2 Cor. 5:2 For also in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our dwelling place from heaven. (Recovery Version Bible)
In 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 we see the concept that the clothing is the housing. [These verses] refer to being clothed with a home, not with a garment. So the housing is the clothing, and the clothing is the housing. Our garments, in a sense, are a house. When we are in the garment, we are in the house….Put on in Ephesians 4:24 means to be clothed with the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of truth.
How do we consider ourselves? Do we consider ourselves to be a proper dwelling place of God—a spiritual house? As we have mentioned, the tabernacle is an expression of gold, fine linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. If we say that we are God’s dwelling place, God’s tabernacle, do we express the gold? Do we have the purity? Do we express the blue, the purple, and the scarlet? If not, then what do we express? Is it something natural? Is it something of the flesh? If we express something natural, something of the flesh, we are not a suitable tabernacle of God. We must only have the expression of gold, pure linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. Then we are qualified to be God’s spiritual house—the tabernacle. When we express Christ in such an adequate way, we have put on the new man. That is, we have put on the church; we are clothed with the Body of Christ. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1966, vol. 1, “The Priesthood,” ch. 10)
