The Earthly Tent

While we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:4
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The Earthly Tent
St. Peter calls his body a tent in which the soul dwells [2 Peter 1:13] . . .. Thus Saint Paul also says in 2 Corinthians 5:1-2, 4: "For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling . . . for while we are still in this tent we sigh with anxiety, etc." Likewise (vv. 6, 8): "So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord . . . We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord." Here the apostle Paul also calls the body a house and designates two homes and two pilgrimages. Thus here Peter calls the body a tent in which the soul rests. He speaks disparagingly enough of this and does not want to call it a house; he calls it a hut and a barn such as is used by shepherds. The treasure is great, but the box in which it lies and dwells is small.

From Sermons on 2 Peter (Luther's Works 30:161)
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