<p>5:6 <i>Being therefore always of good courage</i>- The &quot;therefore&quot; refers to the fact we have been given the Spirit in our hearts (1:22) as a guarantee that we shall indeed be finally saved. Those like the Corinthians who deny the Spirit are left without this &quot;good courage&quot;. It is that experience of the Spirit which convicts us that we are not &quot;at home&quot; in secular life, and long to be united with the Lord Jesus more fully (:8). The Greek word for &quot;good courage&quot; is used by Paul only here in 2 Corinthians (5:8; 7:16; 10:1,2). This personal confidence that we shall be saved inspires a generally hopeful and confident approach in dealing with others, not least politically fraught and tense situations as Paul faced with the Corinthians.</p><p><i>And knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord</i>- &quot;At home&quot; translates the word which is found later in :8 and :9. The AV makes a mess here by not consistently translating the word. We are &quot;at home in the body&quot; but we would rather be &quot;at home&quot; with the Lord (:8). &quot;At home&quot; means just that- in your family. &quot;Absent&quot; carries the idea of having emigrated abroad, of having quit something. This definition is crucial to understand this passage from :7-9. I suggest that Paul is not merely describing the general situation of believers in mortality- as if to say that if we are still in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus is a major New Testament theme; we are not &quot;absent&quot; from Him. But we should not be in a position where we have emigrated from Him, gone out from Him, quit Him- and these are the ideas present in <i>ek-demeo</i>. Without question, the <i>ek </i>prefix means 'out of', and it carries that meaning around 900 times in the New Testament. I suggest rather that Paul is teaching that if we are at home in the body, if secular life is our natural and preferred habitat, where we feel most at home; then we have emigrated, gone away, from the Lord Jesus.&nbsp;</p>