Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday after Pentecost

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2 Co 5:1–10)

Paul is saying that people are yearning that when they rise again they may be clothed in the promised heavenly glory. They are earnest in their prayers that they should not be excluded from the glory which is promised. This is what being found naked means. For when the soul is clothed in a body it must also be clothed with the glory which is its transformation into brightness.

Death comes from the earth but resurrection from the heavens, as long as there is a change into glory. There will be, but only if on departing out of this body we are clothed in Christ, because everyone who is baptized in Christ puts Him on like a garment. So if we have remained in the form and faith of our baptism, we shall be found with our body stripped, but not naked, because Christ dwells in our inner selves, and when we are clothed (or when the Holy Spirit has been given to us), we shall be worthy of being clothed in the promised glory of heaven. The promised brightness will fall on the person whom He sees as having the sign of adoption.…

Paul is right to be of good courage, because relying on the promise of God and knowing that it is much better to be in that other place than it is to remain in this world, they are willing to leave the body and rest until the day of resurrection under the throne of God. [He] is saying that we must do this and put our energy into good works in order to please God, whether we remain in this life or go to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. If we keep up our self-discipline, we will be pleasing both here and there, because someone who is pleasing here will hardly be displeasing there. If, on the day of Christ’s judgment, we are going to receive what we have done in the body, it is clear that we shall not be judged without a body, good or bad.

Ambrosiaster, Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5