---

The word "confident" here means courageous, and implies —

1. Unavoidable perils and trials (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). The man that rushes into danger is not courageous, but reckless.

2. Intelligent views and convictions of being. Much of battle-field valour springs from ignorance of what existence is, or false views of it. Paul regarded —

(1) The body as the organ of being — an "earthly house."(2) The soul as the personality of being. "We that are in this house." The soul, not the body, is the I, or self, of being.

(3) Death as only a change in the mode of being.

(4) Heaven as the perfection of being. It is "the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." But these views are repeated here in a more condensed form. The apostle's courage was based on —

I. A CONSCIOUSNESS THAT HIS DEATH WOULD NOT ENDANGER THE INTERESTS OF BEING.

1. That which gives a fear-awakening power to events is the dread of death. The most malignant disease, the fiercest hurricane, or the loudest roar of musketry would have no fear-awakening power without this. Let the fear be taken away, as it was from Paul, and men would then, like him, be always courageous.

2. Now observe the apostle's view of —

(1) The interests of being. "Present with the Lord."(2) The bearing of death upon the interests of being. He regarded death as the flight of the spirit to the presence of its Lord. "Absent from the body," etc.

3. Notice Paul's state of mind under the influence of these thoughts. "Willing rather," etc.

II. A CONSCIOUSNESS THAT DEATH WOULD NOT DESTROY THE GREAT PURPOSE OF BEING.

1. Men without purpose are almost indifferent to life.

2. The master-purposes of men differ. They are pleasure, wealth, to please God. This last was Paul's grand purpose. "Wherefore we labour," etc. This purpose is —

(1) Reasonable. If there be a God, reason dictates that to please Him ought to be the supreme purpose of intelligent natures.

(2) Delightful. The highest happiness of a moral intelligence is to please the chief object of its love.

3. Now death destroys the main purposes of the voluptuous, avaricious, and ambitious, and hence it is terrible to them, but it does not destroy the chief purpose of the Christian. "Whether present or absent" his chief purpose will be to be "accepted of Him."

III. A CONSCIOUSNESS THAT DEATH WOULD NOT PREVENT THE REWARDS OF BEING (ver. 10). Success must ever have an influence upon the mind of man in every department of labour. Non-success discourages. The Christian labourer looks for success, but it does not appear here at all proportioned either to his desires or efforts. Paul, no doubt, would like to have seen the full results of his labours in Corinth, etc., and if death could have prevented a full realisation, he would have esteemed it an evil, and shrunk from it with fear. But here he distinctly affirms an opposite conviction.

1. Every one shall receive the recompense of labour.

2. Every one shall receive a reward for every deed. For every good deed. There shall be no lost labour. And every "bad" deed, too, shall be recompensed. Conclusion — If we possess Paul's convictions of life and his spirit, we may have this sublime courage. Let us look at death as he looked at death, as the flight of the spirit into the presence of its Lord. Is not fear of death a disgrace to the Christian? "If," said Cicero, "I were now disengaged from my cumbrous body, and on my way to Elysium, and some superior being should meet me in my flight and make the offer of returning and remaining in my body, I should, without hesitation, reject the offer, so much should I prefer going to Elysium, to be with Socrates and Plato, and all the ancient worthies, and to spend my time in converse with them." How much more should the Christian desire to be "absent from the body and present with the Lord!"

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

---

---

KJV: Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

WEB: Therefore, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;