Walking by Faith, Not by Sight (2 Corinthians 5:6-10)
Today’s Word
[Before the Judgment Seat of Christ] (NIV)
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
7 For we live by faith, not by sight.
8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Background
Today’s passage opens with the word therefore, a signal that Paul is building on what he has just said. In 5:1-5 he compared our bodies to a tent. The earthly tent will one day come down, he wrote, but we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven. Meanwhile, living in this tent, we groan and are burdened. Paul gave one reason that groaning is not in vain. God has given us the Spirit as a deposit, a guarantee of what is to come.
The tent was no abstract image for Paul. Acts 18 tells us that when he first arrived in Corinth he stayed with Aquila and Priscilla and worked alongside them as a tentmaker. Here is a man who spent his days cutting and stitching leather into shelters, now describing his own body as one. Tents are useful, but they do not last. Wind and rain wear them down, the poles begin to wobble, and eventually the day comes to take them down. Paul knew that better than most.
We also need to keep the end of chapter 4 in view. Paul had just written that though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day, and that what is seen is temporary while what is unseen is eternal. Verse 7 of today’s reading, we live by faith, not by sight, compresses that whole confession into a single line.
Verses 6 and 8 contain a play on words that comes alive in the Greek. At home in the body is endemeo, and away is ekdemeo. Both come from demos, the word for the district or community where you belong. One means to be at home among your own people. The other means to be away, living abroad. Paul turns the pair inside out. While we are at home in the body, we are away from our true home with the Lord. Leave the body, and we are finally at home with him. It is a way of seeing this life as a kind of sojourn in a foreign country.
That does not mean Paul thought little of the body. Some in Corinth believed that because the spirit was what mattered, it did not much matter what they did with their bodies. Paul had already confronted that idea firmly in 1 Corinthians. He told them their bodies were temples of the Holy Spirit, and he devoted an entire chapter to the resurrection of the body. The last verse of today’s passage points the same way. What we receive is for the things done while in the body. The body is not a shell to be discarded. It is where a life before God is actually lived.
The judgment seat in verse 10 is the Greek word bema, a raised platform where a magistrate would stand or sit to hand down decisions. For the Corinthians the word conjured up a specific place. In the middle of Corinth’s forum stood a large stone bema, and its remains can still be seen today. Acts 18 records that Paul himself was dragged to that very platform to stand before the proconsul Gallio. Some of the Corinthian believers may well have remembered the scene. Paul borrows that familiar place to speak of a greater one where everyone will eventually stand.
This needs to be read with care. Paul is writing to believers, and in Romans he states plainly that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So this judgment seat is less about whether someone is saved and more about believers laying their lives open before the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul said that fire would test the quality of what each person has built, whether gold and silver or wood, hay, and straw. Today’s passage stands on that same picture.
That is why the verb in verse 9 matters. Make it our goal translates philotimeomai, a word that originally meant to love honor. In Greek cities, people competed to leave a name for themselves by funding public buildings or hosting civic feasts. Paul takes the word for that kind of ambition and simply turns it around. His life’s ambition is not applause but the pleasure of the Lord. He uses the same word in Romans 15, where he says it has always been his ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known.
The shape of the whole letter is laid out in an introduction to 2 Corinthians. The confession from the previous chapter, that outwardly we are wasting away but inwardly renewed day by day, is covered in Wasting Away, Renewed Day by Day (2 Corinthians 4:13-18).
Key Words Made Simple
- Confident: Greek tharreo. To take courage, to be of good heart. It does not mean the absence of fear but a heart that holds steady even when fear is present. It appears twice, in verses 6 and 8.
- At home / away: Greek endemeo and ekdemeo. To be home among your own people, or to be away living abroad. Paul swaps the two, so that life in the body becomes the time away and being with the Lord becomes home.
- Live by faith: The verb is peripateo, which literally means to walk. Faith is less a single decision than the steps we take day after day.
- Sight: Greek eidos. Visible form, outward appearance. It describes a life that sets its course only by what can be seen.
- Would prefer: Greek eudokeo. To be well pleased with, to gladly choose. Paul is not saying he hated life, only that if he had to choose, being with the Lord would be better.
- Make it our goal: Greek philotimeomai. Originally to love honor, to strive for distinction. It means to make something your life’s ambition and pour yourself into it.
- Please: Greek euarestos. Acceptable, truly satisfying. The same word describes the living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God in Romans 12.
- Judgment seat: Greek bema. A raised platform, a tribunal. A real stone platform stood in the Corinthian forum, and it was where Paul stood before Gallio.
- Appear: Greek phaneroo. Not just to show up but to be made plainly visible, with nothing hidden. What lies beneath the surface comes into the open.
- Receive: Greek komizo. To receive back, to carry away what is yours. It carries the sense of a life coming back to us just as it was lived.
- Bad: The word here is not the usual word for evil (kakos) but phaulos, which leans toward worthless, trivial, of no value. It points not only to terrible sins but to what was simply wasted.
Expressions Worth Noting
- “We are always confident” (verse 6)
- Just before this, Paul admitted that he groans in this tent. Groaning and confidence live in the same person.
- This confidence does not come from good circumstances. It comes from having received the Spirit as a guarantee.
- “We live by faith, not by sight” (verse 7)
- To live here is to walk. Faith is a matter of footsteps before it is a matter of ideas.
- Not walking by sight does not mean walking with our eyes closed. It means what we can see is not the final word.
- “Would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (verse 8)
- For Paul death is not an ending but a road home. It echoes his words in Philippians 1, I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.
- Yet Paul moves straight on to verse 9. Looking toward what lies beyond does not make him careless about today.
- “We make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it” (verse 9)
- Whether in life or in death, the aim is the same. Circumstances change, but direction does not.
- Paul takes a word for chasing honor and points it at the Lord’s pleasure. It quietly asks whose approval we are living for.
- “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (verse 10)
- We all includes Paul himself. He is not saying this to judge anyone else. He says he will stand there too.
- Being laid open can sound frightening, but the text also tells us whose seat it is. We will stand before the One who died for us.
- “What is due us for the things done while in the body” (verse 10)
- The days we live in the body do not simply vanish. Even small things done out of sight are remembered.
- It is worth noticing that the opposite of good here is worthless. It invites us to look not only at our sins but at the time we let slip away.
What the Passage Says
- We can groan and still be confident (verse 6). Paul admits he carries a heavy load in this bodily tent, and yet he says he is always confident. His confidence rests not on his circumstances but on the fact that God has given the Spirit as a guarantee.
- We walk by faith, not by sight (verse 7). Life here is like living away from home. We do not yet see the Lord face to face. So we do not let what is visible set our course. We walk one step at a time by promises we cannot see but can trust.
- Hope does not make today trivial (verses 8-9). Paul longed to be with the Lord, but that longing did not make him careless about the present. It did the opposite. Whether at home in the body or away from it, he made pleasing the Lord his life’s ambition.
- Every life will be made plain before Christ (verse 10). Believers too will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. It is not a place to fear losing salvation, but a place where the whole of a life lived in the body is laid before the Lord. That makes today weightier than we think, and more precious than we think.
Standing Before This Word Today
Standing before this passage, we notice two directions at once. One points beyond, to being away from the body and at home with the Lord. The other points right back to today, to the things done while in the body.
Many of us hold on to only one of the two. Some look only beyond. Since heaven is the destination, what happens here and now does not seem to matter much. Others look only at today. What can be seen, what can be held, what produces results right now is all that counts. Paul will not pull the two apart. Because he looks toward an eternal home, he lives today more faithfully. And because he lives today faithfully, his longing for eternity is not empty.
The second place to linger is verse 7. We live by faith, not by sight.
The line is so familiar that it is easy to skim past. But actually living it is not easy. Most of us walk by sight. We look at our bank balance, at the state of our health, at how people are responding, at the shape things seem to be taking, and then we decide on the next step. That is not wrong in itself. But when it becomes the final standard, we are shaken every time what we see is shaken.
Remember where Paul was standing when he wrote this. He had just said that outwardly he was wasting away and that he groaned in this tent. By sight alone, he had little reason for confidence. Yet this is the man who says, therefore we are always confident. Not because what he could see looked good, but because he trusted the unseen God to keep his word. Walking by faith does not mean walking because the road ahead is clear. It means taking the next step at his word even when we cannot see how the road runs.
The third place is verse 9. We make it our goal to please him.
Once we know that this verb originally meant to love honor, the sentence becomes a quiet question. Whose approval am I working so hard to win? Everyone wants to be recognized. The desire itself is not wrong; perhaps God made us that way. The question is where it points. When it points toward human applause, we are never at rest. Applause fades quickly, the standards keep changing, and there is always someone who does it better.
Paul changed the direction of that desire. He made the pleasure of one Person his aim, and that turned out to be freedom. Whoever in Corinth called him unimpressive, whoever arrived with better letters of recommendation, Paul did not have to be bound by it. His verdict was coming from somewhere else. Once we settle whose pleasure we live for, the other voices begin to grow quieter.
The phrase whether we are at home in the body or away from it is worth savoring too. Whatever the circumstances, the goal is the same. In health or in weakness, when things go well or when they stall, the way to please the Lord is always open. We do not please him only when we can do something great. Even on a day when it feels as if we can do nothing at all, standing faithfully where we are can itself be a gift that pleases him.
The fourth is verse 10. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
The word judgment makes us shrink back, and the word appear, laid open, even more so. There are things in all of us we would rather keep hidden. But read the verse slowly, and two things come into view together.
The first is who sits on that seat. Paul does not simply say the judgment seat. He says the judgment seat of Christ. The One before whom we will stand is the One who died for us. In the very next paragraph Paul will confess that Christ’s love compels us. Being exposed is frightening when we stand before someone who does not know us. But he already knows us more deeply than anyone, and knowing all of it, he laid down his life for us.
The second is that what is revealed is not only our failures. The good done in the body will be revealed as well. The patience no one saw, the small kindness never mentioned, the promises kept without anyone noticing, all of it comes to light there. What went unseen on earth is not forgotten before him. Seen that way, the judgment seat is not only a place of fear. It is also where a life lived out of sight finally finds its proper place.
At the same time, one word Paul chose lingers. The opposite of good is not the usual word for evil but a word that means worthless. It gently warns us not to feel secure simply because we have avoided great sins. A day the Lord has given, let drift without direction, will also be looked at before him. This is not meant to frighten us. It is meant to tell us how precious today is.
So in the end the passage brings us back to today. Paul, who has been speaking of eternity, closes by speaking of what we do in the body. Those who look beyond do not treat today lightly. Because they know this day will be set before eternity, they walk faithfully even where no one is watching.
In the end this word asks one thing. What am I looking at as I walk, and whose pleasure am I walking toward? What can be seen will be shaken again today. But at the end of the road we walk stands the One who died for us, and he does not forget a single step we take in the body.
Living It Out
- Name what you are walking by. Write down one thing that most shapes your decisions these days. It might be money, health, or what others think. Next to it, write one thing God has promised. Look honestly at which of the two is actually guiding your steps.
- Restate today’s goal in one sentence. Before you look at your to-do list, pause and ask whose pleasure you are aiming for through these tasks. The same work feels different when its direction changes.
- Do one thing where no one sees. Do one small good today that no one will notice. It is a way of practicing trust that what is done in the body is not forgotten before Christ.
- Look at time you are letting slip. It need not be a great wrong. If there is a habit or a stretch of time you let drift without direction, choose one. Consider whether you can move even a little of it toward what pleases the Lord.
- Pray your groaning and your confidence together. Tell God honestly about the burden you are carrying right now. Then, alongside it, confess that you trust the One who gave you the Spirit as a guarantee. Paul did not hide his groaning, and he was still confident. The clay jar confession in Hard Pressed but Not Crushed (2 Corinthians 4:7-12) runs along the same line.
Questions to Sit With
- What visible thing most shapes my steps these days? How do I respond when it is shaken?
- Whose approval am I working hardest to win? What would change if that were the Lord’s?
- How does my desire to please the Lord change between good seasons and hard ones?
- What is my first feeling when I hear that I will stand before the judgment seat of Christ? How does knowing that the One seated there died for me change that feeling?
- What small act of mine, unseen by anyone, do I hope will be remembered before the Lord?
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