Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 1

Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 1

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen - but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary - but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Among all the causes of the stupid unconcernedness of sinners about true religion, and the feeble endeavors of saints to improve in it - there is none more common or more effectual, than their not forming a due estimate of the things of time - in comparison with those of eternity. Our present affairs engross all out thoughts, and exhaust all our activity, though they are but transitory trifles; while the solemn realities of the future world are hid from our eyes by the veil of flesh and the clouds of ignorance. Did these unseen eternal realities break in upon our minds in all their tremendous importance, they would annihilate the most desired vanities of the present state, obscure the glare of all earthly glory, render all its pleasures insipid, and give us a noble resignation under all its sorrows.

A realizing view of these eternal realities, would shock the worldling in thoughtless career, tear off the hypocrite's mask, and inflame the devotion of the languishing saints. The concern of mankind would then be how they might make a safe exit out of this world - and not how they may live happy in their earthly state. The pleasures of sin would strike us with horror as they issue in eternal pain! And our present afflictions, however tedious and severe, would appear but light and momentary - if they work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!

These were the views which the apostle had of things, and these their effects upon him. He informs us in this chapter of his unwearied zeal to propagate the gospel amidst all the hardships and dangers that attend the painful discharge of his ministry. Though he bore about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus, though he was always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake - yet he fainted not. And this was the prospect that animated him - that his light affliction, which was but for a moment, would work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). When we view his sufferings in themselves, without any reference to eternity - they were very heavy and of many years continuance; and when he represents them in this view, how pitiable is the narrative (2 Cor. 11:23-29).

But when he views them in the light of eternity, and compared with their glorious outcome - they sink into nothing! Then scourging, stoning, imprisonment, and all the various deaths to which he was daily exposed - are but light, trifling afflictions, hardly worth naming! And when he views a glorious futurity, human language cannot express the ideas he has of the happiness reserved for him; it is "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!"

It is glory in opposition to affliction! It is a weight of glory - in opposition to light affliction! And to finish all, it is a far more exceeding glory! 

The apostle observes, that he formed this estimate of things, while he looked not at the things which are seen but at the things which are unseen. 

We are to look on these invisible things, and not on those that are seen. Faith is defined by this apostle to be "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). (see particularly Hebrews 11:10, 13, 14, 16, 25, 26, 27).

Hence to look not at visible - but at invisible things, signifies that the apostle made unseen eternal realities, the chief objects of his contemplations, so that he was governed in the whole of his conduct by the impression of eternal things - and not by the present; that he formed his maxims and schemes from a comprehensive survey of futurities - and not from a partial view of things present; and, in short, that he had acted as an expectant of eternity - and not as a fleeting inhabitant of this wretched world. This he expresses in equivalent terms, "We walk by faith - and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7).

I. I shall give you a comparative view of visible and invisible things - that you may see the trifling nature of the one - and the great importance of the other. 

II. I shall show you the great and happy influence which a suitable impression of the superior importance of invisible things to visible things would have upon us.

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen - but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary - but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18).

I. A Comparative View of Visible and Invisible Things

1. Consider the infinite disparity between the invisible things and the visible things - as to their INTRINSIC VALUE. In this respect, the disparity is inconceivable.

~Samuel Davies~

(continued with # 2)