Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 5:7
(For we walk by faith, not by sight: )
7. for we walk by faith, not by sight ] Cf. ch. 2Co 4:18 and Joh 20:29. The word translated sight signifies not the act of vision, but the thing seen. Cf. Luk 3:22; Luk 9:29; Joh 5:37, in two of which passages the word is translated shape, in the third fashion. This is the reason of the statement made in the last verse. We are absent from God, because we are not yet face to face with the heavenly realities, but dimly realize them afar off (1Co 13:12; Heb 11:1).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For we walk – To walk, in the Scriptures often denotes to live, to act, to conduct in a certain way; see the notes on Rom 4:12; Rom 6:4. It has reference to the fact that life is a journey, or a pilgrimage, and that the Christian is traveling to another country. The sense here is, that we conduct ourselves in our course of life with reference to the things which are unseen, and not with reference to the things which are seen.
By faith – In the belief of those things which we do not see. We believe in the existence of objects which are invisible, and we are influenced by them. To walk by faith, is to live in the confident expectation of things that are to come; in the belief of the existence of unseen realities; and suffering them to influence us as if they were seen. The people of this world are influenced by the things that are seen. They live for wealth, honor, splendor, praise, for the objects which this world can furnish, and as if there were nothing which is unseen, or as if they ought not to be influenced by the things which are unseen. The Christian, on the contrary, has a firm conviction of the reality of the glories of heaven; of the fact that the Redeemer is there; of the fact that there is a crown of glory; and he lives, and acts as if that were all real, and as if he saw it all. The simple account of faith, and of living by faith is, that we live and act as if these things were true, and suffer them to make an impression on our mind according to their real nature; see the note on Mar 16:16.
It is contradistinguished from living simply under the influence of things that are seen. God is unseen – but the Christian lives, and thinks, and acts as if there were a God, and as if he saw him. Christ is unseen now by the bodily eye; but the Christian lives and acts as if he were seen, that is, as if his eye were known to be upon us, and as if he was now exalted to heaven and was the only Saviour. The Holy Spirit is unseen; but he lives, and acts as if there were such a Spirit, and as if his influences were needful to renew, and purify the soul. Heaven is unseen; but the Christian lives, and thinks, and acts as if there were a heaven, and as if he now saw its glories. He has confidence in these, and in kindred truths, and he acts as if they were real. Could man see all these; were they visible to the naked eye as they are to the eye of faith, no one would doubt the propriety of living and acting with reference to them.
But if they exist, there is no more impropriety in acting with reference to them than if they were seen. Our seeing or not seeing them does not alter their nature or importance, and the fact that they are not seen does not make it improper to act with reference to them. There are many ways of being convinced of the existence and reality of objects besides seeing them; and it may be as rational to be influenced by the reason, the judgment, or by strong confidence, as it is to be influenced by sight. Besides, all people are influenced by things which they have not seen. They hope for objects that are future. They aspire to happiness which they have not yet beheld. They strive for honor and wealth which are unseen, and which is in the distant future. They live, and act – influenced by strong faith and hope – as if these things were attainable; and they deny themselves, and labor, and cross oceans and deserts, and breathe in pestilential air to obtain those things which they have not seen, and which to them are in the distant future.
And why should not the Christian endure like labor, and be willing to suffer in like manner, to gain the unseen crown which is incorruptible, and to acquire the unseen wealth which the moth does not corrupt? And further still, the people of this world strive for those objects which they have not beheld, without any promise or any assurance that they shall obtain them. No being able to grant them has promised them; no one has assured them that their lives shall be lengthened out to obtain them. In a moment they may be cut off and all their plans frustrated; or they may be utterly disappointed and all their plans fail; or if they gain the object, it may be unsatisfactory, and may furnish no pleasure such as they had anticipated. But not so the Christian. He has:
(1) The promise of life.
(2) He has the assurance that sudden death cannot deprive him of it. It at once removes him to the object of pursuit, not from it.
(3) He has the assurance that when obtained, it shall not disgust, or satiate, or decay, but that it shall meet all the expectations of the soul, and shall be eternal.
Not by sight – This may mean either that we are not influenced by a sight of these future glories, or that we are not influenced by the things which we see. The main idea is, that we are not influenced and governed by the sight. We are not governed and controlled by the things which we see, and we do not see those things which actually influence and control us. In both it is faith that controls us, and not sight.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. For we walk by faith] While we are in the present state faith supplies the place of direct vision. In the future world we shall have sight-the utmost evidence of spiritual and eternal things; as we shall be present with them, and live in them. Here we have the testimony of God, and believe in their reality, because we cannot doubt his word. And to make this more convincing he gives us the earnest of his Spirit, which is a foretaste of glory.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is, we live, and order our conversations, not by sight, or any evidence of sense, but by faith, which is described by the apostle, Heb 11:1, to be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We see nothing here by the eye of sense but mortality, corruption, and misery; but by faith we see another more excellent and glorious state, and we order our life according to our faith, and sight of things that are invisible: or sight here may be taken more strictly for the beatific vision prepared in heaven for the saints.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. we walkin our Christiancourse here on earth.
not by sightGreek,“not by appearance.” Our life is governed by faith in ourimmortal hope; not by the outward specious appearance ofpresent things [TITTMANN,Greek Synonyms of the New Testament]. Compare “apparently,”the Septuagint, “by appearance,” Nu12:8. WAHL supportsEnglish Version. 2Co 4:18also confirms it (compare Rom 8:24;1Co 13:12; 1Co 13:13).God has appointed in this life faith for our great duty, andin the next, vision for our reward [SOUTH](1Pe 1:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For we walk by faith, and not by sight. Faith is a grace which answers many useful purposes; it is the eye of the soul, by which it looks to Christ for righteousness, peace, pardon, life, and salvation; the hand by which it receives him, and the foot by which it goes to him, and walks in him as it has received him; which denotes not a single act of faith, but a continued course of believing; and is expressive, not of a weak, but of a strong steady faith of glory and happiness, and of interest in it: and it is opposed to “sight”: by which is meant, not sensible communion, but the celestial vision: there is something of sight in faith; that is a seeing of the Son; and it is an evidence of things not seen, of the invisible glories of the other world; faith looks at, and has a glimpse of things not seen, which are eternal; but it is but seeing as through a glass darkly; it is not that full sight, face to face, which will be had hereafter, when faith is turned into vision.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
By sight ( ). Rather, by appearance.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
By sight [ ] . The correct rendering is appearance. The word is not used actively in the sense of vision. Faith is contrasted with the actual appearance of heavenly things. Hence the marginal reading of the Rev. should go into the text.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For we walk by faith,” (dia pisteos gar peripatoumen) “For trough faith we walk,” perambulate, move around on earth, in this body, by means of faith, in contrast with sight, or appearance, 1Co 16:13; Gal 2:20; Gal 5:6.
2) “Not by sight “ (ouk dia eidous) “not through clear perception;” Heb 11:1; Heb 11:13; Heb 11:33. As Moses endured and was blessed by faith, seeing him “who is invisible,” so may we be blessed by believing and walking by faith, 1Pe 1:8; Joh 20:29; Rom 4:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7. For we walk by faith (Εἰδος) I have here rendered aspectum , ( sight,) because few understood the meaning of the word species , ( appearance.) (520) He states the reason, why it is that we are now absent from the Lord — because we do not as yet see him face to face. (1Co 13:12.) The manner of that absence is this — that God is not openly beheld by us. The reason why he is not seen by us is, that we walk by faith Now it is on good grounds that faith is opposed to sight, because it, perceives those things that are hid from the view of men — because it reaches forth to future things, which do not as yet appear. For such is the condition of believers, that they resemble the dead rather than the living — that they often seem as if they were forsaken by God — that they always have the elements of death shut up within them. Hence they must necessarily hope against hope. (Rom 4:18.) Now the things that are hoped for are hid, as we read in Rom 8:24, and faith is the
manifestation of things which do not appear. (Heb 11:1.) (521)
It is not to be wondered, then, if the apostle says, that we have not as yet the privilege of sight, so long as we walk by faith For we see, indeed, but it is through a glass, darkly; (1Co 13:12,) that is, in place of the reality we rest upon the word.
(520) “ Espece, ainsi qu’on a accoustumé de traduire en Latin ce mot Grec;” — “ Species , as they have been accustomed to render in Latin this Greek word.” Those interpreters who have rendered εἴδος species , (appearance,) employ the word species to mean what is seen, as distinguished from what is invisible — what has a visible form. The term, however, (as Calvin hints,) is ambiguous, being frequently employed to denote appearance, as distinguished from reality. — Ed.
(521) “Concerning the import of the original term ὑπόστασις, translated substance, (Heb 11:1,) there has been a good deal of discussion, and it has been understood to signify confidence or subsistence. Faith is the confidence of things hoped for; because it assures us, not only that there are such things, but that, through the power and faithfulness of God, we shall enjoy them. It is the subsistence of things hoped for; because it gives them, although future, a present subsistence in the minds of believers, so that they are influenced by them as if they were actually present. Thus the word was understood by some of the Greek commentators, who were the most competent judges of its meaning. ‘Since things which we hope for,’ says Chrysostom, ‘seem not to subsist, faith gives them subsistence, or rather it does not give it, but is itself their substance. Thus the resurrection of the dead is not past, nor does it subsist, but faith gives it subsistence in our souls.’ ‘Faith,’ says another, ‘gives subsistence to the resurrection of the dead, and places it before our eyes…’ The objects of faith are not only future good, but invisible things, both good and evil, which are made known by divine revelation; and of these it is the evidence, ἔλεγχος the demonstration or conviction. .. Being past, and future, and invisible on account of their distance from us, or the spirituality of their nature, they cannot be discovered by our senses, but the conviction of their reality is as strong in the mind of a believer, as if they were placed before his eyes.” — Dick’s Theology, volume 3. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) For we walk by faith, not by sightBetter, and not by what we see (or, by appearance). It seems almost sad to alter the wording of a familiar and favourite text, but it must be admitted that the word translated sight never means the faculty of seeing, but always the form and fashion of the thing seen. (Comp. Luk. 3:22; Luk. 9:29; Joh. 5:37.) The fact is taken for granted; and it comes as the proof that as we are, we are absent from the Lord. Now we believe in Him without seeing Him; hereafter we shall see Him face to face. Our life and conduct and our walk in this world rest on our belief in the Unseen.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. For Reason why we realize the superiority of our Christ-home; our eye of faith sees what our eye of body does not.
We walk The Christian’s progress through the world. By Rather, through, the preposition of instrumentality, faith; being the candle through whose light we are thus able to walk aright.
By sight Rather, according to appearance; that is, to the bodily eye. Faith enables us to walk in disregard of material and worldly interests.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Co 5:7. For we walk by faith, &c. “We now walk and conduct ourselves in the whole course of our life, by the faith of objects as yet unseen, and not by the sight of those glories, or by a regard to those things which we can see.” Comp. Gal 3:11. Heb 10:38.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Co 5:7 . Reason assigned for the . For through faith we walk , etc.; faith is the sphere through which we walk, i.e. faith is the element through which our earthly life moves . If we walked , seeing that this presupposes the being together with Christ, we should not be . The object of faith we must from the whole connection conceive to be the Lord in His glory, whose real form ( ) we shall only have before us when we are with Him. Comp. Rom 8:17 ; 1Th 4:17 ; Joh 17:24 ; 1Pe 1:8 , al.
] quite in accordance with the Greek phrase . Comp. , Rev 21:24 , and the classical expressions and the like; see, in general, Valckenaer, ad Phoeniss . 402; Heindorf, ad Protag . p. 323 A; Hermann, ad Oed. Col. 905; Bernhardy, p. 235.
] i.e. not so, that we are surrounded by the appearance , not so, that we have before us Christ, the Exalted One, in His real appearance and form, i.e. in His visible , and that this glorious shines round us in our walk. Comp. Joh 17:24 , and the , 1Co 13:12 . never means, as it is mostly explained, vision (not even in Num 12:8 ), but always species . The Vulgate renders rightly: per speciem . See Luk 3:22 ; Luk 9:29 ; Joh 5:37 ; 1Th 5:22 ; Duncan, Lex. , ed. Rost, p. 333; Ast, Lex. Plat. I. p. 607 f.; Tittmann, Synon . p. 119, who, however, with the assent of Lipsius ( Rechtfertigungsl. p. 100), wrongly takes it: externa rerum specie captum vivere , so that the meaning would be: “Vita nostra immortali ilia spe, non harum rerum vana specie regitur.” According to this view, different objects would quite arbitrarily be assumed for and ; and further, where Paul specifies with that by which it is defined , he uses as a prepositional expression not , but (Rom 8:4 ; Rom 14:15 , al. ), or renders palpable the manner of the walking by (2Co 4:2 ; Rom 6:4 , al. ), or characterizes it by the dative, as 2Co 12:18 ; Gal 5:16 . These reasons tell also in opposition to Hofmann, who explains of the walk, which has its quality from faith , etc., and of an outward form of the walker himself , in which the latter presents himself as visible.
Regarding the relation of the to the , observe that in the temporal life we have the , and not the , while in the future world through the Parousia there is added to the also the , but the former does not thereby cease, it rather remains eternal (1Co 13:13 ).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2018
THE CHRISTIAN WALKING BY FAITH
2Co 5:7. We walk by faith, not by sight.
IF we behold any wonderful effects, we naturally inquire after the cause that has produced them. Now in the preceding context we behold as extraordinary a phenomenon as can be conceived: a sinner, like ourselves, not only divested of all fear of death, but longing after it as the consummation of all his hopes, and the completion of all his desires. This is a frame of mind totally unknown to man by nature, and incapable of being produced by any natural means. How then was it produced in the Apostle Paul? He tells us, He that hath wrought us to the self-same thing, is God. But how did God work it? for it is certain that he works by means. I answer, By forming in his soul a principle of faith, and making that the great moving cause of all his actions. This is the account which St. Paul himself gives us in the words before us: We are willing to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight [Note: Compare the text with the preceding and following verses.]. It was by faith that he attained this blessed state: and if, like him, we cultivate that heavenly principle, and take it as the spring and source of all our conduct, we shall find it productive of similar blessedness in our souls. It is, in truth, this principle, which above all others distinguishes the true Christian from every other person under heaven.
To explain and vindicate his conduct in reference to this matter, we will shew,
I.
The principle by which the Christian is actuated
He fixes his eye, not on things visible and temporal, but on things invisible and eternal
[This is declared at the close of the preceding chapter [Note: 2Co 4:18.]; and the same contrast is marked in our text. Faith is opposed to sight, and has respect entirely to things which are beyond the reach of mortal eyes. It looks upon an unseen God; even as Moses did, who feared not the wrath of Pharaoh, because he saw him that is invisible [Note: Heb 11:27.]. This great and adorable Being it beholds, and contemplates all his glorious perfections. It sees all his mind and will in the book of revelation: it recognises his superintending providence in all events: it regards him as inspecting continually the most hidden recesses of our souls, and noting every thing in the book of his remembrance in order to a future judgment.
Faith also views an unseen Saviour as the supreme object of his peoples love, and the only foundation of all their hopes [Note: 1Pe 1:8.]. It beholds him dying for their sins, and rising again for their justification: yea, it sees him interceding for them at the right hand of God, and preserving for them that peace which by their sins and infirmities they would soon forfeit. It enters into the whole of the Saviours work and offices, surveying them in all their extent and variety; and particularly regards him as the fountain of life to all his people; as having in himself all fulness of spiritual blessings treasured up for them, and imparting to them continually out of that fulness according to their several necessities.
Faith views an unseen heaven also. It soars and penetrates into the very paradise of God, and surveys the crowns and kingdoms which God has there prepared for all that love him. There it beholds that glorious tabernacle which the soul shall inhabit as soon as this earthly house shall be dissolved: and in the promises recorded in the written word, it sees the possession of that glory assured to every believing soul, assured by an everlasting covenant, and by the oath of a God that cannot lie.
Such are the objects of faith! and such the objects on which the Christians eye is continually fixed!]
By these he regulates the whole of his life and conversation
[These are the things which draw forth his regards; and in comparison of these all earthly things are but as dung and dross. For these he sighs, and groans, and weeps, and strives: to obtain an interest in them is more to him than ten thousand worlds. Whatever will endanger the loss of these, he flees from, as from the face of a serpent: and whatever has a tendency to secure his interest in them, he labours incessantly to perform. In these all his affections centre: his hopes and fears, his joys and sorrows, all terminate in these: and, in exact proportion as he is enabled by faith to realize and apprehend these, he is happy. In a word, he walks by faith: and every step he takes is under the influence of that principle. Faith is to the Christian what the compass is to the mariner in the trackless ocean: under all circumstances he consults its testimony, and follows its directions: and, in so doing, he fears not but that in due time he shall arrive at his destined haven.
This was the character of the Apostle Paul: and it is the character of every true Christian under heaven: the life which he now lives in the flesh, he lives by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him, and gave himself for him [Note: Gal 2:20.]?]
But as to those who understand not his views he appears to act absurdly, we will proceed to mark
II.
The reasonableness of his conduct in this respect
Doubtless the people who are strangers to this principle must gaze strangely at the Christian, and account him almost mad. The overlooking with comparative contempt all that he has ever seen, and following with all possible ardour things which no mortal eye ever did see, must appear the height of folly and enthusiasm; and we wonder not if many should say to him, Thou art beside thyself; much thoughtfulness hath made thee mad. But we reply, that there is no comparison between the wisdom of walking by faith or of being actuated by sight.
The principle of faith is,
1.
More exalted in its objects
[The objects of sense are all poor, and mean, and worthless. Take all that eye ever saw, or ear heard, or heart conceived; and it would not weigh against one glimpse of the Saviours glory, or one taste of his love. Besides, it is all transient and of very short duration. But think of Almighty God and his covenant of grace; think of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the wonders of redeeming love; think of heaven, and all its glory and blessedness; and then say, which are most deserving of our regard? In attaching ourselves to the one, we degrade ourselves to the state of unenlightened heathens, I had almost said, of the brute beasts; but by living wholly with a reference to the latter, we emulate, as it were, the glorified saints and angels. The one is as high above the other, as the heavens are above the earth.]
2.
More certain in its testimony
[Earthly things may dazzle us with their glare and glitter: but they are all a lie, a cheat, a shadow, a delusion: there is no substance in them. With whatever confidence we press forward for the attainment of them, the more they disappoint our endeavours: and, when we think we have secured thee prize, we no sooner stretch out our hands to lay hold on it, than it eludes our grasp: or, if we apprehend the object of our desires, it proves to us no better than vanity and vexation of spirit. But was ever any one deceived in apprehending the realities of the eternal world? Did ever any one who sought them by faith, fail in the pursuit of them, or find them, when attained, below his expectation? No truly: it is justly said by the Lord Jesus Christ under the character of wisdom, I cause them that love me to inherit substance [Note: Pro 8:17.]: and every promise that makes over these things to the believing soul, is as immutable as God himself.]
3.
More excellent in its operations
[The tendency of visible things is to sensualize and debase the soul: but the effect of heavenly things is to purify and exalt it. The more we contemplate the Divine Being, the more shall we be transformed into his blessed image. The more we exercise faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, the more will grace, and mercy, and peace be multiplied unto us. The more we breathe the atmosphere of heaven, the more shall we be fitted for the everlasting enjoyment of it. Every man that has such hopes in him, purifieth. himself even as God is pure [Note: 1Jn 3:3.]: and the very promises by which he apprehends them, lead him to cleanse himself from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God [Note: 2Co 7:1.]. Truly by these he becomes a partaker of the divine nature [Note: 2Pe 1:4.], and is progressively changed into the divine image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of our God [Note: 2Co 3:18.].]
4.
More conducive to our true happiness
[What does he possess who has the whole world at his command? A mere phantom: and, if he look for any solid happiness from it, he will find, that he has only filled his belly with the east wind. But who can describe the happiness of him, who, by faith, has already in his soul the substance of things hoped for, as well as the evidence of things not seen [Note: Heb 11:1.]? Who can declare the blessedness of him, who has God for his Father, Christ for his Saviour, the Holy Spirit for his Comforter, and heaven for his home? This man lives on angels food. He has grapes of Eshcol already by the way: he stands on Pisgahs top, surveying in all its length and breadth the land of promise: he has already an earnest and foretaste of the heavenly bliss: and, when he goes hence, he will change neither his company nor his employment: he is already dwelling in, and with, his God; and tuning his harp ready to join the choirs above, as soon as ever his attendant angels shall have received their commission to bear him hence.]
Address
1.
Those who are walking by sight
[You are reputed wise by the men of this world; but are worse than fools in the estimation of your God. What has the world ever yet done for you? Has it ever yet afforded you any solid satisfaction? Possess what ye may, will not a pain, a loss, a disappointment, be sufficient to rob you of all your enjoyment? And what can it do for you in a dying hour? Will it prolong your life, or assuage your anguish, or pacify your conscience, or take away the sting of death? But, above all, what will it do for you at the bar of judgment? Will it bribe your Judge, or avert the wrath of an offended God, or mitigate your torments in the world of woe? You think the Christian unwise in having respect to things which his eye has never seen. But who will be found the wise man in that great and awful day? Not he that neglected God and his own soul; not he that trampled under foot his dying Saviour, and poured contempt on all the glory and blessedness of heaven; but he who lived as a pilgrim and a sojourner here, and looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. O, that you may be wise, and consider, ere it be too late, your latter end!]
2.
Those who profess to walk by faith
[We thank our God that there are a goodly number of you who have learned to estimate things by their relation to eternity. O beg of God to turn off your eyes from beholding vanity, and to quicken your souls in his way. Pray to him to increase your faith, that your discernment of unseen things may be more clear, your enjoyment of them more rich, your improvement of them more uniform and abiding. Pray that your faith may be more and more influential on the whole of your life and conversation: and strive, in dependence on the Spirit of God, to walk more and more worthy of your high calling. St. Paul, in his most assured prospects of glory, laboured, that, whether present in the body, or absent from it, he might be accepted of the Lord [Note: ver. 9.]. Do ye in this respect follow his example: not setting your affections on any thing here below, but having your conversation altogether in heaven, from whence you look for the Lord Jesus Christ to come and take you to himself, that you may be with him, and like him for ever [Note: 1Jn 3:2.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
Ver. 7. For we walk by faith ] Which puts our heads into heaven, sets us on the top of Pisgah with Moses, and therehence descries and describes unto us the promised land, gives us to set one foot aforehand in the porch of Paradise, to see as Stephen did Christ holding out a crown, with this inscription, Vincenti dabo I die conquering.
Not by sight ] Sense corrects imagination, reason sense, but faith corrects both, thrusting Hagar out of doors, when haughty and haunty grown. But as Nabash, so the devil labours to put out the right eye of faith, and to leave us only the left eye of reason.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Co 5:7 . . . .: for we walk by faith ( cf. Joh 20:29 , and chap. 2Co 4:18 ), i.e. , in a state of faith (see note on with the gen. of attendant circumstances 2Co 2:4 ), not by appearance ( , as the reff. show, must be thus translated = quod aspicitur ; but nevertheless the rendering of A.V. and R.V. “not by sight,” though verbally inexact, conveys the sense. cf. Heb 11:1 , , and 1Co 13:12 ). The verse is parenthetical and explanatory of the sense in which we are “absent from the Lord”.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
by. Greek dia. App-104. 2Co 5:1.
faith, App-150.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
2Co 5:7. , by faith) Not to see, is nearly the same as being separated.-, for) This refers to , from [2Co 5:6, absent from the Lord].-, we walk) in the world. So , Luk 13:33.- , not by what appears to the eye [Engl. V. sight]) The LXX. translate , , vision, aspect, appearance.[26] See especially Num 12:8 : , , apparently and not in dark speeches; likewise Exo 24:17. Faith and sight are opposed to one another. Faith has its termination at death in this passage, therefore sight then begins.
[26] Not the act or power of seeing (as sight often means): but the thing seen, what presents itself to the eye, the appearance seen.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Co 5:7
2Co 5:7
for we walk by faith,-Faith in the promises of God concerning the future leads man to walk after the things of God. Faith is seeing by the Spirit. [The condition of our present state of being is that of believing. We do not know these things as they appear to the natural eye; it is by faith that we know them. The faith which is assurance of things hoped for (Heb 11:1) is the element in which we live, so long as we are not present with those things. Being the object of faith, they are of course absent. We are conversant with the report of the heavenly things, not with the things themselves. We are absent, not present with the things that govern our life. Paul says: That life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. (Gal 2:20). By faith Abraham looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:10); and by faith Moses looked unto the recompense of reward (Heb 11:26). These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Heb 11:13). Belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. (Rom 10:17). Faith is believing fully and appropriating by obedience whatever God promises or says in regard to anything. Walking by faith is taking every step we make according to his directions. We cannot hope for anything which God has not promised, or hope for that which he has promised without complying with the conditions upon which his promises are based. We cannot do by faith anything which God has not commanded.]
not by sight;-To walk by sight is to walk after the things of this world. [One walks by sight who makes mammon his god; lives for getting and hoarding, or else for spending and squandering; estimates worth by wealth, and will count himself a happy man if he can die rich. A man who walks by sight, who cannot control his appetite or passion, cannot put aside the thing good for food or pleasant to the eyes even for the sake of avoiding tomorrows sickness, or a life of disgrace, finds himself again and again yielding to a temptation from which he has suffered; weakly lives and miserably dies the slave of that which his better nature condemns and despises, but to which his body of flesh and blood, made a tyrant by long yielding to it, ties and binds him. Again, a man walks by sight who allows himself to live for the admiration of other people. Thus, not only covetousness or self-indulgence in the lowest sense of the word, but vanity and worldliness and vulgar ambition, all have their root in walking by sight.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Walking by Faith
For we walk by faith, not by sight.2Co 5:7.
1. St. Paul describes the mood in which, possessed of the Christian hope, he confronts all the conditions of the present and the alternatives of the future. We are of good courage at all times, he says. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from home as far as the Lord is concernedat a distance from Him. This does not mean that fellowship is broken, or that the soul is separated from the love of Christ; it means only that earth is not heaven, and that St. Paul is painfully conscious of the fact. This is what is proved by 2Co 5:7 : We are absent from the Lord, our true home, for in this world we are walking through the realm of faith, not through that of actual appearance. There is a world, a mode of existence, to which St. Paul looks forward, which is one of actual appearance; he will be in Christs presence there, and see Him face to face. But the world through which his course lies meanwhile is not that world of immediate presence and manifestation; on the contrary, it is a world of faith, which realizes that future world of manifestation only by a strong spiritual conviction; it is through a faithland that St. Pauls journey leads him. All along the way his faith keeps him in good heart; nay, when he thinks of all that it ensures, of all that is guaranteed by the Spirit, he is willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.
For, ah! the Master is so fair
His smile so sweet on banished men,
That they who meet it unaware
Can never turn to earth again;
And they who see Him risen afar,
At Gods right hand to welcome them,
Forgetful stand of home and land,
Desiring fair Jerusalem.
St. Paul stood between two worlds; he felt the whole attraction of both; in the earnest of the Spirit he knew that he had an inheritance there as well as here. It is this consciousness of the dimensions of life that makes him so immensely interesting; he never wrote a dull word; his soul was stirred incessantly by impulses from earth and from heaven, swept by breezes from the dark and troubled sea of mans life, touched by inspirations from the radiant heights where Christ dwelt. We do not need to be afraid of the reproach of other-worldliness if we seek to live in this same spirit; the reproach is as false as it is threadbare. It would be an incalculable gain if we could recover the primitive hope in something like its primitive strength. It would not make us false to our duties in the world, but it would give us the victory over the world.1 [Note: J. Denney, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 183.]
2. Two kinds of walking are here contrasted. We walk not by sight. How then? We walk by faith. St. Paul speaks of life not as the three score years and ten, with all its natural divisions of childhood, youth, manhood, and old age, and all its circumstantial divisions of education and profession, prosperity and adversity, happiness and bereavement, concerning which as going home a good man says, God shall be my guide through it unto death. He speaks of life as a succession of days, each with its morning and its evening, each with its little detail of thought and speech and feeling and action; and he says that there are two ways of living such a life. We may believe what we see, or we may see what we believe. We may walk, that is live, by faith in the unseen, or we may walk by sight, by what we see and taste and handle. We may take the next step in trust or we may refuse to take it until we see what it is.
We never know what lies before us. Sorrow may be waiting, or sore temptation, or death. We see not a step before our feet. But no matter, if God is leading; for He knows all that lies before us. A young man had almost decided to become a Christian. But one doubt held him back; he did not see how he could continue faithful all through his life. He spent an evening with his minister, and they talked long on the subject. Still his fears and his indecision remained. As he left, the pastor observed how dark it was, and getting a lantern handed it to the young man, saying, This little light will not show at once the whole way to your home, but only one step at a time; yet take that step, and you will reach home in safety. As the young man walked homeward he pondered, Why can I not trust my Heavenly Father, even if I cant see my way clear to the end, if He gives me light for one step? Only as we go on, step by step, does God disclose to us His will and plan for our life. Thus the joys of life do not dazzle us, for our hearts have been chastened to receive them. The sorrows do not overwhelm us, because each one brings its own special comfort with it. But, if we had known in advance of the coming joys and prosperities, the exultation might have made us heedless of duty and of danger. We might have let go Gods hand and grown self-confident, thus missing the benediction that comes only to simple, trusting faith. If we had known of the struggles and trials before us, we might have become disheartened, thus failing of courage to endure. In either case we could not have borne the revealing, and it was in tenderness that the Master withheld it.1 [Note: J. R. Miller.]
I do not ask, O Lord, that Thou shouldst shed
Full radiance here:
Give but a ray of peace, that I may tread
Without a fear.
I do not ask my cross to understand,
My way to see;
Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand,
And follow Thee.2 [Note: Adelaide A. Procter.]
I
Not by Sight
1. There is a sense in which no man walks by sight.We walk not by sight. The exact expression, as given in the margin, is by means of an appearance, that is, a shape and form visible to the senses. It is evident, though not always pondered as it should be, that no man really walks by sight. To do this would cut him off from life, the whole world of the past, the whole world of the future, and more than half the world of the present. A man who consistently carried through the endeavour to walk by sight would discard history as fable; would neither sow his field nor educate his children; would count feeling fancy and affection folly; would reduce himself to, and therefore below, the level of the beasts that perish; and long before he reached the practical goal of his theory, he would find himself the inmate of a prison or an asylum, to be a standing witness to the world which looks on, that the gospel has reason on its side, as well as religion, when it says, Walk not by sight, walk by faith.
There are, however, approaches to the walking by sight to which all men are liable. A man walks by sight who makes Mammon his god; lives for getting and hoarding, or else for spending and squandering; estimates worth by wealth, and will count himself a happy man if he can but die rich. A man walks by sight who cannot control appetite or passion, cannot put aside the thing good for food or pleasant to the eyes even for the sake of avoiding to-morrows sickness or this nights remorse, or a lifes disgrace; finds himself again and again yielding to a temptation which he has suffered from or prayed against; weakly lives and miserably dies the slave of a sin which his better nature condemns and despises, but to which this body of flesh and blood, made his tyrant by long yielding to it, ties and binds him.
It may not be equally evident, but it is true, that another class of faults is traceable to the same cause. A man walks by sight who, under the influence of the subtle impersonal presence which we call the world, allows himself to echo the language, to court the applause, to live for the admiration of other people; losing all the independence and all the manliness of his personal being as it is lived in Gods sight here and as he must give account of it to Him hereafter. Thus, not only covetousness or self-indulgence in the lowest sense of the word, but vanity and worldliness and vulgar ambition, all have their root in the walking by sight which St. Paul here disclaims and repudiates for the Christian.
Is it not mad folly always to be craving for things which can never quiet our longings, much less satisfy them? No matter how many such things one has, he is always lusting after what he has not; never at peace, he sighs for new possessions. Discontented, he spends himself in fruitless toil, and finds only weariness in the evanescent and unreal pleasures of the world. In his greediness, he counts all that he has clutched as nothing in comparison with what is beyond his grasp, and loses all pleasure in his actual possessions by longing after what he has not, yet covets. No man can ever hope to own all things. Even the little one does possess is got only with toil, and is held in fear; since each is certain to lose what he hath when Gods day, appointed though unrevealed, shall come. But the perverted will struggles towards the ultimate good by devious ways, yearning after satisfaction, yet led astray by vanity and deceived by wickedness. Ah, if you wish to attain to the consummation of all desire, so that nothing unfulfilled will be left, why weary yourself with fruitless efforts, running hither and thither, only to die long before the goal is reached?
It is so that these impious ones wander in a circle, longing after something to gratify their yearnings, yet madly rejecting that which alone can bring them to their desired end, not by exhaustion but by attainment. And if their utmost longing were realized so that they should have all the world for their own, yet without possessing Him who is the Author of all being, then the same law of their desire would make them contemn what they had, and restlessly seek Him whom they still lacked, that is God Himself. Rest is in Him alone. Man knows no peace in the world; but he has no disturbance when he is with God. And so the soul says with confidence, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.1 [Note: St. Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God.]
2. There is a special sense in which the Christian walks not by sight.St. Paul had a particular thought in his mind when he wrote these words. The statement for which the text gives the reason is this: Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight. And this accounts for the peculiarity of the expressionnot by the help of visible shape or form. The word for sight is rare. It is used in Scripture by St. Luke in the narrative of our Lords baptism: The Holy Spirit descended in bodily shape like a dove upon him; and once again by St. John in his fifth chapter: Ye have neither heard the Fathers voice at any time, nor seen his shape. It is remarkable, therefore, that to each one of the Persons of the Holy Trinitythe Father, the Son, and the Spiritthis same word is once applied in Holy Scripture; for what St. Paul says here he says of our Lord Jesus Christ: We walk not by the help of seeing His shape or form visibly, but by the help of the spiritual sight of Him, which is the grace of faith. He contrasts the present condition of the Christian who has to live the daily life by seeing the invisible with two other experiencesone past, one futureeach of which may be called walking by sight.
The disciples walked by sight during the earthly ministry of the Saviour. They lived the daily life during those three wonderful years by the help of visible shape and form. While I was with them in the world, He says Himself in the great prayer, I kept them in thy name. The personal influence, the ascendancy of perfect goodness, the motive of reverential love, something more powerful still, mysteriously hinted in His own saying: The Spirit dwelleth with you, and shall be in you, secured their walk during those years at least from levity, passion, or sin, though it very imperfectly enlightened their understanding, and left them liable to the first gust of temptation the moment it was withdrawn. Still, to walk by sight, when that sight was the sight of Jesus Christ, was a wonderful privilege while it could be theirs. St. Paul himself had never known this kind of life. He was not one of the Twelve. His sight of Christ had been but for a moment, though it left an indelible impression upon his life. When he said, We walk not by sight, he probably had in his mind a walk not past, done with, but a walk future, and not yet possible. The passage in which the text is embedded is a passage of expectation. He is reconciling himself and his readers to a present condition of pilgrimage and homelessness by the prospect of a beautiful and magnificent change. He seems to say in the text, We walk not yet, but we shall walk, by sight.
To credit ordinary and visible objects is not faith, but persuasion. Some believe the better for seeing Christs sepulchre; and when they have seen the Red Sea doubt not of the miracle. Now contrarily, I bless myself, and am thankful, that I lived not in the days of miracles: that I never saw Christ and His disciples. I would not have been one of those Israelites that passed the Red Sea; nor one of Christs patients on whom He wrought His wonders: then had my faith been thrust upon me; nor should I enjoy that greater blessing being pronounced to all that believe and saw not. Tis an easy and necessary belief, to credit what our eye and sense hath examined. I believe He was dead, and buried, and rose again; and desire to see Him in His glory, rather than to contemplate Him in His cenotaph or sepulchre. Nor is this much to believe: as we have reason, we owe this faith unto history: they only had the advantage of a bold and noble faith who lived before His Coming, who, upon obscure prophecies and mystical types, could raise a belief, and expect apparent impossibilities.1 [Note: Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, see. 9.]
II
By Faith
1. There, is a sense in which every man walks by faith.As there is a sense in which no man, absolutely no man, walks or can walk by sight, so there is a sense in which every man walks and must walk by faith. In making faith everything in the Christian life, our Lord merely elevated and illuminated a natural principle into that which is above nature. Every man who is not a fool or a madman, in some sense, walks and must walk by faith. The monstrous and shameful avowal, I believe in nothing that I do not see, though it has been made before now on an infidel platform, is the mere babbling of idiocy. The rough seaman who once answered the saying on the instant by the question, Dont you believe in the wind? caught the point of the fallacy and saved philosophy and theology the trouble of a reply. Every investment of the money hoarded, every engagement of the worldling, every project of the sensualist, is made on the faith of a to-morrow. Each one of these, in a miserable way, walks by faith. But, as before, in speaking of sight, so now again of faith, we may notice approaches and approximations, however far they may be from an attainment. A man walks by faith in proportion as he lives above sense. A man who in any degree controls appetite, keeps under his body, lives soberly and chastely, whatever the motive, so far walks by faith. A man who refuses to judge the worlds judgment, forms his own opinion and holds to it, expresses an independent mind upon things right and wrong in private or public, more or less certainly walks by faith in doing so. A man who studies deeply, who dwells much in philosophy and history, keeps company with the great minds and souls of the past, has a real sympathy with beautiful thoughts of the dead as well as of the living, walks by faith in a more definite, because a positive and not a negative, way; not leaving vacant, if that were possible, the space redeemed from the sensual and the sensible, but filling and peopling it with forms and substances having an inherent worth and virtue. Such a man is a living witness to a world out of sight, a world as real and a thousand times as permanent as the visible. So far he is on the side of Christ and the gospel, for he avows the reality of a world unseen.
Bring it down to our own common life. What supreme issues we decide in faith! The battle is risked on the testimony of a single spy. We entrust ourselves on the great pathless ocean, because we have faith in the man at the wheel and in the man who is on the outlook at the masthead. Think of life without the element of faith and trustfathers without faith in wives and mothers; brothers and sisters without mutual faith. It would mean that there could be no such thing as love, for love always presupposes implicit faith. We actually measure the character of men by the quality of their faith. We see a man who believes in goodness, and we say: He is a good man. He suspects and doubts the goodness of his fellows; we suspect and doubt him. Is it not clear that faith is not an experience relating to religion alone? It is no strange peculiar thing superimposed on man by priests and preachers, but the very principle by which we live from day to day.
I love to see my children trustful
Of the best things from my hand;
Never doubting me, nor curious
All to know and understand.
For trust is nobler far than knowledge,
Faith than sight, a hundredfold:
One the coward shows, the other
Both for good and ill makes bold.
And so tis sure the Heavenly Father,
Who His childrens welfare plans
With a changeless love, and wisdom
More consummate far than mans,
Rejoices most in those who trust Him,
Leaning simply on His love,
These His best things here discover,
And will win the best above.1 [Note: T. Crawford, Horae Serenae, 61.]
2. There is a special sense in which the Christian walks by faith.St. Paul was not thinking of a world of poetry or history or philosophy, when he wrote the words, We walk by faith. St. Pauls world out of sight was not a world of magnitude or multitude, of beauty as such, or of wonder as such, or of power or wisdom or charity in the abstract. For him the invisible was a Person, the combination and concentration of the great and good, the true and the beautiful in whom are all things, and we in Him.
The Christians activities and serviceableness are from one side perfectly natural, as he lives in true contact with the waking realities of human life. But from another side they are supernatural all the while, for the regenerate man is supernaturally conditioned and related. He is joined to Him who is invisible, and the union has to do with his whole being. He lives his life in the flesh by faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. He perseveres as seeing Him whom yet he has not seen, but whom he shall yet see as He is. He thinks so highly of the present because of the eternal, to which it is as the seed-grain is to the summer harvest.
So the Christian walks by faith. Take out of his walk his faith, which is the very antithesis to credulity, and the difference for him will be practical indeed. Into the now formless void will disappear not only the fair idea of the things unseen, but the very substance, the very essence, of the noblest motive to the willing service of man on earth, and to a reverent jealousy over the duties of to-day. We walk by faith. And such a life is the one life fully worth living. Such a walk is the one walk that moves in true liberty along true certainty, making for a real goal.
Faith is a certitude without proofs. Being a certitude, it is an energetic principle of action. Being without proof, it is the contrary of science. Hence its two aspects and its two effects. Is its point of departure intelligence? No, thought may shake or strengthen faith; it cannot produce it. Is its origin in the will? No, good-will may favour it, ill-will may hinder it, but no one believes by will, and faith is not a duty. Faith is a sentiment, for it is a hope; it is an instinct, for it precedes all outward instruction. The need of faith never leaves us. It is the postulate of a higher truth which is to bring all things into harmony. It is the stimulus of research; it holds out to us the reward, it points us to the goal.1 [Note: Amiels Journal (trans. by Mrs. Humphry Ward), 192.]
That which in lifeless things ennobles them by seeming to indicate life, ennobles higher creatures by indicating the exaltation of their earthly vitality into a Divine vitality; and raising the life of sense into the life of faith: faith, whether we receive it in the sense of adherence to resolution, obedience to law, regard fulness of promise, in which from all time it has been the test, as the shield, of the true being and life of man; or in the still higher sense of trustfulness in the presence, kindness, and word of God, in which form it has been exhibited under the Christian dispensation. For whether, in one or other form,whether the faithfulness of men whose path is chosen and portion fixed, in the following and receiving of that path and portion, as in the Thermopyl camp; or the happier faithfulness of children in the good giving of their Father, and of subjects in the conduct of their King, as in the Stand still and see the salvation of God of the Red Sea shore, there is rest and peacefulness, the standing still, in both, the quietness of action determined, of spirit unalarmed, of expectation unimpatient: beautiful even when based only, as of old, on the self-command and self-possession, the persistent dignity or the uncalculating love, of the creature; but more beautiful yet when the rest is one of humility instead of pride, and the trust no more in the resolution we have taken, but in the hand we hold.1 [Note: Ruskin, Modern Painters, ii. (Works, iv. 116).]
III
The Superiority of Faith Over Sight
1. Walking by faith we are better able to appreciate Christs power.We have a juster conception of Christs power, its spiritual nature, its universality, its unfailing energy, than His contemporaries could have had. To us He is no mere wonder-working magician, but the wielder of that spiritual force which still raises the dead soul to life, gives strength to the palsied will, and casts out the unclean spirit; the power which is made perfect in weakness, and which is able to use the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Not even the disciples could, during our Lords lifetime on earth, have understood Christs power as we understand it.
A poor boy lay dying. The night I saw him was cold and gloomy without, the house within was small and poor. On that bed he had lain for months without a murmur, suffering severe bodily pain. Around him were signs of blood as if he lay wounded on a battle-field. From that pale face, lighted up only by blue eyes serene and quiet, I heard these words the night his spirit met his Saviour, and they were worthy of the greatest warrior, I am strong in Him. Yes, child, stronger than all the fleets and armies of Europe.1 [Note: Norman Macleod, Love the Fulfilling of the Law, 24.]
2. We are better able to appreciate Christs love.His contemporaries saw that the Lord was loving; but they naturally read into His life the limitations of which they were conscious in their own, and did not realize the universality of His love. They expected it to be limited by racial antipathies. How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria, said the stranger to Him at the well of Sychar. They expected that He would shrink back from contact with sinners. This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him. His contemporaries could not so denude themselves of their ordinary conceptions of humanity as to realize that the love of Jesus transcended all human limits, embraced every member of our race, and yearned with special earnestness over the prodigal and the lost. But we, who have never known Christ after the flesh, have some glimpse of the breadth and length and depth and height of that love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
Again, as regards that supreme instance of His love, the offering of Himself for the sins of the worldwhat was it to those who saw it, to John and Mary, and to those who stood afar off beholding? What were the struggling thoughts to which that spectacle gave rise? That He was innocent, that He, the most loving of men, was suffering the cruellest of deaths, that history was repeating itself, and the Jews were slaying their greatest and best, that they themselves were losing their friend, their spiritual helper, so that henceforth life would be dark and sad to them. But how little did they realize that that crucifixion was the great crisis in the worlds history, yes, and the great crisis, too, in the history of every individual soul. How little did they realize then the meaning of His own words, I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. How little did they know that that was a voluntary offering of the God-man, who gave Himself for the life of the world. Afterwards, it is true, they learnt all this; but, remember, they were taught it not by sight, but by faith, and faith alone can draw the inspiring doctrine from love, that whosoever abideth in love abideth in God and God in him.
You cannot see Christ, but you believe that He is true, loving, faithful, touched with sympathy when you suffer; that He knows all about you, and loves you with a love personal, deep, tender, strong, everlasting. You know, too, that He has all power, and that all His power is yours to support, keep, bless, deliver, protect, save you. You know that He has all wisdomwisdom that never errs, that never counsels rashly, indiscreetly, short-sightedlyand that all this wisdom is for the guidance of your life, the ordering of your steps. As we think along these lines the unseen Christ becomes very real to us.1 [Note: J. R. Miller.]
3. We are better able to realize the abiding presence of Christ.This was the lesson the Lord was teaching His followers during the forty days. To those who had known Him by sight, He had appeared as bound by the limits of space and time. But the forty days gave the disciples wider views. What would be the effect of His appearing suddenly, when least expected, now in Galilee, now in Jerusalem; revealing Himself to them now as they sit in the room with closed doors, now as they take their evening walk, now as they cast their nets in the Galilean lake? Must not the belief have sprung up in them that their Master might at any moment grow into sight out of the empty spacethat, in fact, seen or not seen, He was always beside them, viewing their every action and hearing their every word? His Ascension has made that belief the property of all His followers. The Christian is never troubled now with the thought that Christ cannot be in two places at once. Simultaneously, it may be, to those who lie dying in some far-off battle-field, to those who cling to wrecks in lonely seas, to the mother who sits bereaved beside her dead child, the presence of the Lord is vouchsafed. They realize that He is there, and are calmed and comforted. It is only through His Ascension that the promise has been made good, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
That heroic and saintly missionary, James Gilmour of Mongolia, was one of those whose sense of the abiding presence of Christ was always vivid and supporting. No one, he writes, who does not go away, leaving all and going alone can feel the force of the promise Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world, and when I begin to feel my heart threatening to go down, I betake myself to this companionship, and, thank God, I have felt the blessedness of this promise rushing over me repeatedly when I knelt down and spoke to Jesus as a present companion from whom I am sure to find sympathy.
IV
One Day we shall Walk by Sight
Here and now, while we are at home in the body and absent from the Lord, we walk by faith, not by sight. Therefore, by the implication of the whole surrounding thought, when we leave home in the body and get home to the Lord, we walk by sight, and not by faith. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed; yes, for they, as they step out of this life, shall see indeed. True, there will be there, and for ever, occasion enough for an immortal exercise of faith. That world, let us be abundantly assured, will have its mysteries as well as this; its calls to the blessed to confide, to rely, as they worship before the throne. But the conditions will be gloriously altered. It will be a faith exercised under sight. It will be the confidence we feel in some immeasurably wiser friend while he carries out his plans in our presence, and our eyes are all the while upon his face, as against the sometimes trying efforts of a confidence in him exercised at a distance from him, and in spite of false rumours of his death, and amidst a thousand accusations and misrepresentations of his purposes and his actions.
Death, for the believer, for the follower of Jesus Christ, will be to go to Him, to see Him. We shall walk, amidst the trees of that deathless and sinless Paradise, by sight, not by faith. The disciplinary strain, having done its work, will cease. The rest, the sabbatism, having come to its season, will begin, and grow, and bear its fruit of bliss, and knowledge, and endless readiness for the exercise of the powers of the resurrection, in the vernal sunshine of that Sight, that eidos, that most blessed and most beautifying Object Visible.1 [Note: Bishop H. C. G. Moule, Christ is All, 93.]
The hope of hopes, the promise of promises, the joy of joys, the crown of crowns, is being with Christ, where He is, that we may see His glory. If Christians in their daily lives, and useful activities, and frequent sorrows would but take this more to heart, how different their whole lives would be, in their level of attainment and in their interpretation of circumstances! Life is beautiful and desirable, chiefly on account of what it leads to and educates us for. But what will it be, when we see God face to face, in the sinless, tearless land? Only let Christ be King in our hearts, and our true satisfaction and consolation about everything; the Friend on whom we lean without knowing it; the Master from whom we take our orders, and who has given each of us our task to do. When that is done, He will send for us. Then surely we should have an unspeakable rest flowing into us: we should cease to fear circumstances, we should only fear to miss using and interpreting them properly. We should be always hoping, with a hope that never makes ashamed; and our joy no man would take away.2 [Note: Bishop Thorold, Questions of Faith and Duty.]
Walking by Faith
Literature
Bersier (E.), in Foreign Protestant Pulpit, i. 1.
Cuckson (J.), Faith and Fellowship, 3.
Darlow (T. H.), Via Sacra, 3.
Dewhurst (E. M.), The King and His Servants, 94.
Evans (R. W.), Parochial Sermons, 191.
Moule (H. C. G.), Christ is All, 81.
Nicoll (W. R.), The Garden of Nuts, 161.
Norton (J. N.), Golden Truths, 377.
Paget (F. E.), Sermons for Special Occasions, 1.
Robertson (S.), The Rope of Hair, 175.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xii. (1866), No. 109.
Sturrock (J. B.), Our Present Hope and Our Future Home, 9, 15.
Wagner (C.), Courage, 33.
Westcott (B. F.), The Incarnation and Common Life, 362.
Woodrow (S. G.), Christian Verities, 1.
Christian World Pulpit, xxxv. 244 (J. LI. Davies); lii. 43 (C. Voysey); lvi. 136 (A. H. Bradford); lix. 235 (C. S. Macfarland).
Churchmans Pulpit: Ascension Day, viii. 506 (A. M. Mackay).
Preachers Monthly, vii. 65 (C. J. Vaughan).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
2Co 1:24, 2Co 4:18, Deu 12:9, Rom 8:24, Rom 8:25, 1Co 13:12, Gal 2:20, Heb 10:38, Heb 11:1-26, Heb 11:27, 1Pe 1:8, 1Pe 5:9
Reciprocal: Joh 20:29 – blessed 1Co 13:10 – General Col 2:6 – walk Col 3:3 – your
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Co 5:7. Sight means the appearances of things in the present life, many of which are threatening and otherwise undesirable. Faith opens up before the apostle (as well as all other disciples) a vision of the Lord’s presence. With such an incentive, the servant of Christ will walk or pursue his course while on the earth.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
That is, our condition here in this world is such, that we cannot see God face to face, but by faith only; whilst we are in the body, we do not see and enjoy, but believe and expect. Faith is the thing in expectation: sight is the thing in fruition; faith is a cloudy discovery of things at a distance; sight is a clear view and apprehension of things that are present.
Learn, 1. That faith is for earth, and sight is for heaven.
2. That till we have sight, it is a great advantage that we have faith.
3. That if we now have faith, we may be well assured that ere long we shall have sight.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Verse 7 Faith is the assurance that we will have that new body in the heavens. We can not see it, but know it by faith ( Heb 11:1 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
(for we walk by faith, not by sight);
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 7
We walk; that is, we live and act.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
5:7 (For we walk by {e} faith, not by sight:)
(e) Faith, of those things which we hope for, not having God presently in our physical view.