If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
People are earnest in their prayers that they should not be excluded from the glory which is promised. This is what being found naked means. For when the soul is clothed in a body, it must also be clothed with the glory by which it is transformed into brightness. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
If so that being clothed we shall not be found naked. Instead of clothed, some read unclothed, through a difference of a letter in the Greek compound verb. This reading is followed by Augustine and Bede, Ambrose, Tertullian, and Paulinus; and Augustine thus gives the sense: "We shall be clothed upon with heavenly glory, when once we are stripped of this body and clothed with Christ."
We should observe that the Apostle here distinguishes three things, (1.) the being unclothed and naked, (2.) the being clothed, (3.) the being clothed upon. As in the last verse he called our heavenly glory a house, so here by another metaphor he calls it a robe. Now some explain this passage thus: We long to be clothed upon with our heavenly home, the heavenly and incorruptible body, in such a way, however, that we may be gifted with immortality and glory, and be found not bare, but clothed with glory. For, as the Apostle says in I Cor. xv51: "We shall all rise indeed to immortality, but we shall not all...
The unbeliever and the evil man, even if by chance he puts on a heavenly body, will still be found naked, because he has done nothing to acquire the clothing of the inner man. .
That we may be found clothed, not naked, not divested of the body, as before; i.e. we desire immortal happiness without dying: though some expound it, not naked; i.e. not deprived of the glory we hope for. (Witham)
When we discard our present body, we shall receive in heaven the same body in an incorruptible form. It is however possible to be clothed in this body and yet still be found naked, that is, without glory or security. The resurrection is common to all, but the glory is not. Some will rise to honor and others to dishonor, some to a kingdom and others to punishment.
That is, even if we have put off the body, we shall not be presented there without a body, but even with the same one made incorruptible. But some read, and it deserves very much to be adopted, If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For lest all should be confident because of the Resurrection, he says, If so be that being clothed, that is, having obtained incorruption and an incorruptible body, we shall not be found naked of glory and safety. As he also said in the former Epistle; We shall all be raised; but each in his own order. And, There are celestial bodies, and bodies terrestial. 1 Corinthians 15:22-23 (ib. 40.) For the Resurrection indeed is common to all, but the glory is not common; but some shall rise in honor and others in dishonor, and some to a kingdom but others to punishment. This surely he signified here also, when he said; If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
Everyone, righteous and unrighteous alike, will put on immortality. But if the latter are consigned to hell, that is the same thing as being found naked. .
