2 Corinthians 5:2-3

Paul changed his figure slightly. God will clothe us with a new and better garment. Until then we groan because we feel the pains associated with mortality, namely, our physical limitations, sickness, and the increasing disability that accompanies advancing age. This new covering apparently awaits us immediately after death and before our resurrection. It is therefore probably an intermediate body.

Even though there is no specific instruction concerning an intermediate body and its characteristics in Scripture, its existence seems beyond doubt. References to believers after death and before resurrection suggest that they have bodies (cf. Lazarus, Luke 16:19-25; Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew 17:1-3, et al; the martyred dead in heaven, Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:13-17). These bodies evidently will not be suitable for eternal existence since God will replace them with resurrection bodies. [Note: John F. Walvoord, ed., Lewis Sperry Chafer’s Systematic Theology, abridged ed., 2:506-7. See also Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 4:414-15.] Another view sees this "building" or "dwelling" as our heavenly home. [Note: See Hodge, pp. 107-28; and Joe L. Wall, Going for the Gold, pp. 44-48.] God has also prepared a dwelling place for our resurrection bodies, but that does not seem to be in view here.

2 Corinthians 5:3 is parenthetic. Paul clarified that believers who die are not disembodied spirits until the resurrection of their bodies. Another interpretation sees believers as unclothed (without an intermediate body) between their death and resurrection. [Note: E.g., Barnett, pp. 262-63; and Martin, p. 106.] Those who hold this view understand Paul to be saying that he did not look forward to his disembodied condition. He anticipated the time when God would clothe him with an immortal body (at his resurrection).

"Greeks celebrated exercise in the nude, though even they regarded nakedness as shameful in some situations (Polybius 14.5.11). Although Romans favored nakedness less than Greeks (Juvenal Sat. 1.71), they had adopted the custom of nude bathing from Greeks (Plutarch Marcus Cato 20.5-6; Roman Q. 40, Mor. 274A), and Corinth had notable public baths (as well as public latrines). For most Jews, however, nudity remained scandalous." [Note: Keener, p. 180.]

I believe that one of the strongest arguments that we will never be disembodied spirits is that the Bible consistently views humans as unified beings. It does not describe the body as merely the house that the real person lives in. That is a Platonic concept that the early Gnostics and other anthropological dualists held. Rather, the Bible describes people as consisting of material and immaterial parts. If we were to lack material substance (either mortal or immortal), we would seemingly be less than human beings.