Bible Strands
2 Corinthians 5:8
We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writing to the Corinthian church, mid-argument about the tension between present bodily life and future presence with the Lord (5:6–10).
The words — εὐδοκοῦμεν (eudokoumen, "we are pleased") is not a neutral wish but a deliberate, well-disposed preference; it frames the desire as something the soul actively delights in, not merely tolerates.
The thread — Philippians 1:23 carries the same preference in first person ("I eagerly desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better"); 2 Corinthians 5:6 supplies the premise that while in the body one is absent from the Lord.
Why it lands — It forces a check: if the body is genuinely a place of absence from the Lord, then confidence in the present must rest on something other than the present, and the reader must decide whether that confidence is real or assumed.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Cross-references
- Philippians 1:20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
- 2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
- John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am.
- 1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.
- 2 Corinthians 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows.
- Psalms 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.
- Psalms 17:15 As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I will be satisfied in Your presence.
- Psalms 73:23 Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand.
- 2 Corinthians 5:9 So we aspire to please Him, whether we are at home in this body or away from it.
- 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.