We Walk By Faith Not By Sight

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 (NKJV)

"So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."

In isolation teaching, you're taking one verse and give your thoughts, and ideas that's inconsistent with Scripture without reading the entire verses above and beneath the Scripture. And you teach it out of context to make it mean something that the text never intended.

We see that we don't depend upon our sight or what we see with our natural eyes. Faith is always trusting in the One that we don't see with our eyes.

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen."

This is Hebrews 11:1 but if you look at Hebrews 11:5-6....

Hebrews 11:5-6 (NKJV)

"By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

This is about walking to please the Lord in the hope of receiving eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In fact, this is the true meaning of faith. We rest on the Lord Who we can't see with our eyes. In the text, we don't trust what we see with our eyes when it comes to death.

When it comes to death, all we see is our bodies expiring and then placed in the ground.

It's inevitable that death will take our lives but those of us that's in Christ, we will be raised from the dead. That's why we walk by faith and not by sight.

In the previous verses, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 (NKJV)

"For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee."

Those of us that's in Christ have been given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee or a downpayment. We all know that when a person puts a significant amount of money down on a particular item, it tells the seller that we're serious about possessing the item.

Hence, this parable.

Matthew 13:44 (NKJV)

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

The Lord Jesus gave His life for the world and in return He gives us a downpayment of the Holy Spirit, and then after our deaths, He'll make good on His down payment by raising us from the dead.

However, you must repent (turn) from sin and then turn to God by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And then obey the commands of the Lord Jesus (see Matthew 28:19-20, Romans 6:23, and Acts 16:31).

So we have faith in God that He will fulfill His Word to raise us from the dead.

Romans 8:23 (NKJV)

"Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body."

The "redemption of our body" is to be raised from the dead to live forever.

1 John 3:1-3 (NKJV)

"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

That's why we walk by faith and not by sight because we trust in the Lord to honor His Word to raise us from the dead. This is only applicable to the ones that have His Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:9-11 (NKJV)

"But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

That's why the Lord said in John 3:3-7 (NKJV)

"Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

Therefore.....

1 Corinthians 15:50-57 (NKJV)

"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O Death, where is your sting?

O Hades, where is your victory?”

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

To teach this in any other way is to misunderstand and to missapply the text.