same time to focus his mind on pleasing God in Corinth! So it is for us. The more our heads are in the clouds the greater should be our desire to please God on earth, here and now. Today. With his head so in the clouds, can he focus on the here and now? Well, yes. There is the small matter of having to give account of his life before the judgement seat of Christ. It is in fact a very large matter and should concentrate our minds not in fear, but in joyful abandonment to please God every day.

The vision: ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death … the old order of things has passed away.’¹

Christians disagree about the nature of the life to come. Some think we sleep in Christ until the day of resurrection and final judgement (v 10). Others imagine that, having died, we pass immediately and consciously into heaven. Others think that if we are sleeping anyway the first amounts to the second, to all intents and purposes. Yet others say that all we need to know is that when we are absent from the body we are with the Lord (v 8). In the meantime, we have the Spirit as the guarantee of greater life to come and while we are in the body we should get on with pleasing the Lord (v 9).

It is clear that Paul’s train of thought on faith in the unseen leads him to dwell for some moments on high theological themes. We see this move from present troubles to deep theological truth frequently in this letter. It matters to Paul that we should have a body in which to dwell – otherwise we are ‘naked’ (v 3). Our present bodies are like an earthly tent, fragile and vulnerable and certainly mortal, subject to death and dying. Yet they are necessary: otherwise (literally) where would we be? In the future life, however, all this will be ‘swallowed up by life’ (v 4). So Paul seems not to fear the prospect of death but to look beyond it to a new world of resurrection existence that is imperishable, ‘an eternal house in heaven’ (v 1). Final judgement is not something to fear, but a resolution of everything that falls short in this life.

Being mortal, it is difficult for us not to shrink back from death; but here is a glorious hope that it is not the end but the beginning of life. There is love at the end.

Jesus said, ‘I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.’²

¹ Rev 21:4  ² John 14:3