The Apostle tells us by the 'for' which lies at the beginning of my
text, and makes it a reason for something that has preceded, and what
has preceded is this, 'We look not at the things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen.'
That is to say, such a joyous, calm certitude draws men's thoughts
away from this shabby and transitory present, and fixes them on the
solemn majesties of that eternal future. Yes! and nothing else will.
Take away the idea of resurrection, and the remaining idea of
immortality is a poor, shadowy, impotent thing. There is no force in
it; there is no blessedness in it; there is nothing in it for a man
to lay hold of. And, as a matter of fact, there is no vivid faith in
a future life without belief in the resurrection and bodily existence
of the perfected dead.
And we shall not let our thoughts willingly go out thither unless our
own personal wellbeing there is very sure to us. When we know that
for us individually there is that house waiting for us to enter into
it, when the Lord comes, then we shall not be unwilling to turn our
hearts and our desires thither. We look at the things which are not
seen, for we know that we have a house eternal.
And such a certitude will also make a man willing to accept the else
unwelcome necessity of leaving the tent, and for a while doing
without the mansion. It is that which the Apostle is speaking of in
subsequent verses, on which I cannot enter now. He says--and therein
speaks a universal experience--that men recoil from the idea of
having to lay aside this earthly body and be 'naked.' But we know
that we have that glorious mansion waiting for us, and that till the
day comes when we enter upon it we may be lapt in Christ instead,
and, in that so-called intermediate state, may have Him to surround
us, Him to be to us the medium by which we come into connection with
anything external, and so can contentedly go away from our home in
the body; and go to our home in Christ. 'Wherefore, we are always
confident, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be
at home with the Lord.'
Oh, brethren! do we think of our future thus? If we do, then let us
lay to heart the final words of our teacher in this part of his
letter: 'Wherefore we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to
be well-pleasing unto Him.'