1-2. The groans which we are sometimes compelled to utter whilst abiding in this tabernacle are but the expression of a longing — we desire and we utterly need that heavenly covering to replace this earthly;
3. and when we get that new kind of body, we shall no longer like Adam and Eve be found to be naked. We shall be clothed at last, clothed in life, clothed in immortality.
4. We are naked enough in this mortal flesh; and our great need is not to take anything more off, as some regard the stripping of the soul by death —
9. Now our exile is from the perishable body, and our home is with the Lord.
10. Bearing this in mind, whatever our condition, whether exiled or at home, we seek with great care and energy to observe the dictates of the Lord and to please him; for this passage from the mortal to the immortal, this complete reversal of our state as living in the Lord rather than in the body, involves as you all know the judgment seat of the Christ, before which everyone who has partaken of this mortal flesh must receive the necessary reward for what he has done in it, either doom if it be of the flesh and worthless, or good if it agree with immortality. All that we are must be manifested in just that way.
11. This process of the manifestation of the true self as it appears in the eyes of God continues apace, but it is not understood by men, so we have to be gentle and persuasive with them; yet I believe that in your mind I am known for what I am in the truth.
12. It is that which is your real boast concerning me, it is that alone which recommends me, nothing else can afford you any grounds for satisfaction in me.
13. For my spiritual self which is not in the body exists for God, whilst in my human relations with you I claim nothing, I make no pretentions — as do some who find material for self-congratulation in the outward man. But that is not so with me; for I can no longer look on man from that standpoint.
14. I behold the love of the Christ, I see in his one death the death of all of us already accomplished after the manner of his death —