What does it mean that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord?
It means that as long as believers are alive on the planet and at home in their physical bodies, they are not bodily present with the Lord. A person cannot be in both places at once. Though spiritually they are already citizens of heaven, bodily absence from the Lord continues until the body is redeemed.
Les explains that while we are alive and on the planet, being “at home in the body” means we are absent bodily from the Lord—we cannot be in both places. Yet he notes that spiritually, in the realm of the invisible, believers are already citizens of heaven; Colossians says they have been translated into the kingdom of His dear Son. The context also ties this to the redemption of the body: the soul and spirit are redeemed at salvation, but the old body is not ready yet. God has put His down payment on it by the indwelling Holy Spirit, guaranteeing that one day believers will have a new body reunited with soul and spirit as a complete entity for eternity.
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: