Sermon

2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17

By Faith or By Sight

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2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17

By Faith or By Sight

Dr. Mickey Anders

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

So begins Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem entitled, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” (Written April 19, 1860; first published in 1863 as part of “Tales of a Wayside Inn”) This poem came to my mind as I was reading this Scripture. The second stanza goes like this:

He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,–
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

This poem came to my mind from the text for today because Paul makes a series of contrasts, much like Paul Revere when he said, “One if by land, and two if by sea.” Today I want to suggest that the Apostle Paul offers us the following contrasts:

One if by faith; two if by sight.

One if our home is with the body; two if our home is with the Lord.

One if by face; two if by heart.

With that outline in mind, let’s start with “One if by faith; two if by sight.” In verse seven, Paul says, “We walk by faith and not by sight.”

Most people advocate walking by sight. With our eyes, we see the path before us. Our eyes keep us from stumbling and falling. It is our eyes which keeps us from walking off a cliff. We live, day by day, by sight.

Many will then conclude that only what we see and what we touch is real. In the church, however, we suggest that there is more to this world than what meets the eyes.

In philosophy, the matter of the senses leads to very interesting conclusions. Philosophers from the days of Descartes have questioned what we see and what we touch. In his famous illustration, Descartes saw a stick in a pond stuck down into the mud. Where the stick touched the water, it appeared to be bent. His eyes told him the stick was bent. But when he pulled the stick out of the water, it was straight. If the same eyes can tell us that the stick is bent and straight, how can we really trust our eyes? Descartes concluded that we cannot trust our senses.

A similar experience comes when we view optical illusions. Recently, I looked at a set of illusions sent me on email by a friend. The first page contained a series of geometric patterns that seemed to be moving. But when I focused on an individual set of dots, they clearly were not moving. The eyes deceive us when we look at optical illusions.

This kind of philosophy leads to the point of view of the movie, The Matrix, in which humans were connected by electrodes to a computer. An entire alternant world was created by electrical impulses to the brain. It’s an idea straight from Greek philosophy. Philosophers conclude that we cannot prove by the senses that we are not just a brain in a vat.

In the church, we say, “We don’t live by sight, but by faith.” We believe there is more to life than just what we see.

Some people insist that they don’t believe in anything that they can’t see and touch. It’s a point of view which leads ultimately to atheism. That seems to make sense until we realize that walking only by sight means we will never believe in love, faith, hope. Those things cannot be touched or seen. There is more to life than what we see and what we touch.

Paul says, “One if by faith; two if by sight.” He says, “Walk by faith and not by sight.”

The second theme of this passage can be put this way, “One if our home is with the body; two if our home is with the Lord.”

When someone asks me, “Where is your home,” I would normally respond, “131 Coal Hollow.” That’s where my house is. That’s where I go after work each day. But is that really where my home is? I like the saying often put on refrigerator doors, “Home is where the heart is.”

Paul says, “My home is now in the body, but my real home is with the Lord.” In Philippians 1:23-24 he says, “I don’t know what I will choose. But I am in a dilemma between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Yet, to remain in the flesh is more needful for your sake.” For Paul, his home, his heart was really with God.

In our passage for today, we find both of those phrases––”at home in the body” (v. 6) and “at home in the Lord” (v. 8). Where is our home?

Paul was in prison for a time in the colony of Philippi. It was said to be an outpost of Rome. When the Romans conquered that area, they made the town of Philippi as much like Rome as possible. They imported Roman government and Roman culture to make this town just like Rome.

Paul takes that same idea and suggests that we are to make our place on earth as much like heaven as we can. Our real citizenship lies in the Kingdom of God, but we are here on earth as resident aliens. We are not really citizens of the United States, but citizens of heaven. Our home is with the Lord. Our calling is to make that area around us a little bit of heaven. Our home is with the Lord; not in the body.

The third contrast in this passage could be stated, “One if by face; two if by heart.” The end of verse twelve reads, “So that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart.”

In the literal meaning of the phrase, “outward appearance” means “the face.” Do we judge people by the face or by the heart? Do we live by outward appearance or by the heart?

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The Bible tells us in many places that God judges by the heart. In Vacation Bible School this week, I was teaching the story of the selection of the shepherd David to become king of Israel. Samuel came to the house of Jesse and said that one of his eight sons would be the new king. One by one, Jesse paraded his older sons before Samuel, only to be rejected.

In VBS, we acted out this story with a little humor. I suggested that the youngest son, David, was out caring for the sheep and may not have looked like much or smelled like much on the outside. One by one, the children pretended to be the older sons. I bragged about each one and exclaimed what a fine specimen this son was. I asked if this son had a bath last night, and each said, “Yes.” I asked if they had brushed their teeth this morning, and they each said, “Yes.” But God rejected each one.

Then the volunteer who was David came forward and admitted he hadn’t had a bath in a month, and hadn’t even brushed his teeth. But God looks on the heart and not the outside and David was selected as the next king. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But Yahweh said to Samuel, ‘Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for I see not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.'”

Ours is a faith of the heart. We are called to look at the heart of other people. And we are called to live by the heart. “Walk by faith, not by sight” (v. 7). That means we live by God’s guidance day by day.

I want to recommend living by the heart, but to offer a caution as well. There is a value in living and making decisions by the heart. This heart-talk speaks of the Holy Spirit that communicates to us. Sometimes God leads us in ways beyond reason. Sometimes we just know something by our hearts.

But I caution about the heart because there are those who commit murder and suggest that God spoke to their heart and told them to do that! Sometimes we do what we want and blame it on God. We mix up our desires and God’s desires. Living by the heart can lead to a new age, touchy-feely mush of emotionalism, wants and desires that stampede toward the most base characteristics of life.

Does the heart lead us wherever we want to go? Paul offers a balance in verse 14-15, “For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.”

Our heart can be trusted as long as our hearts are anchored in Jesus Christ. There has to be some standard to guide our emotions.

An abandoned ship on the water is a derelict that may wind up anywhere at the whims of the winds that blow. But if the anchor is thrown out, the ship may be blown in a circle. But it will never be far from the place where the anchor holds.

Paul would say for us to anchor our hearts in Jesus and his death on the cross. When that happens we “no longer live to (ourselves), but to him who… died and rose again…” (v. 15). Then we desire to please God instead of ourselves.

Our hearts are not free to go with our desires, our wants. But our hearts are controlled by the love of Christ. Therefore, we lead lives of sacrifice and service to others. We live for God.

Because of the cross, Christians see things differently. We simply do not think, perceive, assess, judge in the way we did before. Christians are transformed by the power of the cross.

Paul concludes in verse 17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new!” Our hearts have been transformed! That transformation begins in the heart and works its way through our lives.

Longfellow concludes his poem about Paul Revere this way:

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Our Paul is the Apostle Paul and he says, “One if by faith; two if by sight. One if our home is with the body; two if our home is with the Lord. One if we judge and live by outward appearance; two if we judge and live by heart.” We are heart people because God has transformed our hearts and we are new creatures in Christ.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible.

Copyright 2006, Mickey Anders. Used by permission.