The misquote is: "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." This misquote is often used to support the view that, at death, Christians go immediately to heaven. I have even known seasoned Bible teachers who stated this misquote, and who thought I was off my beam when I said that it wasn't in the Bible.
Paul would hardly have taught that Christians are immediately present with the Lord in heaven at death. For he wrote in 1 Cor 15:16-19
I understand this as saying that if the dead are not raised, then those who have died have perished forever—no longer exist. Yet, I have heard it argued that Paul is saying only that this would be the case if Christ had not been raised. But verse 32 seems to support my understanding:For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Is Paul not saying here that if the dead are not raised, then we might as well enjoy the present life as long as possible, for there would be no afterlife?What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
However, if we go immediately to heaven at death there WOULD be an afterlife apart from the resurrection. Indeed what would be the importance of a resurrection at all, if we go to heaven as disembodied spirits? Would we not be eternally happy in the presence of the Lord and our departed loved ones? Maybe the entertainment of that idea provides the reason why so many minimize our bodily resurrection.
But then what DID Paul mean by the misquoted verse? Let's examine it in its context (2 Corinthians 5):
Paul seems to think of our natural body as a house or a tent in which we dwell. But the house that comes from God in which we SHALL dwell, is our changed body—our resurrection body.1 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.
In our present body we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our resurrection body which has its source from God in heaven. When we have been so clothed, we will not be found "naked" that is, we will not be mere disembodied spirits.2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
Again he says we groan in this present body, not because we want to be "unclothed", mere disembodied spirits, but be further clothed, that is with our resurrection body, so that our mortal body may be swallowed up with the everlasting life of our immortal body.4 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.
While we remain in our present mortal body, we are absent from the Lord, who is in heaven.5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
We would rather be absent from this present mortal body and be present with the Lord in our immortal resurrection body.7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.