Walk By Faith Not Appearance – EGP Blog post from January 9, 2013

2 Corinthians 5:6–9 ()

[6] Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— [7] for we walk by faith, not by sight§— [8] we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. [9] Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

2 Corinthians 5:7 Or appearance

I’m sure you’ve all heard before, but what you may not know is that the word translated “sight” (εἶδος [] eidos, pronounced i’-dos), literally means “appearance or form.” So, what this verse is really saying, is that true Christians walk by faith (in God, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit), not by appearance (i.e., simply “looking like a Christian” by doing things Christians supposedly do). True Christians aim to please God, not other people.

2 Timothy 3:1–7 ()

[1] But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. [2] For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters§ of good, [4] treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, [5] holding to a form of godliness,§ although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. [6] For among them are those who enter§ into households and captivate weak§ women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, [7] always learning and never able to come to the knowledge§ of the truth.

2 Timothy 3:3 Lit not loving good
2 Timothy 3:5 Or religion
2 Timothy 3:6a Or creep into
2 Timothy 3:6b Or idle
2 Timothy 3:7 Or recognition