2 Corinthians 5:7

7 for ¹we walk by faith, not by sight -

2 Corinthians 5:7 Meaning and Commentary

2 Corinthians 5:7

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.

2 Corinthians 5:7 In-Context

5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord -

7 for we walk by faith, not by sight -

8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord .

9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Corinthians 13:12; 2 Corinthians 4:18

Footnotes

• [a] Or "appearance"