Bible Strands
2 Corinthians 4:18
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul writes to the Corinthian church, defending his ministry against critics who measure worth by visible results. He has just contrasted "light and momentary affliction" with an "eternal weight of glory" (v. 17).
The words — σκοποῦντων (skopountōn), a present participle meaning "are looking at," conveys a sustained, deliberate aiming of the gaze rather than a casual glance. It pairs with βλεπόμενα (blepomena, "being seen"), the passive form that marks the visible realm as something that merely presents itself to the eye.
The thread — 2 Corinthians 5:7 frames the same contrast as "faith, not by sight"; Romans 8:24 argues that hope directed at what is already seen is no hope at all; Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as certainty about what is not seen.
Why it lands — It is a command to redirect sustained attention away from the visible, temporary order and toward the invisible, eternal one. The reader is asked to treat what cannot be seen as more real than what can.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
- Romans 8:24 For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see?
- Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.
- 1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.
- 1 John 2:25 And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.
- Hebrews 11:13 All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
- Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- Hebrews 11:25 He chose to suffer oppression with God’s people rather than to experience the fleeting enjoyment of sin.
- Matthew 25:46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
- 2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who by grace has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope,