What Is the Meaning of 2 Corinthians 5 (Including "We Walk by Faith, Not by Sight")?

The apostle Paul writes a second letter to a church full of issues and conflicts. After the first letter, Paul sent his spiritual son, Timothy, to check in with the church. Later, Paul visited, too, to try to reason with and reconnect with the Corinthians, but this led to more tension and hurt. The church was already fractured, loyal to different leaders like Paul and Apollos. Over time, false teachers came into the church and questioned Paul’s character and authority. Paul heard about these new issues and sent this second letter. 

Paul writes to defend his position as an apostle, testifying that God alone made him one, and he included evidence that he didn’t preach about himself or another leader. He preached Christ. Third, he pointed to his sufferings as proof of his authority. He obviously didn’t preach for personal gain since he endured great hardship and persecution for the Gospel. 2 Corinthians proves to be Paul’s most vulnerable epistle, showing his struggles and total dependence on God’s strength.

On a practical level, he encouraged the Corinthians to live up to their commitment to support the poor believers in Jerusalem, teaching Kingdom principles of generosity—sowing and reaping, trusting God to provide, and giving with joy. 

Reconciliation emerges as a key theme. Paul called the church to be reconciled to God, to him as their spiritual father, and to one another in love and righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 5, he also shares how being Jesus' disciples means they must also plead with the lost to be reconciled to the Father.

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2 Corinthians 5:7 uses the phrase to “walk by faith and not by sight.” Paul uses this phrase to lift their vision higher than the worldly cares, which led to their divisions and selfishness. Faith provides believers with an eternal perspective, an understanding of how choices today impact eternity. Walking by faith, then, means living daily in light of God’s promises instead of relying on what we physically see around us and the temporary situations. Throughout the chapter, Paul uses the eternal view as the foundation for life. He contrasts the temporary nature of our bodies with the forever and immortal future in Christ. 

Faith acts as a lens through which we see joy, hope, and purpose despite current suffering. We might bear the weight of trials and difficult times, but we can press forward in love with confidence that God has something better for us ahead. Faith gives us the assurance of the coming resurrection for all believers. 

What we see often deceives us, tempting us to look at the here and now or the powers of this world. But walking by faith helps us to maintain the right priorities, the eternal. The temporary things of this world will pass away, but the eternal endures. We endure with that vision, strengthening us to live godly, not from fear but in hope. 

Walking by faith embraces the unseen reality of God’s Kingdom, able to see and seek it above all else for the reward to come, our heavenly dwelling. 

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Paul uses an interesting metaphor for the contrast between our earthly lives and the eternal reality. Our earthly bodies are like tents—temporary and easily torn down. For those who walk in faith and endure, God promises a permanent, secure heavenly home, “a building from God, eternal in the heavens.” Interestingly, this comparison points back to the Old Testament Tabernacle of Moses and Solomon’s Temple. In other passages, Paul declares the church as God’s new house and temple, even in the previous letter (1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19). 

Christians, then, live in a constant tension, living in a broken and corrupt body, easily tempted, and deeply longing to have the resurrected, immortal body. Paul declares believers will be “clothed” with such a new body, also covered in the previous letter, 1 Corinthians 15. Greek philosophy of this day (and some modern religious thought) thought the afterlife would be more ghost-like, but Paul affirms Jesus disciples will have a resurrected body of substance. God’s design is redemption, like all things. He won’t remove the physical but redeem it to something new. 

The Holy Spirit works as a guarantee, a “down payment” for the future promise. God gave the indwelling Holy Spirit as a seal, a “foretaste” of the eternal life to come. The Father and Son imparted something in us that has no beginning and will have no end, the Spirit. This oneness with God through the Spirit naturally means walking in faith leads to an eternal resurrection like Jesus. 

For believers, life doesn’t end with death. Rather, it truly begins. 

But it won’t be so for nonbelievers. 

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In 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul writes, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” Every person, believer or unbeliever, will stand before Jesus and give an account. Paul uses the Greek word bema for “judgment seat,” which refers to a platform where magistrates or officials judged people and dispensed justice. A Christian will find grace and mercy at this time, through the blood of Jesus, and a believer’s life will be evaluated for how they lived and obeyed Christ, unto possible rewards in the next life. This isn’t about punishment but receiving an inheritance as children of God—crowns, honor, ruling in God’s eternal Kingdom. For a disciple of Christ, standing before our Savior will be a fulfillment of walking in faith. 

However, for those who have rejected Christ and chosen self, the judgment seat leads to terror and fear. Unbelievers will also stand before Jesus and face condemnation (Revelation 20:11-15). For them, judgment will lead to eternal destruction and separation from God. This judgment seat should comfort Christians and also urge us to lives of faith and endurance. 

But God’s rescue from judgment isn’t for us alone. He also offers it to anyone who would believe. Christians shouldn’t keep it to themselves but love people enough to share the Good News. 

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As children of God, every believer possesses the mission to share the Gospel with others. God reconciled Christians to himself through the Son and then gave the rescued the ministry of reconciliation. He doesn’t save us so we can sit back and be passive. Just as he sent the Son, he sends the born-again by the Holy Spirit. 

Adam and Eve’s sin lost many things, one of which was the purpose to spread God’s dominion over the earth, to fill it with his glory. Human redemption, therefore, doesn’t forget this original mission but restores it through preaching the Good News of Jesus. God makes his appeal for salvation through Christians. As his ambassadors, believers reveal his heart and message. This doesn’t threaten or condemn. Believers must plead with people from love and compassion to be reconciled to God. Paul gives the message: “We implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” (verse 20) Loving like God does, and longing for their own eternal future, Christian compassion pursues the lost to turn to Christ and enjoy the same restoration. 

We’ve been rescued, in part, to partner with God in rescuing others. As we have received grace, we must be messengers of grace, pointing people to the death and resurrection of Jesus, offering hope and life instead of an eternal death. 

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Paul gives a brief description of the new creation in 5:17: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Through the work of Christ on the cross and his resurrection, God fundamentally transforms believers from the inside out. The change isn’t just an outward change of behavior. They had that in the law, and it clearly didn’t work to change hearts. The new creation is spiritual rebirth. In Christ, and Christ in us, Jesus’ disciples are born of the Spirit (John 3:5-6). God gives his divine nature to replace the old sin nature. 

Before repentance unto Christ, sin rules the heart and decisions. After believing in the Son, God grants a new heart and spirit. Christians aren’t slaves to sin; they live to Christ’s righteousness. This changes identity from the world to God and heaven. No longer just created by God in his image, believers are begotten of God by the Spirit, from love and mercy. This new nature is able to reject sin and follow God. No one could follow God without the Spirit. 

This leads us to a new law (Romans 8), the Law of Spirit and Life. We walk not in our own strength but by the Spirit. In following the Son, we become more like him over time. What God birthed in us will be completed, because Jesus is the beginning and the end. And we will live with him in glory. 

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The church in Corinth had several problems: division, sexual immorality, pride, and questioning Paul’s leadership. And yet Paul still held them responsible for the ministry of reconciliation. He didn’t give them an excuse or a pass on the ministry. The apostle corrected their disobedience, warned against false teachers, and affirmed his authority, but he did it all by calling them to their identity in Christ as new creations, including sharing the Gospel. In the same way, we must live up to our mission to invite people to reconciliation with God, despite our flaws and imperfections. 

God’s love drives us. We don’t share the Gospel to condemn or tear down but to share the joy of God’s work with others. We were all once enemies of God, but through the loving work of Christ, the Father reconciled us back to himself. The same invitation extends to all the world, and the Lord’s plan includes pleading to the lost through us. God makes his appeal through our lives, our words, and our witness. We must participate if we love others. 

Additionally, 2 Corinthians 5 teaches us to always keep our eyes on the unseen and eternal. The judgment seat of Christ is real, and that truth urges us to walk by faith for the reward to come. Further, this eternal perspective motivates us to lovingly engage with the world. We accomplish this not in our own strength but from the Spirit within us. Let us walk by faith with our eyes fixed on eternity and invite all we come into contact with to join us on the narrow path to life.

Peace. 

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