Bible study on 2 Corinthians 5

                                                           

“For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.  For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened - not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  He who had prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”  2Cor. 5:1-5

We’ve been studying parables of the Bible in our Sunday morning class as Jesus used them often in order to teach spiritual lessons to His disciples.  They are usually loosely defined as being a story based upon a commonly known situation to teach a heavenly or spiritual lesson.  The dictionary defines them as being: “A short allegorical story designed to convey a truth or moral lesson.”  So, a parable and an allegory are basically the same thing.

Having said all of that is just my way of leading us into our lesson today.  It’s one that will be seen in the telling of a little allegorical story that a friend sent me many years ago and I don’t think that you’ll have any trouble seeing the spiritual lesson within its telling.  Following is that allegory/parable.

    “Once upon a time twins were conceived in a womb.  Seconds, minutes, hours passed and their beginning was culminated with the formation of their embryonic brains.  With their simple brains came feeling, and with feeling, perception: a perception of their surroundings, of each other, and of self.

When they perceived the life of each other and their own life, they knew that life was good, and they laughed and rejoiced, the one saying “lucky are we to have been conceived and to have this world.”  And the other chimed in, “Blessed be the mother who gave us this life and each other.”

Each budded and grew arms and fingers, lean legs and stubby toes.  They stretched their limbs and turned in this new-found world.  They explored their world, and in it found the life cord which gave them life from the precious mother’s blood.  So they sang, “How great is the love of the mother that she shares all she has with us!”  And they were pleased and satisfied with their lot.

Weeks passed into months, and with the advent of each new month, they noticed a change in each other and each began to see change in himself.  “We are changing,” said one, “What does it mean?”

“It means,” replied the other, “that we are drawing near to birth.”

An unsettling chill swept over the two and they both feared for they knew that birth meant leaving their world behind.  Said the one, “Were it up to me, I would live here forever.” 

“We must be born, “ said the other. “It has happened to all others who were here.”  For indeed there was evidence of life there before, as the mother had born others. 

“But mightn’t there be life after birth?” asked one.

“How can there be life after birth?” cried the other, “Do we not shed our life cord and also the blood tissue?  And have you ever talked to one that has been born?  Has anyone ever re-entered the womb after birth?  No!” He fell into despair, the other one stabbed the darkness with his unseeing eyes and clutched his precious life cord to his chest.  “If this is so, and life is absurd, then there can be no mother.”

“But there is a mother,” protested the other. “Who else gave us nourishment and our world?”  

“We get our own nourishment and our world has always been here.  And if there is a mother, where is she?  Have you seen here?  Does she talk to you?  No!  We invented the mother because it satisfied a need in us.  It made us feel secure and happy.”

Thus, while one raved and despaired, the other resigned himself to birth and placed his trust in the hands of the mother.

Hours stretched into days, and days became weeks.  And it came time.  Both knew their birth was at hand, and both feared what they did not know.  As the one was first to be conceived, so she was the first to be born, the other following.

They cried as they were born into the light.  Coughing out fluid, they gasped the dry air.  And when they were sure they had been born, they opened their eyes seeing for the first time, and found themselves cradled in the warm love of the mother!  They lay open-mouthed, awe-struck before the beauty and truth they could not have known.

Ron Covey