‘For we know…’. Do you know?
‘For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’
There’s such blessed faith here from Paul.
Paul also tells us that our bodies, if we’re born again, are the temple of the Holy Spirit. ‘What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God.’
He knows that for each true believer, if this body of ours, this earthly house, the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, were dissolved by death… ‘We have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’
Can you say by faith that you know this?
What gave Paul the confidence to say this?
Let’s take a step back to what he says immediately before.
Paul is saying that despite many trials ‘we faint not. But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.’
Here’s the secret. ‘WHILE we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:’
The more our eyes are fixed on Jesus, the more we turn our eyes, hearts and thoughts away from this world and turn them upward, the more our faith will increase.
We’re to fight the good fight of faith.
In Paul’s letter to Timothy he tells us that ‘godliness with contentment is great gain… For the love of money is the root of all evil. Which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.’
This is how we grow in faith – eyes on Jesus.
Yes it’s a fight, it always will be but take your eyes off yourself, turn your heart away from the world and focus on God and who He says He is and all He’s done for us in Christ. And let’s fight for that faith so that we too have the confidence to say ‘I know.’
Your Sister in the battle
1 Cor 5:1, 6:19, 4:16-18, 1 Tim 6:6-12
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