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| No Disparagement of Our Doctrine in St. Paul's Phrase, Which Calls Our Residence in the Flesh Absence from the Lord.
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Chapter XLIII.—No
Disparagement of Our Doctrine in St. Paul’s Phrase, Which Calls
Our Residence in the Flesh Absence from the Lord.
In the same way, when he says, “Therefore we
are always confident, and fully aware, that while we are at home in the
body we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not be
sight,”7566
it is manifest that
in this statement there is no design of disparaging the flesh, as if it
separated us from the Lord. For there is here pointedly addressed
to us an exhortation to disregard this present life, since we are
absent from the Lord as long as we are passing through it—walking
by faith, not by sight; in other words, in hope, not in reality.
Accordingly he adds: “We are indeed confident and deem it good
rather to be absent from the body, and present with the
Lord;”7567
in order, that is,
that we may walk by sight rather than by faith, in realization rather
than in hope. Observe how he here also ascribes to the excellence of
martyrdom a contempt for the body. For no one, on becoming absent from
the body, is at once a dweller in the presence of the Lord, except by
the prerogative of martyrdom,7568
| 7568 Comp. his De
Anima, c. lv. [Elucidation III.] | he gains a lodging
in Paradise, not in the lower regions. Now, had the apostle been at a
loss for words to describe the departure from the body? Or does
he purposely use a novel phraseology? For, wanting to express our
temporary absence from
the body, he says that we are strangers, absent from it, because a man
who goes abroad returns after a while to his home. Then he says even to
all: “We therefore earnestly desire to be acceptable unto God,
whether absent or present; for we must all appear before the
judgment-seat of Christ Jesus.”7569
If
all of us, then all of us wholly; if wholly, then our inward man and
outward too—that is, our bodies no less than our souls.
“That every one,” as he goes on to say, “may receive
the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it
be good or bad.”7570
Now I ask, how do
you read this passage? Do you take it to be confusedly constructed,
with a transposition7571
of ideas? Is the
question about what things will have to be received by the body, or the
things which have been already done in the body? Well, if the things
which are to be borne by the body are meant, then undoubtedly a
resurrection of the body is implied; and if the things which have been
already done in the body are referred to, (the same conclusion
follows): for of course the retribution will have to be paid by the
body, since it was by the body that the actions were performed. Thus
the apostle’s whole argument from the beginning is unravelled in
this concluding clause, wherein the resurrection of the flesh is set
forth; and it ought to be understood in a sense which is strictly in
accordance with this conclusion.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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