LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Living by Faith
"For by faith you stand ... For we walk by faith, not by sight ... Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith" (2 Cor. 1:24, 5:7, 13:5).
The second letter to the Corinthians is the most intimate epistle Paul wrote. In it the apostle opens his heart to show us his weaknesses, his struggles and anxieties. And it is in it that faith shines again, with new sparkles. The three verses we have quoted, taken from this letter, give a fairly accurate idea of what Paul's life was like as a man of faith.
"By faith you stand firm". Faith being, humanly speaking, something impalpable, there is no human reason that leads us to think that it can bestow any firmness. However, the gospel that is received by faith gives believers steadfastness by that very faith. When we believe, our hand reaches out to God to take the hand of his grace that reaches out to sustain us. In taking God's hand we know the greatest of steadfastness.
God rejoices to save believers through faith. "Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed", said the Lord to Thomas. "By faith (Moses) stood as seeing the Invisible" (Heb. 11:27), when Pharaoh's chariots were at his heels.
"For by faith we walk, not by sight". Just as Peter walked on the waters as he believed the words of the Lord, so we walk steadfastly on the waters of this troubled world, so hostile to faith.
When Paul and Silas were in prison in Philippi, they sang hymns to God, full of joy (Acts 16:25). Why? Because God had spoken to them, through the vision of the Macedonian man, to go there. They had the word of God; it did not matter, therefore, that the circumstances there were unfavorable. As soon as they entered that province (Acts 16:12), they were imprisoned. Things seemed to be going badly, but they were not. Their imprisonment was the occasion God used to show His glory, for there came the earthquake and then the salvation of the jailer and all his household.
Paul and Silas sang in the midst of the pain, in that antechamber of God's wonders. They sang by faith in the invisible, when the visible were the wounds and pain produced by the scourging. But they walked by faith.
"Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith". Paul's final exhortation is to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith. For it may well be that we are walking by sight, attending to circumstances and not to God. If we walk by sight, then let us not sing, but weep, for we are in prison. Everything we see invites us to weep; but if we walk by faith, we can sing, for very soon the salvation of God will come.
The Galatians, as we well know, had fallen from faith to works. And this earned them a severe rebuke from the apostle. The existence of this epistle in the Bible warns us of our weakness and propensity to follow a path different from that of faith. Let us examine ourselves: To what or to whom are we looking and in whom are we trusting?