It’s always easier to look where you’re going because “seeing is believing.” Scripture challenges us to flip the scenario so that “believing is seeing.” Ask that to the disciple we know as Doubting Thomas who declared that he’ll only believe when he touches the nail scars of Jesus. Once Thomas was confronted by the resurrected Jesus, he confessed his faith. Jesus agreed that he believed, but only because he saw, then added, “Blessed are those who have not seen yet believe” (Jn. 20:29).
Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:7, said it like this, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
Three times in three verses Paul drops the word “for” to sum up his main thoughts at the end of 2 Corinthians 4 and the very beginning of 2 Corinthians 5. The first “for” underscores our hope that whatever grief and suffering we are experiencing now will be outweighed by the glory God has in store for us (4:17). The second “for” foreshadows our faith and is found in the middle of verse 18 as Paul says we focus on what is unseen, rather than what is seen. Specifically, our reward cannot be seen by the naked eye but we believe God is holding it for us. The third “for” appears in the first verse of chapter five which highlights the same thought as the previous one: our earthly bodies will wear out and break down, and that is ok. God has a new spiritual body awaiting us that that will not be susceptible to pain and suffering, nor will it ever experience sickness and death. All we can see with our eyes is the physical weakness our bodies experience as it deteriorates over time. Yet we see something else in the future when our bodies will endure with strength for all eternity.
Thus, as Paul says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
We walk by sight when we believe our mortal body is the end all to the story; we walk by faith when our longing for the immortal body is realized. We walk by sight when making spiritual decisions based on charisma; we walk by faith when we make spiritual decisions based on the Fruit of the Spirit. We walk by sight when we pull away from God during times of suffering; we walk by faith when we draw close to God through suffering because God comes closer to us in times of affliction. We walk by sight when we focus on the temporary; we walk by faith when we focus on the eternal. We walk by sight when we measure success by crowds, money, and volunteers; we walk by faith when we measure success by transformed lives. We walk by sight when we see affliction as the end-game; we walk by faith when we see glory as the end-game, even when glory goes through the path of affliction. We walk by sight when we jump on the latest bandwagon; we walk by faith when we live with our eyes focused on Jesus.
So Paul reminds us, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
I once knew a preacher who was diagnosed with third stage cancer. He was a rough and tough navy man who fought in the War but when he converted to Christ he became a kind and joyful preacher. He spent some forty years preaching and ministering in local churches in the Pacific Northwest. With his diagnoses before him, and his death imminent, he and his wife visited their children and grandchildren in Texas. On their return flight he was settling into his seat. The stewardess walked by and stopped, staring at the man before moving on to her duties. Later, she did same thing, stopping to gaze almost in wander of the man. On her third encounter she addressed the man, saying, “I’m sorry to bother you, sir.” She continued, “But did you know your face was glowing?” Glowing. Having known this man personally, and I can almost imagine how his face was beaming, and even more when his smile broke across his face. He replied to the stewardess, saying, “I’m going home to see my Father.”
We walk by faith, not by sight.
A man went to his minister and confessed his struggle to pray. To him it always felt like a one way conversation, where God never answered, if God ever listened at all. His mind often wandered as he failed to stay on task. And what words were spoken, he felt, never penetrated the ceiling of the room where he prayed. The minister absorbed his concerns, and in comforting the man offered a suggestion. He said, “Why not pull an empty chair up to you and then talk to God as if he was sitting in front of you. The man gave it some thought but never spoke to the minister about the matter again.
Decades later the man was transitioning at home. He was in bed, nearing death. That night the patient passed and when the family found him in the morning, he was not in bed. They found the man kneeling before a chair that was next to the bed with his head resting on the empty seat as if his head was resting on someone’s lap.
We walk by faith, not by sight.
I was a child during the seventies when the search for Noah’s Ark was all the rage. A movie and some TV documentaries had come out cataloging, inconclusively, people’s attempt to locate the famous ship. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen it and described its structure, but no physical evidence was ever produced. The movie and shows fueled a frenzy of faith discussions.
One particular afternoon, I was with a handful of neighborhood children talking about the ark and whether or not it was real. One kid said, probably echoing words he had heard at home, “If the ark is real, why doesn’t God allow us to find it so that we can all believe?” As if settling the ark’s existence would solve all other doubts and skeptics on God and faith.
I was just a kid at the time and had no comeback. My oldest brother happened to have overheard the comment as he was headed to his car. He blurted out, “Because then it wouldn’t be faith.”
The Hebrews writer might say, “Faith is being sure of what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1). But Paul says it this way, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
I’m reminded of the time Jesus sent his twelve disciples across the Sea of Galilee; he’d catch up with them later. In the middle of night as they were about halfway across the eight mile body of water, they were frantically working against the wind. I could almost hear Peter barking out instructions to the eleven. Like a running back hitting the Steelers famed Iron Curtain, forward progress had come to a sudden stop. The depth below them was one hundred forty feet, and they weren’t wearing life jackets, and who knows what lurked beneath the deep? We know four of the men were experienced fishermen, leaving the majority as land lovers. This boat, packed full of scared men, could easily capsize. Here they saw Jesus walking on the waters, though they were convinced it was a ghost. When Jesus called to them, Peter sought confirmation. “If it is you, Lord, tell me to come to you on the water.” (Mt. 14:28).
Jesus extended the invitation as the water was just fine.
Peter, with his eyes fixed on Jesus, began walking on the water toward the Lord. Yea, walking on the water. But he took his eyes off Jesus, focusing on the violent, threatening waves slapping him in the face, trying to sweep the legs. When his attention shifted from Jesus to the waves, he sunk and almost drowned. Almost, as Jesus reached down to pull Peter from the waters.
Peter could have said it, but Paul wrote it, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
As Jesus made his way through the garden, he so desperately wanted those closest to him to remain close to him. They didn’t. They fell asleep foreshadowing their failure when Jesus really did need them. Jesus would face the night, alone. As he prayed, death hovered over the Savior like a dark ominous bird of prey with its talons retracted waiting for the attack. Oh, with the cross before him, how Jesus wanted this cup to pass. Luke tells us that as he prayed, sweat poured from him like drops of blood, to remind us how deep the anguish Jesus felt. But Jesus’ words, “No my will, but yours be done” (Lk. 22:42), only highlighted the truth that even Jesus “walked by faith, not by sight.”
Time and time again Scripture reinforces the theme,
as if we are called to drink from this heavenly stream;
The youthful David faced the Goliath giant,
with only a sling and five smooth stones, his victory was not kept quiet;
Abraham was called to leave his home.
to venture to a land he would never own;
Israel was pinned in between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea,
and it was the parting of the waters where they’d be free;
Mary embraced her call to bear her shame,
and the child born to her would wear the Lord’s Name;
Hannah made a vow to God to give her a son,
giving the child to God only meant the story had just begun;
Daniel was thrown into a den filled with lions,
praying to God was his only reliance;
Everything in Peter said going to the Gentile Cornelius was wrong,
but witnessing the Spirit descend on that family became his theme song;
Rahab hid the Israelites spies in her home,
allowing her faith to be passed down to the next generation like a chromosome.
So if the path you tread is in need of light,
then remember this that we all walk by faith, not by sight.
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e., only God is glorified!)