The intermediate state

¹⁹“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.

²⁰A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was taken to his gate, full of sores,

²¹and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²²The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.

²³In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom.

²⁴He cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.’

²⁵“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But here he is now comforted, and you are in anguish.

²⁶Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that no one may cross over from there to us.’

²⁷“He said, ‘I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house;

²⁸for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won’t also come into this place of torment.’

²⁹“But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’

³⁰“He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’

³¹“He said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.’ ”

¹For 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.

²For most certainly in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,

³if indeed being clothed, we will not be found naked.

⁴For 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.

⁵Now he who made us for this very thing is God, who also gave to us the down payment of the Spirit.

⁶Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;

⁷for we walk by faith, not by sight.

⁸We are courageous, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.