We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 5:8 Go To 2 Corinthians 5
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Paul has put the greatest thing of all last, for to be with Christ is greater than having an incorruptible body. By avoiding direct mention of painful things like death and the end, Paul has dealt with them in such a way as to make his hearers long for them by calling them “presence with God.” Similarly, he has passed over the sweet things of this life and expressed them in painful terms, calling them “absence from the Lord.” He did this in order that we should not fondly linger among what we now have but be prepared to depart for something much better.
