2 Corinthians 4:16-18, 5:6-9

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.

2^nd Corinthians 4:16-18, 5:6-9

In 2^nd Corinthians 4:7-10, Paul laid out the reason that we continue to live our lives as fragile, fickle, and frail individuals: it is to show that the power demonstrated in our lives belongs to the Lord and the Lord alone. Clearly it does not reside in us. Our sin demonstrates that our righteousness is not born of us. The flimsy nature of our physical bodies shows that it is not some personal might that gives us confidence. Our doubts and struggles illustrates that it is not some reservoir of inner resolve that compels us. It is only the Lord, through His grace and by His Spirit that we persevere.

Because of this Paul can speak with assurance about our current state. He confidently asserts in v16: “So we do not lose heart.” As before, Paul demonstrates the effect of his faith in his own circumstances (persecution) to encourage his audience to do the same. In this section, he addresses three major points:

With the Christian Life comes affliction

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

Paul does not deny that through persecution, and indeed life itself, the outer self is wasting away. What is our outer self? It is our bodies, our physical manifestation on this earth. Taken a bit more metaphorically, our outer self can be the affairs of this world, our finances, our prestige, or our families. Whether through direct service of Christ or simply through the frailty of our form, we are wearing down, wearing away. Paul doesn’t whitewash the hardship this life of serving Christ will bear us. He doesn’t conform to the notion that opposition is tantamount to failure. Jesus, in fact, says the contrary: “In the world you will have tribulation.” And later: “I have given them the word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world.”

Jesus certainly isn’t indicating opposition as failure, He actually borders on asserting the contrary. We need to give up the notion that opposition whether spiritual, physical, or mental will somehow fade away if we only followed God more, only loved God more. On the contrary, we should expect these things.

Affliction Prepares Glory

Paul tells us what our heart should be like in the midst of affliction though: “our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comprehension.

First he asserts that in spite of the degradation of their physical lives, their inner lives are being renewed. This is the work of the Spirit in us. It renews. It brings us strength when we have none of our own to offer. The trick for us is to live in expectancy of that strength. Too often, when the affairs of the world turn against me, when ministry seems dead, when justice is absent, I become morose and live my life as a put-upon bitter soul. This should not be. When we are at our weakest, our most beaten-down, we must ask for and expect the renewing strength of the Spirit.

Secondly, Paul confirms that our affliction is A) light and B) momentary. It is only when we view affliction and indeed this life within the proper timeline of eternity that we can find solace in its brevity. For many of us though this is too much. We simply cannot see beyond the day; simply cannot see beyond the oppression; beyond the pain. In no way does this minimize the fact that the pain is real or that the injustice is real but it does view these things within their proper context--- eternal life. For many of us, this means we have to take a real hard look at our belief system. Is eternity something that we doctrinally assent to or is it a reality that is ingrained in our very being? If we do not believe (in the deepest possible way) in eternity, the trials and oppression of life in this world will always loom large. And why not? If this life is all there is, and pain and suffering such a big element of it, what reason is there to claim any hope or victory? We must constantly preach to our hearts that this is not so; that the only proper way to view suffering is to see it as a mere pin-prick in the expanse of eternal life.

Thirdly, Paul says not only is affliction momentary and light, but it also is preparing for us a reward further down the line. While he does not elaborate on it here, we can, by inference, imagine this as one of the great mysteries of heaven. Compared to what is coming, our troubles, intense as they may be, are nothing compared to the glory of the Lord that we will experience.

We walk by faith, not by sight

With this consolation, Paul moves on to describe a lifestyle in which suffering, and indeed all aspects of this life, are viewed in their proper context: “as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” And later: “we walk by faith, not by sight.”

This is where the rubber meets the road for us. Here Paul describes a way of viewing the world in which we are not overcome with worry or undue preoccupation with the physical, material realm (i.e. materialism) but rather “see” through our faith. The concerns of this world are not unimportant (or irrelevant) but trifling in comparison to the rest of our eternal life. Our reactions (here is the hard part) should remain grounded in light of eternity and not based on the immediate nature of the trouble or threat surrounding us. Opposition should not perplex us. Worry should not cripple us. Financial woes should not upset us. Sickness and death should not morbidly oppress us. We can all testify to our weakness in this regard.

So how do we see life in this way?

1.       Surround yourself with God’s word. We cannot believe what we do not know. If we want to be influenced by what God has to tell us then we must integrate it as fully into our lives as we able. Read it. Study it. Memorize it (ick). Meditate on it.

2.       Confess, confess, confess our weakness and frailty to the Lord. He knows what we are. He knows how fragile and fickle our bodies and minds are. Only by confessing our failures can we expect to experience different results.

3.       Expect affliction, react slowly. I don’t know about anyone else, but my first reaction to anything is usually bad. I let slip my words far too easily. I stress far too quickly. We must go into life expecting affliction but also expecting the resolve to overcome it (the renewal of v16). We must also delay reacting. Give yourself time to view the trouble within its proper context.

4.       Surround yourself with fellow foresighted believers. This is good advice for nearly anything within the Christian faith but is most pointedly so here. Too many believers live with a victim mentality. We expect the temptation, the persecution, the affliction, but live as practical materialists with no real belief in the eternal life and therefore give ourselves over to wallowing in our trouble and complaining about our problems. Neither of these should have any place within the Christian faith. We must be discerning with those we surround ourselves with (in this I mean with those whom we allow into the deepest parts of our lives, not just physical proximity) because we can quickly get pulled into a spirit of despair.

Nobody likes affliction. No one likes to be sick or have their plans foiled. We all long for heaven. We long to live in the presence of the Lord where there are no tears. While we are here however we are faced with the inevitability of troubles. We should however, take Paul’s final piece of advice in this section to heart, that in whether we are taken away to heaven or left to continue the work on this earth we should “make it our aim to please Him.”