NOT BY SIGHT
“For we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7, NET)
The preferred way for a Christian to live cannot be stated in a more obvious fashion than as emphatically expressed in our text.
There are two ways a person can live his life: either “by faith” or “by sight”; and there is a world of difference between both. Indeed our text compels us first of all to acknowledge the obvious, that is, that “Faith” is not “Sight”. Secondly, it challenges us to persist in living life by faith.
The original word translated “Sight” implies “External or outward appearance, form, figure, or shape”. In other words, “sight” speaks of things that exist in the realm of physical senses, things that we can experience physically.
Consequently, Christian, you are here exhorted not to allow the evidence of your senses, what you see and feel, to determine your estimation of your own worth and dictate how you conduct of your life. The things your physical sense can experience (i.e., “sight”) are, according to scriptures, changeable, temporary, and limited. So, “we live by faith”!
Faith is not sight! To be precise, the Bible defines faith as “...the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). The things that exist in the realm of faith are “things not seen”, and we are told to live by faith, live by the things not seen.
You may have heard people say, “What you see is what you get”, and that may sounds really intelligent, but such acceptance that evidence revealed by the senses is final is no doubt the inevitable conclusion of the carnal mind, and indeed a barrier to change. Thomas famously attracted the Lord’s rebuke because he insisted on seeing before he believed. Jesus then used that encounter to teach us the fundamental Christian truth that those who would live a blessed life “are those who have not seen and yet have believed” what God's word reveals to be true (John 20:29).
Faith that will change things eternally, and transform and restore situations in your life cannot be effectual if based on what you can see, touch and feel. It must be based only on the realities revealed by God’s unchanging and eternal Word, and we know that “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17).
Faith gives the believer an assurance of that which is “not seen” so that a certainty of the things hoped for can be apprehended now, and the substance of the invisible grasped as being more real than anything the senses can contact. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
To “Live by faith” is to be spiritually minded and be guided by divine purpose - the things that God have set before you, who God says you are, what God says you can do, the things that give God delight! Don’t limit yourself by basing your life on the evidence of your sense.
Let your life be based today on the truth and realities that flows from God’s unchanging Word. Live by faith, not by sight; unlock all your life's potentials and breakthrough every barrier and limitations forever!
The preferred way for a Christian to live cannot be stated in a more obvious fashion than as emphatically expressed in our text.
There are two ways a person can live his life: either “by faith” or “by sight”; and there is a world of difference between both. Indeed our text compels us first of all to acknowledge the obvious, that is, that “Faith” is not “Sight”. Secondly, it challenges us to persist in living life by faith.
The original word translated “Sight” implies “External or outward appearance, form, figure, or shape”. In other words, “sight” speaks of things that exist in the realm of physical senses, things that we can experience physically.
Consequently, Christian, you are here exhorted not to allow the evidence of your senses, what you see and feel, to determine your estimation of your own worth and dictate how you conduct of your life. The things your physical sense can experience (i.e., “sight”) are, according to scriptures, changeable, temporary, and limited. So, “we live by faith”!
Faith is not sight! To be precise, the Bible defines faith as “...the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). The things that exist in the realm of faith are “things not seen”, and we are told to live by faith, live by the things not seen.
You may have heard people say, “What you see is what you get”, and that may sounds really intelligent, but such acceptance that evidence revealed by the senses is final is no doubt the inevitable conclusion of the carnal mind, and indeed a barrier to change. Thomas famously attracted the Lord’s rebuke because he insisted on seeing before he believed. Jesus then used that encounter to teach us the fundamental Christian truth that those who would live a blessed life “are those who have not seen and yet have believed” what God's word reveals to be true (John 20:29).
Faith that will change things eternally, and transform and restore situations in your life cannot be effectual if based on what you can see, touch and feel. It must be based only on the realities revealed by God’s unchanging and eternal Word, and we know that “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17).
Faith gives the believer an assurance of that which is “not seen” so that a certainty of the things hoped for can be apprehended now, and the substance of the invisible grasped as being more real than anything the senses can contact. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
To “Live by faith” is to be spiritually minded and be guided by divine purpose - the things that God have set before you, who God says you are, what God says you can do, the things that give God delight! Don’t limit yourself by basing your life on the evidence of your sense.
Let your life be based today on the truth and realities that flows from God’s unchanging Word. Live by faith, not by sight; unlock all your life's potentials and breakthrough every barrier and limitations forever!
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