Sen. Kamala Harris included an echo of Paul’s epistle in her acceptance speech tonight as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the vice presidency.
“I do so [accept], committed to the values she [her mother] taught me. To the Word that teaches me to walk by faith, and not by sight. And to a vision passed on through generations of Americans — one that Joe Biden shares. A vision of our nation as a Beloved Community — where all are welcome, no matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we love.”
I recognized the phrase from the hymn by Henry Alford (1810–1871) often sung at the abbey:
We walk by faith, and not by sight;
No gracious words we hear
From Him who spake as never man,
But we believe Him near.
We may not touch His hands and side,
Nor follow where He trod;
But in His promise we rejoice,
And cry, My Lord and God!
Help Thou, O Lord, our unbelief:
And may our faith abound,
To call on Thee when Thou art near,
And seek where Thou art found.
That, when our life of faith is done,
In realms of clearer light
We may behold Thee as Thou art,
With full and endless sight.
Bill Combs expounds the theology of the phrase for Bible Study Tools. “Paul is contrasting actually seeing the Lord (‘at home with the Lord’) with our present experience of believing in the Lord without seeing him (‘away from the Lord’). For now believers ‘live in the realm of faith,’ trusting in the Lord whom they have not seen, but one day they will ‘live in the realm of sight.’ This is same sort of contrast we see in John 20:29 and 1 Pet 1:8.”
