2 Corinthians
4:16-18
INTRODUCTION
One reason why the Bible
speaks to us in the depths of our hearts is because so much of the Bible was
written by people who were in pain.
If you have read the Psalms,
you know how many of them were written by people who were deeply discouraged
because of sickness, or the hatred of their enemies, or because they felt
forsaken by God.
In the New Testament we have
many letters written by the Apostle Paul. And Paul’s life was a life full of
trouble. That’s one reason why Paul’s letters are so meaningful to us.
Sometimes our lives are full of trouble.
The letter in which Paul most
poignantly reveals the depths of his suffering is his second letter to the
Corinthians.
In the first chapter he
writes of the terrible afflictions he and his companions suffered in Asia. He says,
“We were so utterly, unbearably crushed
that we despaired of life itself.”
Paul was not an old man when
he wrote this letter, maybe in his 40s or early 50s. But he was a broken man—old
before his time. Paul was beheaded during the persecution of Emperor Nero in
A.D. 67, about 10 years after writing this letter, while probably in his 50s.
He writes in chapter 11 of
the afflictions he has endured: countless beatings,
once stoned and left for
dead,
three times shipwrecked,
adrift a night and a day at
sea,
in danger from rivers,
and in constant danger from
enemies who wanted to kill him.
Sleepless nights, hunger and
thirst,
in cold,
and in daily anxiety for all
the churches.
In the chapter 4—from which
I’m going to take my text—Paul calls himself “a clay jar.” He writes, “We have this treasure”—that is, the light
of the gospel—“in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this
extraordinary power belongs to God an not come from us.”
Paul compares himself to a
clay jar—cheap material, fragile, and easily broken.
Then he says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not
crushed;
perplexed,
but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of
Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies” (4:7-10).
I’m not trying to glorify
pain. Pain is pain, and it hurts. We should avoid pain and suffering whenever
we can. But God gives us a way to look at our troubles that opens up the way to
blessing.
The text: 2 Corinthians
4:16-18:
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our
inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction
is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we
look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen
is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”
I. What Paul actually writes
in the Greek is: “While the outer man is
wasting away, the inner man is being renewed every day…”
A. The “outer man”—or the
“outer person”—that is wasting away is the mortal body. The outer person has a
body full of scars, of aches and pains, growing weaker every day.
The outer person ends up in
the grave.
But there’s another person
that Paul calls the “inner person.”
This is the Paul is on the
inside. The inner person, the home of the Holy Spirit, living in fellowship
with God, trusting and obeying God, and enjoying the peace that only God can
give.
The inner man or the inner
woman is the person who will live forever.
B. But it’s not automatic
that our inner person is “renewed day by day.”
Some people get old on the
inside too. They lose hope, lose interest in life, feel sorry for themselves,
harbor bitter memories, and have nothing to look forward to.
But people who live close to
God remain vital and full of hope, even as their health fails, because, as
Jesus once said, there is within them a spring of water welling up to eternal
life.
The secret of this constant
renewal is to view things in the light of eternity—to always be aware that this
life is not all there is, but this life is just the prelude to real life that
lasts forever.
II. Then Paul says something
surprising: “For this slight momentary
affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure…”
A. I have told you in Paul’s
own words how grim his life was. It was full of trouble and sorrow and pain and
disappointment. And yet he calls it “this slight
momentary affliction…”
Afflictions are slight and momentary only in comparison with eternal life.
Our afflictions in this life
may be terrible, break our hearts and crush our spirits.
But if we can bring them
into comparison with the “eternal weight
of glory,” then they dwindle into insignificance.
Paul writes a few sentences
on: “…for we walk by faith, not by
sight.”
No matter what struggles we
have in our earthly bodies, someday they will be left behind and forgotten
because, looking back on them a thousand years from now, we will see them as
slight and momentary.
B. And our sorrows, Paul says,
are actually “preparing us for an
eternal weight of glory”!
In other words, the more we
suffer for Jesus, the more joy we will experience when we are with Christ in
glory.
Our sufferings aren’t like
Paul’s; we aren’t suffering for our faith. But I believe that if we can offer
our pains and troubles to God, they will be sanctified and bring eternal
blessings into our lives.
I believe that our sorrows—if
we offer them to God—can make us deeper people, able to hold more joy because
sorrow has enlarged or hearts to contain much more of God.
The truth is that the joy of
heaven is something that can’t be had apart from faithfulness amid suffering on
earth…
III. Then Paul continues, “…because we look not at what can be seen
but at what cannot be seen;
for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”
A. The word for “look” in
this verse has a stronger meaning than just “to see.” Other translations have “aim for,” “fix our eyes on,” or “focus
on,” or “give attention to.”
B. But how can we look at what can’t be seen?
The secret is that we see,
not by the eyes in our heads but by
the eyes of faith.
And how can we learn to have
eyes of faith? By prayer, by scripture, by meditation, by fellowship
with Christian believers, and by acts of
love.
If we walk with God, the
things that are invisible to ordinary people will become the most real things,
and the invisible things are the things that last forever.
I read once of an ice palace
that was built in St. Petersburg. It had walls, ceilings, furniture—all colored
to look like the real thing. It was grand—but when spring came, it melted away.
It didn’t last.
And that’s the trouble with
our beautiful and interesting and fascinating world—it won’t last.
But there’s another, even
more beautiful and fascinating and interesting world—and it will last, forever.
C. S. Lewis wrote a series
of books about some children’s adventures. In the last book there is a train
wreck and the children find themselves in heaven. He writes, “All their life in this world and all their
adventures had been the cover and the title page: now they were beginning
Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on
forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
What a beautiful description
of what we are looking forward to in the world to come!
CONCLUSION
There’s a common idea that
people who are preoccupied with the “hereafter” have their heads in the clouds.”
You’ve heard the saying,
“He’s so heavenly minded, he’s of no earthly use.”
I’d like to turn that
around. The Bible teaches that if our minds are focused on the things of this
life, our lives will be wasted. To see everything in terms of the here and now
is to head straight for destruction.
To bring everything we do
into the light of eternity is the only way to make sure that what we do with
our lives here be a blessing for all eternity—for us and for those we love.
Diane Komp is a physician, a
pediatric oncologist. She has made a career out of treating children with
cancer.
Early in her practice of
medicine she was treating a little girl named Anna for leukemia. This was back
in the days when few recovered from this disease. At the age of 7, Anna was
facing the end.
At Anna’s side at the last
were her parents and her doctor. At that time Komp was not a believer. She was
an agnostic. But this is what happened that day in the doctor’s own words:
“Before she died, Anna
mustered the final energy to sit up in her hospital bed and say: ‘The
angels—they’re so beautiful! Mommy, can you see them? Do you hear their
singing? I’ve never heard such beautiful singing!’ Then she lay back on her
pillow and died.”
Komp says, “Anna’s parents reacted
as if they had been given the most precious gift in the world. Together we
contemplated a spiritual mystery that transcended our understanding and
experience. For weeks to follow, the thought that stuck in my head was: Have I
found a reliable witness?”
Not long after this, Diane
Komp herself began her journey as a Christian. Little Anna was a reliable
witness.
Maybe God gave that little
girl that vision of eternity as a gift to her parents.
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