2 Corinthians 5:7

διὰ πίστεως … διὰ εἴδους. Perhaps διά has not quite the same shade of meaning in both cases. In each place it may indicate either the means by which, or the element through which, the motion takes place. The latter meaning easily passes into the condition in which a thing takes place. In Revelation 21:24 διὰ τοῦ φωτὸς περιπατεῖν may mean ‘walk in the light’ (A.V.), or, ‘amidst the light’ (R.V.), or, ‘by the light’ (R.V. margin). Here διὰ εἴδους cannot mean ‘by sight’ in the sense of ‘by our eyesight’: it means ‘by that which is seen’ (Luke 3:22; Luke 9:29); ‘we have no pillar of cloud or of fire to guide us.’ Comp. στόμα κατὰ στόμα λαλήσω αὑτῷ, ἐν εἴδει καὶ οὐ διʼ αἰνιγμάτων (Numbers 12:8), which S. Paul has also in mind in 1 Corinthians 13:12. We live here under a condition of believing in Christ, not under the condition of His visible presence.