The real you is not visible with the natural eye! The real you is living inside your physical, tangible body, which is likened in Scripture to a tent!
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. (2 Cor 5:1)
For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. (2 Cor 5:4)
To have the correct view of your physical body, that is, as a mere perishable, temporary tent, will help you focus in upon eternity and magnify the spiritual part of man.
A person who has been living in a tent for awhile will see signs of it aging. Maybe a little hole here and tear there, with sun bleached spots and stains, but that tent will surely show it has been used. People are like that. As we get older, more and more signs of aging appear – wrinkles, gray hair, age spots, failing health, etc., but that is nothing more than our tent wearing out! The real you isn’t growing older and wearing out like a tent. The real you is being renewed day by day:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (2 Cor 4:16)
Many people place far too much emphasis on the physical appearance of their earthly tent and far too little on their own spiritual condition. The spirit of man is eternal. That is why this whole scheme of things revolving around salvation and eternal life is so important. It will influence our eternal destiny. One day our bodies will die (our earthly tents will be rendered useless), but our spirits will continue on forever! Those same bodies, which many spent far too much time grooming and trying to make attractive, will rot in the grave and return to dirt while their eternal soul will continue to exist indefinitely! Peter viewed his body as a tent too and his death as putting it aside:
I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. (2 Pet 1:13,14)
Is it well with your soul today?
