Christians Have Two Homes

We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 Corinthians 5:1

The home you are living in now is a temporary one—canvas, ropes, and pegs. But you have another home that is more enduring, more substantial. The date for moving into your new home has not yet been given, but it is already known to God.

The apostle Paul is answering the question, What happens when a Christian dies? What happens the moment after a Christian closes his or her eyes in death? His answer is: To be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord (5:8)! The home Paul is referring to here is heaven itself.

The Bible sometimes speaks about heaven as a building, a house, or a city:

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:2)

He [Abraham] was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Heb. 11:10)

A Christian is a person who has two homes for the soul. The first home is your body, which is like a tent. When this home is pulled down, you will move into your other home, which is in heaven. Heaven is the home into which your soul will enter when its present home is destroyed.

The contrast between the two homes could hardly be greater: The tent is fragile, and it will be destroyed; the building is enduring and eternal. In the earthly tent there’s groaning, but in the “house not made with hands” mortal things are “swallowed up by life” (2 Cor. 5:1, 4).

If you are a Christian today, are you factoring in your second home?