By Faith Not By Sight
BY FAITH NOT BY SIGHT
2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-10
Paul applies his thoughts on the future resurrection: we are to take every opportunity now to serve and please Christ.
Paul continues to write about the nature of the resurrection hope. His intense aspiration, expressed in the terms “to be clothed,” “to put on” (5:2,4), is later spelled out for us in the phrase “at home with the Lord” (5:8). Included in this eager longing is the prospect of receiving a glorified body, like his Lord’s (Philippians 3:20-21). From comparable Scriptures we know that the giving of the new, spiritual body is timed at the Lord’s return in glory, and this is implied in Romans 8:17.
There is a down-to-earth, practical application of this teaching, eg in 5:9, where the Christian’s ambition is stated in a memorable phrase, and Paul can never forget that our present life with all its practicalities and opportunities for service will one day be tested at the tribunal of Christ (5:10; Romans 14:10-12).
What phrase in this section is repeated twice? See 5:6,8, and notice the solid foundation on which Paul’s confidence is set. Encouragement in Christian living and service came to him as no emotional upsurge requiring some artificial stimulus, but as a logical deduction from a God-given fact which he received in faith. It is vitally important to get our priorities right from this passage, and 5:7 will be a most useful guide to any who are confused. Feelings are no spiritual barometer; they fluctuate and vary according to all kinds of circumstances, such as the weather or relationships with other people, eg our employer or our mother-in-law. We depend on God’s promised word—what he has spoken and given—as unchangeably sure, and on this fact of revelation faith is content to rest and draw from it strength and stability.