Living by faith

We’re going to switch gears for a moment here and talk a little bit about faith. First we’ll take a look at the dictionary definition of faith as Merriam Webster’s online dictionary defines it. We’ll just look at the part of the definition that pertains to our purposes, but if you don’t believe me please feel free to check it on your own.

So what does it all mean? Looking at the dictionary definition for faith we see it means complete trust. The Biblical passage above backs that up in the very first 5 words when it says So we are always confident. Always confident… complete trust.

Next the dictionary definition of faith means something that is believed especially with a strong convinction. Personally I think the word “especially” is misleading in this definition. I would say when it comes to faith either you have strong conviction or you don’t have faith at all.

So in short the dictionary tells us that faith is believing in someone, something, or God. I have faith that she’ll pass the test, or I have faith this bridge won’t collapse, and finally I put my faith in Christ to help me through the hard times. All of those have faith a central theme, but all require different levels of it. By far the greatest faith is to put your trust in a saviour you’ve never seen with your eyes.

The dictionary definition however isn’t the focus. The focus is the scripture. Let’s divide it up and take a look at it piece by piece.

So we are always confident

We already covered this but it bears repeating. It means we (the body of believers, the church of Christ) have complete trust in this truth.

knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord

Things start getting a little more tricky here. Before we go further we’ll refer to Genesis 1:26

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[a] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The first question most people ask is “Who is Our?” Our is the first overt reference to the Triune Godhead (Father (creator), Son (life and saviour), Holy Spirit (convictor). The next question is “What is Our image?” For the answer to that we move on to another scripture.

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:24

By now knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord should be a lot more clear to you. If this is still not making sense to you I’ll try to explain it. We are spirits (created in the image of God) who reside in a temporary home (a tent) the God has supplied us. While we are in this “tent” we are far away from God due to the sinful nature of our flesh.

For we walk by faith, not by sight

This part is fairly simple for our interpretation of this scripture in this situation. It simply means that we have faith in something that we can’t physically percieve. We can not touch, hear, smell, see, or taste but we know that we are absent from God in our body.

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

This last part means that we look forward to being stripped of our tent and being at home in our mansion with the Lord.

In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. - John 14:2

How do you interpret 2 Corinthians 5:6-8?

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