2 Corinthians 5:7: we walk by faith, not by sight

1548 · John Calvin, Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5.7

(Hebrews 11:1.) It is not to be wondered, then, if the apostle says, that we have not as yet the privilege of sight, so long as we walk by faith. For we see, indeed, but it is through a glass, darkly; (1 Corinthians 13:12,) that is, in place of the reality we rest upon the word.

1553 · John Calvin, Commentary on John, part 2 (chapters 12-21) 20.29

And, indeed, we ought to give to God this honor, that we should view His truth as (αὐτόπιστος ) beyond all doubt without any other proof Faith has, indeed, its own sight but one which does not confine its view to the world, and to earthly objects. For this reason it is called a demonstration of things invisible or not seen, (Hebrews 11:1;) and Paul contrasts it with sight, (2 Corinthians 5:7,) meaning, that it does not rest satisfied with looking at the condition of present object, and does not cast its eye in all directions to those things which are visible in the world, but depends on the mouth of God, and, relying on His word, rises above the whole world, so as to fix its anchor in heaven. It amounts to this, that faith is not of a right kind, unless it be founded on the word of God, and rise to the invisible kingdom of God, so as to go beyond all human capacity.

1660 · Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes 17

Faith sees God’s glorious attributes in the glass of his Word. Faith beholds him showing forth himself through the lattice of his ordinances. Thus Moses saw him who was invisible (Hebrews 11:27). Believers see God’s glory as it were veiled over. They behold his ‘back parts’ (Exodus 33:23).

1673 · Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory Chapter VIII

For "we walk by faith, not by sight;" that is, sight and sense are not our principal guiding faculty, but subservient to faith; nor the objects of sight the things which we principally or ultimately seek or set by, but the objects of faith; as it is before expounded, 2 Cor. iv. 18, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Therefore "faith" is described to be the "substance of things hoped for," and "the evidence of things not seen," Heb. xi. 1. Believing is to a christian instead of seeing; because he knoweth by God's testimony, that the things believed are true, though they are unseen. And you know that the objects of sense are all but trifles, to the great astonishing objects of faith. Therefore if faith be lively, it must needs prevail and overrule the senses, because its objects utterly cloud and make nothing of the transitory objects of sense.

1707 · Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book 2: Composed on Divine Subjects 129

'Tis by the faith of joys to come We walk thro' deserts dark as night; Till we arrive at heaven our home, Faith is our guide, and faith our light. The want of sight she well supplies, She makes the pearly gates appear; Far into distant worlds she pries, And brings eternal glories near.

1746 · Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections 2.11

The doctrines I speak of are those of "Christians living by faith, not by sight; their giving glory to God, by trusting him in the dark; living upon Christ, and not upon experiences; not making their good frames the foundation of their faith:" which are excellent and important doctrines indeed, rightly understood, but corrupt and destructive, as many understand them. The Scripture speaks of living or walking by faith, and not by sight, in no other way than these, viz., a being governed by a respect to eternal things, that are the objects of faith, and are not seen, and not by a respect to temporal things, which are seen; and believing things revealed, that we never saw with bodily eyes; and also living by faith in the promise of future things, without yet seeing or enjoying the things promised, or knowing the way how they can be fulfilled.

1754 · John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on 2 Corinthians 5.7

For we cannot clearly see him in this life, wherein we walk by faith only: an evidence, indeed, that necessarily implies a kind of "seeing him who is invisible;" yet as far beneath what we shall have in eternity, as it is above that of bare, unassisted reason.

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 4: Sermons LV-LXXXIV 63

That faith is the governing principle, and that which bears the great sway in the life and actions of a Christian. “We walk by faith;” that is, we order and govern our lives in the power and virtue of this principle. A Christian’s life consists in obedience to the will of God; that is, in a readiness to do what he commands, and in a willingness to suffer what he calls us to; and the great arguments and encouragements hereto, are such things, as are the objects of faith and not of sense; such things as are absent and future, and not present, and in possession. For instance, the belief of an invisible God, of a secret power and providence, that orders and governs all things, that can bless or blast us, and all our designs and undertakings, according as we demean ourselves towards him, and endeavour to approve ourselves to him; the persuasion of a secret aid and influence always ready at hand to keep us from evil, and to strengthen and assist us to that which is good; more especially the firm belief, and expectation of the happiness of heaven, and the glorious rewards of another world, which, though they be now at a distance, and invisible to us, yet being grounded upon the promise of God “that cannot lie,” shall certainly be made good.

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 4: Sermons LV-LXXXIV 63

Second observation, namely, that faith is a degree of assent inferior to that of sense. This is intimated in the opposition betwixt faith and sight; “We walk by faith, and not by sight;” that is, we believe these things, and are confidently persuaded of the truth of them, though we never saw them, and consequently cannot possibly have that degree of assurance concerning the joys of heaven, and the torments of hell, which those have who enjoy the one and endure the other. There are different degrees of assurance concerning things, arising from the different degrees of evidence we have for them.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Corinthians 5.7

The sense here is, that we conduct ourselves in our course of life with reference to the things which are unseen, and not with reference to the things which are seen. By faith - In the belief of those things which we do not see. We believe in the existence of objects which are invisible, and we are influenced by them. To walk by faith, is to live in the confident expectation of things that are to come; in the belief of the existence of unseen realities; and suffering them to influence us as if they were seen.

1860 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 6 (1860) 335

Faith to the spiritual man is his eye. It is with that he looks to Christ— looks unto Him whom he has pierced and weeps for his sin. It is by faith that he walks; not by natural sight, but by the sight which is yielded to him by his spiritual eye—his faith. It is by this faith that he sees things not as yet visible to the eye of sense—realizes the unseen and beholds the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things which the natural eye cannot discern.

1866 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 12 (1866) 677

Paul, speaking of Believers, says: "We walk by faith, not by sight." Walking is, of course, a posture which implies the possession of life. You can make a dead man sit in a certain position, or even stand in a chosen attitude—but to walk necessitates the possession of inward life.

1866 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 12 (1866) 677

But when you believe in what God reveals and come to walk by faith, how your information expands! Now riddles are all solved, and the inexplicable is understood! Now you begin to comprehend things in a way which you never could have done had you walked only by sight. Now you can understand those trials and troubles that come to you! Now you can understand the complexity of your nature and the inward conflicts that you feel within you. You could never have done this on the principle of sight—but believing what God says you have got into a state in which you shall be educated and taught till you become wise—and able to have fellowship with the only wise God!

1866 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 12 (1866) 677

All that he does is affected and acted upon not by what he sees, but by what he does not see and yet believes! He walks according to that faith. Now, the thing that neither you nor I can understand is this—how is it that the man who has once learned to walk by faith can be so stupid as ever to mix the two principles together?

1867 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 13 (1867) 771

You see a great many things, or think you see them, which are not there. And things which you could declare to be in such-and-such a position turn out not to be there at all—it is merely some reflection, or some delusion, simple enough when explained—but most puzzling until it is opened up to you. However, sight is generally regarded by men to be the most sure of all our faculties. If we see a thing, there it is—there is no questioning it. Now faith has this certifying power in a much higher degree, for the faith which is of the operation of God and which distinguishes His own elect, is infallible. The faith of God's people will not believe a lie.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 2 Corinthians 5.7

Our life is governed by faith in our immortal hope; not by the outward specious appearance of present things [Tittmann, Greek Synonyms of the New Testament]. Compare "apparently," the Septuagint, "by appearance," Nu 12:8. Wahl supports English Version. 2Co 4:18 also confirms it (compare Ro 8:24; 1Co 13:12, 13). God has appointed in this life faith for our great duty, and in the next, vision for our reward [South] (1Pe 1:8).

1872 · John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions 113

They that live by faith, walk by faith. But what is implied in this? They regulate all their judgments concerning good and evil, not with reference to visible and temporal things, but to things invisible and eternal.

1909 · Handley C. G. Moule, Messages from the Epistle to the Hebrews 10

Nature, shortsighted and impatient, can deal with the seen and the present only. Grace, in its victorious form of patient faith, already takes hold upon the "afterward," and works on, and walks on, "as seeing Him that is invisible." With the thought of the witness-cloud around us, and "looking off" to the Prince of Faith, ascended, yet present with us, and sure of the ultimate and eternal "fruit of righteousness" which lies hidden in the chastening of the Father of our spirits—we too will live by faith, taking God at His word, and saying Amen to His will, even to the end.

1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: 2 Corinthians (chapters 1 to 5) 3.18

A bridge of perishable flesh, which is not myself but my tool, connects me with the outward world. It never touches myself at all, and I know it only by trust in my senses. But nothing intervenes between my Lord and me, when I love and trust. Then Spirit is joined to spirit, and of His presence I have the witness in myself. He is the light, which proves its own existence by revealing itself, which strikes with quickening impulse on the eye of the spirit that beholds by faith. Believing we see, and, seeing, we have that light in our souls to be ‘the master light of all our seeing.’ We need not think that to know by the consciousness of our trusting souls is less than to know by the vision of our fallible eyes; and though flesh hides from us the spiritual world in which we float, yet the only veil which really dims God to us—the veil of sin, the one separating principle—is done away in Christ, for all who love Him; so as that he who has not seen and yet has believed, has but the perfecting of his present vision to expect, when flesh drops away and the apocalypse of the heaven comes. True, in one view, ‘We see through a glass darkly’; but also true, ‘We all, with unveiled face, behold and reflect the glory of the Lord.’

c. 206–207 · Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh (De resurrectione carnis) 43

In the same way, when he says, “Therefore we are always confident, and fully aware, that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight,” it is manifest that in this statement there is no design of disparaging the flesh, as if it separated us from the Lord. For there is here pointedly addressed to us an exhortation to disregard this present life, since we are absent from the Lord as long as we are passing through it—walking by faith, not by sight; in other words, in hope, not in reality. Accordingly he adds: “We are indeed confident and deem it good rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord;” in order, that is, that we may walk by sight rather than by faith, in realization rather than in hope.

391–430 · Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament (Sermones 51-147) 38.4

But before Philip answered thus, or perhaps before he so much as thought it, when the Lord had said, “He who hath seen Me, hath seen the Father also;” He immediately added, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” For with that eye he could not yet see either the Father, or the Son who is equal with the Father; but that his eye might be healed for seeing, he was to be anointed unto believing. So then before thou seest what thou canst not now see, believe what as yet thou seest not. “Walk by faith,” that thou mayest attain to sight. Sight will not gladden him in his home whom faith consoleth not by the way. For so says the Apostle, “As long as we are in the body, we are in pilgrimage from the Lord.” And he subjoins immediately why we are still “in pilgrimage,” though we have now believed; “For we walk by faith,” He says, “not by sight.”

391–430 · Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament (Sermones 51-147) 77.5

Be it believed and adored, when we believe, we adore; when we adore, we grow; when we grow, we comprehend. For as yet whilst we are in this flesh, as long as we are absent from the Lord, we are, with respect to the Holy Angels who see these things, infants to be suckled by faith, hereafter to be fed by sight. For so saith the Apostle, “As long as we are in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

c. 407 · Augustine of Hippo, Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John (In Epistulam Iohannis ad Parthos Tractatus X) 4.8

Or haply, by faith we have known, and by actual beholding have not yet known? But then in faith we have both seen and known. For if faith doth not yet see, why are we said to have been enlightened? There is an enlightening by faith, and an enlightening by sight. At present, while we are on pilgrimage, “we walk by faith, not by sight,” or, actually beholding. Therefore also our righteousness is “by faith, not by sight.” Our righteousness shall be perfect, when we shall see by actual beholding. Only, in the meanwhile, let us not leave that righteousness which is of faith, since “the just doth live by faith,” as saith the apostle.

1265–1273 · Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II, q. 4, a. 5, co.

By authority, since the Apostle says (2 Cor. 5:6): "While we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord"; and he points out the reason of this absence, saying: "For we walk by faith and not by sight." Now from this it is clear that so long as we walk by faith and not by sight, bereft of the vision of the Divine Essence, we are not present to the Lord. But the souls of the saints, separated from their bodies, are in God's presence; wherefore the text continues: "But we are confident and have a good will to be absent . . . from the body, and to be present with the Lord." Whence it is evident that the souls of the saints, separated from their bodies, "walk by sight," seeing the Essence of God, wherein is true Happiness.

1684 · John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ 13

Faith is the light wherein we behold the glory of Christ in this world. And this in its own nature, as unto this great end, is weak and imperfect, like weak eyes, that cannot behold the sun in its beauty. Hence our sight of it differs greatly from what we shall enjoy in glory, as has been declared. But this is not all; it is frequently hindered and interrupted in its operations, or it loses the view of its object by one means or other. As he who sees any thing at a great distance, sees it imperfectly, and the least interposition or motion takes it quite out of his sight, so is it with our faith in this matter; whence sometimes we can have little, sometimes no sight at all of the glory of Christ by it.

c. 1714 · Daniel Mayo, Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5.1-11

The apostle deduces an inference for the comfort of believers in their present state and condition in this world, v. 6-8. Here observe, 1. What their present state or condition is: they are absent from the Lord (v. 6); they are pilgrims and strangers in this world; they do but sojourn here in their earthly home, or in this tabernacle; and though God is with us here, by his Spirit, and in his ordinances, yet we are not with him as we hope to be: we cannot see his face while we live: For we walk by faith, not by sight, v. 7. We have not the vision and fruition of God, as of an object that is present with us, and as we hope for hereafter, when we shall see as we are seen. Note, Faith is for this world, and sight is reserved for the other world: and it is our duty, and will be our interest, to walk by faith, till we come to live by sight.

c. 1714 · Simon Browne, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 13.8-13

Faith fixes on the divine revelation, and assents to that: hope fastens on future felicity, and waits for that: and in heaven faith will be swallowed up in vision, and hope in fruition. There is no room to believe and hope, when we see and enjoy.

1856–1869 · J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John 17.17-26

We do not see Christ now. We read of Him, hear of Him, believe in Him, and rest our souls in His finished work. But even the best of us, at our best, walk by faith and not by sight, and our poor halting faith often makes us walk very feebly in the way to heaven. There shall be an end of all this state of things one day. We shall at length see Christ as He is, and know as we have been known. We shall behold Him face to face, and not through a glass darkly. We shall actually be in His presence and company, and go out no more. If faith has been pleasant, much more will sight be; and if hope has been sweet, much more will certainty be.

1900 · Abraham Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit Volume Two. The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Individual, Seventh Chapter. Faith, XXXV. Faith and Knowledge

But, while we still sojourn as pilgrims, not yet possessing the glorified body any more than the glory of our inward status, our contact with the invisible world does not yet consist in sight; our mind still lacks the power to penetrate immediately into the things invisible; and we still depend upon the impressions and sensations produced by them. Wherefore we can have no certainty regarding these impressions and sensations, except by direct faith. Still, existing and living as pilgrims together, we believe in each other’s love, good faith, and honesty of character; we believe in God the Father, in our Savior, and in the Holy Spirit; we believe in the Holy Catholic Church; we believe in the forgiveness of sin, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. And we do not believe in all these with the secret after-thought that we would really prefer to know them, instead of believing them; for that would be just as absurd as to say, of an organ concert: “Really I would prefer to see this.” Music can not be seen any more than one can become conscious of things invisible by means of the senses. And as the sense of hearing is the only proper means of hearing and enjoying music, so faith is the peculiar and only means whereby certainty can be obtained regarding our contact with the world unseen and invisible.

1642–1655 · Thomas Shepard, The Saint's Jewel The Saints Jewel

If Christians be in affliction, and see that it doth them good, then it is easy to believe that promise which God hath made. "All things shall work together for the good of them that love God." (Rom. viii. 28.) But to believe this promise, when we can not see any good come of affliction, that is to believe by faith, and not by sight: but when we can see no good come by affliction, but find ourselves more dead and dull, and also God to frown upon us, and yet we trust in God, and believe the promise, and stay our souls upon God's word; this is to live by faith, as we are commanded. "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." (Is. 1. 10.) Faith maketh things absent to be present, and maketh the promise good to us, though things seem to thwart the promise never so much. "Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. xi. 1) with the eye of sense. As Abraham believed against hope, (Rom. iv. 18), that he should have a child, according as God had promised, so must we trust God upon a naked promise, that if health should be gone, or wealth, liberty, strength, friends, yea, life itself almost gone, and God seems to be gone, and hell to be threatened, yet still to trust in God, and believe--this is to live by faith, and comfort is in the promise for all such; but I speak now to God's people.

1651 · Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying Chapter III. Of the State of Sickness and the Temptations Incident to It, With Their, Section VI. Advantages of Sickness

Truth is, there are but two great periods in which faith demonstrates itself to be a powerful and mighty grace; and they are persecution and the approaches of death, for the passive part, and a temptation for the active. In the days of pleasure and the night of pain faith is to fight her agonisticon, to contend for mastery: and faith overcomes all alluring and fond temptations to sin, and faith overcomes all our weaknesses and faintings in our troubles. By the faith of the promises we learn to despise the world, choosing those objects which faith discovers; and by expectation of the same promises, we are comforted in all our sorrows, and enabled to look through and see beyond the cloud: but the vigour of it is pressed and called forth when all our fine discourses come to be reduced to practice. For in our health and clearer days it is easy to talk of putting trust in God; we readily trust him for life when we are in health; for provisions when we have fair revenues; and for deliverance when we are newly escaped: but let us come to sit upon the margent of our grave, and let a tyrant lean hard upon our fortunes and dwell upon our wrong, let the storm arise, and the keels toss till the cordage crack, or that all our hopes bulge under us and descend into the hollowness of sad misfortunes; then can you believe, when you neither hear, nor see, nor feel anything but objections?

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 4: Sermons LV-LXXXIV 63

And that our faith may have a constant and powerful influence upon our lives, we should frequently revolve in our minds the thoughts of another world, and of that vast eternity which we shall shortly launch into. The great disadvantage of the arguments fetched from another world, is this—that these things are at a distance from us, and not sensible to us, and therefore we are not apt to be so affected with them; present and sensible things weigh down all other considerations. And therefore, to balance this disadvantage, we should often have these thoughts in our minds, and inculcate upon ourselves the certainty of these things, and the infinite concernment of them: we should reason thus with ourselves—If these things be true, and will certainly be, why should they not be to me, as if they were actually present? Why should not I always live, as if heaven were open to my view, and “I saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God,” with crowns of glory in his hands, ready to be set upon the heads of all those who continue faithful and obedient to him? And why should I not be as much afraid to commit any sin, as if “hell were naked before me,” and I saw the astonishing miseries of the damned? Thus we should, by frequent meditation, represent these great things to ourselves, and bring them nearer to our minds, and oppose, to the present temptations of sense, the great and endless happiness and misery of the other world. And if we would but thus exercise ourselves about “the things which are not seen,” and make eternity familiar to ourselves, by a frequent meditation of it, we should be very little moved with present and sensible things; we should walk and live by faith, as the men of the world do by sense, and be more serious and earnest in the pursuit of our great and everlasting interest, than they are in the pursuit of sensual enjoyments; and should make it the great business of this present and temporal life, to secure a future and eternal happiness.

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 4: Sermons LV-LXXXIV 63

“Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus;” “for which cause (saith he, ver. 16.) we faint not; but though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day;” that is, though our bodies, by reason of the hardships and sufferings which we undergo, are continually decaying and declining; yet our minds grow every day more healthful and vigorous, and gain new strength and resolution, by contemplating the glory and reward of another world, and as it were feeding upon them by faith; “for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, whilst we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” And he resumes the same argument again at the beginning of this chapter: “For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;” that is, we are firmly persuaded, that when we die, we shall but exchange these earthly and perishing bodies, these houses of clay, for a heavenly mansion, which will never decay nor come to ruin: from whence he concludes, (ver. 6.) “Therefore we are always confident;” θαῤῥοῦντες οὖν πάντοτε, therefore whatever happens to us, we are always of good courage, and see no reason to be afraid of death: “knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;” that is, since our continuance in the body is to our disadvantage, and while we live, we are absent from our happiness, and when we die we shall then enter upon the possession of it. That which gives us this confidence and good courage, is our faith; for though we be not actually possessed of this happiness which we speak of, yet we have a firm persuasion of the reality of it, which is enough to support our spirits, and keep up our courage under all afflictions and adversities whatsoever: (ver. 7.) “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

c. 1835 · Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion 19

“Learn to walk by faith and not by sight.” This is sometimes said to young converts in reference to their continuing to exhibit the power of religion, and is a manifest perversion of scripture. If they begin to lose their faith and zeal, and to get into darkness, some old professor will tell them, “Ah, you cannot expect to have the Saviour always with you, you have been walking by sight, you must learn to walk by faith and not by sight.” That is, you must learn to get as cold as death, and then hang on to the doctrine of the Saints’ Perseverance, as your only ground of hope that you shall be saved. And that is walking by faith.

1859 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 5 (1859) 246

You are looking at your trouble, not at the God who sent your trouble; you are looking at yourselves, not at the God who dwells within you, and who has promised to sustain you. O soul! it were enough to make the mightiest heart doubt, if it should look only at things that are seen. He that is nearest to the kingdom of heaven would have cause to droop and die if he had nothing to look at but that which eye can see and ear can hear. What wonder then if thou art disconsolate, when thou hast begun to look at the things which always must be enemies to faith?

1866 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 12 (1866) 677

And when Death remorselessly tears you away from all that is dear to you—how about the principle of sight then? It is a strange principle to die with, but, let me say, on the other hand, that the principle of faith does best in the dark! He who walks by faith can walk in the sunlight as well as you can, for he walks with God—he has enlightened eyes, but he can walk in the dark as you cannot, for his light is still shining upon him. He trusts in the unseen and in the invisible—and his soul rejoices when present things are passing away. We will not tarry longer upon this point except to say one thing, namely, that those who walk by sight walk alone. Walking by sight is just this—"I believe in myself." Whereas walking by faith is—"I believe in God." If I walk by sight I walk by myself. If I walk by faith then there are two of us, and the second one—ah, how great, how glorious, how mighty is He!

1866 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 12 (1866) 677

In living by sight you have to get your own wisdom, your own judgment, your own strength to guide you. And when you get into trouble you must be your own deliverer, and your own comforter, and your own helper or else you must run to somebody as weak as yourselves who will only send you deeper down into the mire. But when you walk by faith, should there seem to be a mistake you have not made it. Should anything seem to go wrong, you did not steer the ship. And if the ship should run aground, you are not answerable and will not be blamed.

1896 · Dwight Lyman Moody, The Overcoming Life, and Other Sermons 1

Next: We walk by faith. Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse seven: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” The most faulty Christians I know are those who want to walk by sight. They want to see the end—how a thing is going to come out. That isn’t walking by faith at all—that is walking by sight.

1912 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 58 (1912) 3321

The vessel will be steered entirely by observations of the heavenly bodies and by chart and compass—and yet at the end of thirty days it will reach a point which was never within sight and reach it as accurately as if it had been running on a tram rail instead of sailing over the pathless ocean! Its way is as certain as if it had traversed a railway from port to port! Such is the life of a Christian—the life of faith. We see not spiritual things, but yet we steer for them with absolute certainty! We ought not to wish to see, for, "We walk by faith, not by sight." We take our bearings by the things in the heavens. We are guided by the Word of God, which is our chart, and by the witness of the blessed Spirit within, which is our compass! We see Him who is invisible and we seek a Heaven full of "things not seen as yet."

1918 · Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God Introduction

Faith is ever occupied with God. That is the character of it; that is what differentiates it from intellectual theology. Faith endures "as seeing Him who is invisible" (Heb. 11:27): endures the disappointments, the hardships, and the heartaches of life by recognising that all comes from the hand of Him who is too wise to err and too loving to be unkind. But so long as we are occupied with any other object than God Himself there will be neither rest for the heart nor peace for the mind. But when we receive all that enters our lives as from His hand, then, no matter what may be our circumstances or surroundings-whether in a hovel, a prison-dungeon, or a martyr's stake-we shall be enabled to say, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places" (Psa. 16:6). But that is the language of faith, not of sight or of sense.