Question:
Could you please take the time to explain Philippians 1:21-23 and 2 Corinthians 5:6-8? Do these passages teach that the soul goes to God at death?
Answer:
Philippians 1:21-23 states: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:”
2 Corinthians 5:6-8 reads: “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
Turning to Philippians, we note what the apostle says in verse 20: that Christ shall be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death. Therefore, for him, to live is Christ, and to die is gain for Christ. In either case, God would be glorified—whether in life or in death. The apostle declares that he does not know which of the two he should choose. If he were to live, suffering awaited him; if he were to die, God would still be glorified in his death, and he would find rest from all suffering. Therefore, he affirms, “I do not know,” which to choose. He finds himself in a dilemma between living and dying. However, he expresses a desire for a third option: “to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.”
The apostle clearly shows when he expects to be with Christ in other scriptures, such as 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. There, he explains that when Christ comes a second time, the living will be changed and the dead will be raised, and so we shall ever be with the Lord. This same thought is echoed in 2 Timothy 4:8, which refers to “that day” when Christ will return; also in Philippians 3:21, which states that Christ “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.” Jesus teaches this truth in Matthew 16:27: “For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.” This was the desire of the apostle—to experience a translation either at or before the second coming of our Lord. The original word rendered “depart” comes from the same root as “return” in Luke 12:36. The term “return” there clearly refers to the second coming of Christ.
Now, regarding the second scripture, let’s study the context of 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. It highlights three states or conditions that the apostle presents.
First, there is our earthly condition, described using phrases such as “our earthly house of this tabernacle,” “in this we groan,” “in this tabernacle,” “mortality,” “at home in the body,” and “absent from the Lord.”
Second, there is the condition of death, indicated by terms like “dissolved,” “found naked,” and “unclothed.”
Third, the future state for which the apostle longed is characterized by phrases such as “the building of God,” “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” “clothed upon with our house which is from heaven,” and “swallowed up of life.”
These three conditions should be clear to the reader. The first condition, in which the apostle and all other mortals find themselves, is one that is subject to trouble, trial, sickness, sadness, and death, leading to a collective groan for a better state.
The second condition involves being unclothed or dissolved, which refers to having no dwelling place—in other words, the state of being dead, an utterly undesirable condition.
The third condition represents being at home with the Lord, where mortality is swallowed up by life. This can be compared to 1 Corinthians 15:51-54, which explains how this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruptible shall put on incorruption at the last trumpet during the second coming of Christ.
Note also the parallelism between verses 2 and 4 of our text, and Romans 8:23, where the apostle declares that we, who “have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting”—not for death, but “for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” This promise is realized at the resurrection when “mortality might be swallowed up of life.”
Therefore, the apostle explains that while we are here, we walk by faith, not by sight. He eagerly looks forward to the glorious hope and culmination of the Christian journey, laboring with the desire that, whether he is present or absent—alive or dead—he may be accepted by Christ. He reminds us, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” This is the climax of the apostle’s message, which he views not as a time of condemnation but as one of joyful triumph in the Lord.
Thus, when properly understood and explained by other scriptures, neither of these passages teaches the immortality of the soul or the soul’s conscious existence apart from the body. Instead, they emphatically teach that the only hope for Christians is the second coming of our Lord.
