“We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened.”
[2 Cor. 5:4]
It is interesting that Paul does not call our body a building, a church or a mansion but a tabernacle. The first tabernacle was a tent of meeting, and Paul was a tent maker. I had the privilege of being saved in the Full Gospel Tabernacle, Billelsey, Birmingham on 15th January 1949. The thing about tents is that they have a roof but no foundations, because they are temporary structures. They can be moved, damaged, overturned and easily destroyed. We can do what we like with our earthly tabernacles but they are no better than tents; we can nurse, pamper, dress and adorn them and even idolise them, but they are basically dust and to dust they will return.
However, Paul distinguishes between soul and body almost as if we can live without the tabernacle, and we can, for he says “we that are in this tabernacle” because the soul is the man; the soul is the inhabitant. It is in it but not of it. It is immaterial, immortal, and capable of endless improvement. God is eternal and has no age, he does not grow old and was never young, and He is what he is; He is the ancient of days, always was and always will be. We on the other hand cannot save the tabernacle for it is subject to decay, disease and death, but the soul can be saved; Jesus died for that very purpose. Thus a man can gain the whole world and lose his own soul. To the body we show unending concern, we send for a doctor if we are ill, we employ lawyers to write our will and design and write-out our funeral requirements, but forget our soul.
So the question is what provision are we making for our soul? How will it be disposed of? Where will it go when Jesus calls us in that eternal day; have we provided for it? The complaint described by Paul is that the soul does groan within the tabernacle “being burdened.” This or these burdens are numerous and easily described for life is a vale of tears, and oppression and opposition are constant and unremitting. For who is able to safeguard us against our personal failure, losses, accidents and family bereavements with hostilities. Being a person who follows God does not exempt us from trials for God does not prune the bramble but the vine, and the stones that build his tabernacle are cut and polished to perfection! Being a son of God does not release us from calamity, for he chastens whom he calls and His correction is for children not for strangers.
These afflictions will never be joyous but often grievous, and will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness [Heb. 2:11]. In some ways we feel these privations and rebukes more than the world who reject His existence, and we tremble lest we are not sanctified, for we are within a divinely designed purpose. We must remember that those who follow Christ go without the camp bearing his reproach [Heb.13:13]. Thus the Christian life is an undeniable warfare, “for we wrestle against principalities and powers in high places and the rulers of the darkness of this world” [Eph. 6:12].
Not only is the soul burdened but it mourns over sin and pollution. Under God it embraces purity and abhors iniquity, for its reward is a tender conscience, but it feels that everything it does is spoiled, for although it loves the Holy Spirit it often feels it has grieved Him. Yearning to tread a pilgrim path and live a holy life, yet is distraught by alien thoughts that mar the gospel of forgiveness. If that soul is ours we sigh with conviction and wish we were what we profess, but know that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin daily. We also know that nothing will satisfy us until we move in the glorious liberty of the sons of God, and that is possible — it can be now! “For greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.” “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all than we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” [Eph 3:20-21] and it does!
