2 Corinthians 5 Bible study: Be reconciled to God

The chapter opens, "For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens." (5:1). Then it speaks of groaning: "For most certainly in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven" (5:2), "if indeed being clothed, we will not be found naked." (5:3). "For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened, not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." (5:4). And it says who is behind it: "Now he who made us for this very thing is God, who also gave to us the down payment of the Spirit." (5:5). The letter has said "the down payment of the Spirit" before, in 1:22, where Favor's 2 Corinthians 1 studies down payment. The verses speak of a tent and a building, of being clothed and not being found naked. The chapter doesn't explain these words beyond what they say, and these notes don't either, or apply them to anyone.

καταλλάσσωkatallassosay kat-al-LAS-so

Strong's: "to change mutually, i.e. (figuratively) to compound a difference". "But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ" (5:18): behind reconciled is this verb. It comes again in "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (5:19) and in "be reconciled to God" (5:20). 2 Corinthians has it only in these three verses (counted in RP2018). Favor's Romans 5 studies the verb, where it stands twice in Romans 5:10, and counts it in the New Testament. Strong's gives the noun behind reconciliation in 5:18 and 5:19 as formed from it (tap reconciliation).