This life is temporary. We know that. But we don't act as if it is a significant fact. Always stressing about the ins and outs of day to day living. God does tell us to be faithful from day to day. Paul told the Thessalonians to work and not just sit around waiting for the end of time to get here. But in perspective... this world is still a very small portion of what God has for us.

So Paul uses the contrasting terms "earthly" and "eternal" to signify the two types of tents. Two idea of what this could mean are that 1) the tents are our bodies....on earth they will be destroyed and in heaven they will be remade or 2)the tents represent the world on which we live; earth being our earthly world and heaven being the eternal world.

All of these world/bodies have been made by God's hands but only the eternal factions are the ones that are not marred by sin.

2 Corinthians 5:1