liave helped out by inserting the words ice are^ thus turning the i3artieiple ^appowre? into a verb. The unfinished sentence in y. 6 is resumed and completed in v. 8. Omitting the words of resumption in \. 8, the whole sentence stands thus : " Being confident and knowing that whilst at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, we are desirous (eL-SoKov/aev) rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord." This verse is introduced as a consequence of what precedes. ' Hav- ing the earnest of the Spirit, therefore we are confident.' This confidence is not a mere temporary feeling due to some transient excitement ; but a permanent state of mind. Being always^ Travrorc, on all occasions and under all circumstances, even in the midst of dangers and discouragements which, were it not for divine support, would produce despair. The ground of the boldness and confidence expressed by the word Sappovv- res is not any thing in the believer ; it is not his natural courage, not the strength of his convictions ; but it is a state of mind produced by the indwelling of the Spirit, and the natural consequence of his presence. JBebig confident and knowing ; both these particles are grammatically constructed with the verb ice are willing^ ^vhoKovjx^v^ in v. 8, and together express the ground of the apostle's desire to be absent from the body. Knowing that^ ichilst tee are at home in the hodg^ we are ahsent from the Lord. The words ivS-qjxeo), to be at home (literally, among one's people), and cKSv^/xeco are opposed to each other. The figure is slightly changed from that used in the preceding verses. There it was a house, here a city, at least ^rjfxos, people, naturally sucygests that idea. Comp. Phil. 3,20. Heb. 11, 13. 13, 14.
7. (For we walk by faith, not by sight.)
This is a passing, parenthetical remark, intended as a con- firmation of the preceding declaration. ' We are absent from the Lord, for we now, in this life, walk by faith.' The passage is parallel to Rom. 8, 24, "We are saved by hope (or in hope, i. e. in prospect)." Salvation is not a present, but a future good. ,So here, presence with the Lord is now a matter of faith, not of fruition. The condition of our present state of being is that of believing. The faith which is the evidence of things not seen and the substance (or assurance) of things hoped for, is the element in which we live, so long as we are not present with those things. Being the objects of faith they
122 II. CORINTIIIAIsrS 5, 8.
are of course absent. The prei^osition, 8ia, may have its ordi- nary force, " We walk hy means of faith ; " it is by faith we regulate our walk through life. Or it may be used here as in Rom. 8, 25. Heb. 12, 1, and elsewhere, to mark the attending circumstances, "we wait icith patience," "let us run with patience," "we walk with faith." A^id not hy sight. The word €tSo5 does not mean the sense of sight, but the thing seen, form, appearance, that which is the object of sight. In Luke 3, 22, the Spirit is said to have descended o-wjaariKw ctSct, in a hoclily shai:>e ; in 9, 29 it is said of our Lord that the €t8os tot) Trpoo-wTTov O-VTOV^ tlic fttsMou of his face was changed ; and in John 5, 37- our Lord tells the Jews, speaking of the Father, "Ye have never heard his voice or seen his (etSos) shape." If tliis, the proper signification of the word, be re- tained, then Ci^o% is the object of faith, the form and fashion of the tilings believed. Loco rei verho acqidescimus^ as Calvin expresses it. "VVe are conversant with the report of heavenly things, not with the things themselves. We are absent, not present with them. In this case 8ta means with. ' We are not surrounded with the forms of things in heaven.' It is no objection to this interpretation that the preposition 8ta has a diiferent force given to it in the second clause, from that commonly given to it in the first clause of the verse. 'We walk hy faith, and not icith^ or in presence o/the objects of our faith.' This change in the force of the same preposi- tion in the same sentence is not unusual. See Heb. 9, 11. 12. 10, 20. The majority of commentators, however, depart from the proper signification of the word cISos and take it in the sense of oi//ts, because this agrees best with the antithesis to TTto-Tts {faitJi) and with the force of the preposition. " We walk by faith, not by sight ; " we believe, but do not see things which govern our life. This, no doubt, is the idea which the apostle intended, although not precisely the form in which he has expressed it.
8. We are confident, (I say,) and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
The sentence begun and left incomplete in v. G is here resumed and carried out. ©ap/joG/xcr Se, we are of good courage. The particle hi may either serve to indicate the resumption of what he had begun to say in v. 0, or be taken adversativcly in