by Jason Hamilton
We’ve been taking a longer look at several passages that maybe we’re familiar with, but COVID-19 has made us look even longer than before. Here’s another one:
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. . . (2 Cor. 4:17)
This verse comes directly on the heels of what we just looked at in the last article. We need major perspective and Paul spoons that out to us in this verse. By “perspective” I mean that to not lose heart (v. 16) we need to have a change of heart. We scaled the mountain on one side with verse 16 and now that we’re on the peak it’s important to take in the view from the other side. Perspective. Why would we go to so much trouble to keep our hearts in check when things go drastically wrong? I ride that rut of bitterness like so many others. It’s easy to get on that track and lose heart. It must mean something else, in regard to suffering, that we have this message in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us (v. 7). I would try to argue alongside you that he truly meant something else if context failed to drive our interpretation! He follows that verse with these verses:
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 manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Cor. 4:8-12)
Paul is saying that our being crushed exposes the fragrance of the Gospel that has permeated our lives. My wife has a love for instant pot cooking. When she starts, she can take vegetables and chicken and, before cooking them, they don’t burst with fragrance. When they sit in the crucible of pressurized cooking some of the tantalizing smells waft from the kitchen into the whole house. Heat and pressure make great soups. By God’s design we’re to suffer for the express purpose of His Gospel message, despite how we feel at the moment. In fact, Paul sees this and says:
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. (2 Cor. 4:13-15)
So, horrible things are happening, they happened to Paul as well, more so even. The spirit of faith accords, not with our feelings or discouragements or failures, but to what has been written. If our faith is real, if its genuine, it’s built on what God has spoken in His Word, and not on how I feel at the moment. In order for faith to thrive we have to look past the trial and see Him who raised the Lord Jesus, knowing that if Christ was resurrected that means that He will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. As a result of fact of the resurrection of Christ, and as a result of the resurrection, we will share with each other and with Christ-
. . we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. (v. 17)
In other words, the more I dwell on the resurrection the less likely it is that I’ll grow discouraged. In fact, with eternity in mind (no more tears, suffering, pain, or discouragement, plus endless fulfilling fellowship), Paul then comes to the verse that we started out with:
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (v. 18)
What are our acute pains and difficulties here that we face? I could dwell for a long time on our trials being light momentary affliction (affliction, ironically, can be translated “pressure”) but they are easily understood individually. Together they are vital to the other side of the peak. They help us in our perspective. 10,000 years into eternity, 10,000 years into no suffering or pain, 10,000 years (which is barely a blink in eternal life) will make our suffering very very light and very very momentary. Yet, I don’t want you to think that our trials are so insignificant that they’re meaningless. Oh no! On the contrary the next word in the sentence of verse 18 is rich with purpose: preparing. All of these pressures, this suffering, is budding with purpose because those things are preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Does that sound familiar? Remember the crane operator dropping the 1-ton weight on the scale? Remember that we talked about not making comparisons? Paul tells us not to. The weight of eternity is massive and so good that the more I suffer here the more prepared I will be for eternity.
So, rather than thinking that quarantine is a prison or that we just need to resume “normal” as soon as possible, consider that a pandemic is God’s means of preparing us to spend an eternity with Him.
Years ago, as our church was in some transition, one of things we talked about was renaming some of the Sunday School classes. When it came time to consider our senior adult class I proposed “Freshman Orientation”. Why not? We don’t have another class for our 80/90 year olds. Their next step was eternity. To say the least, the name didn’t catch on (nor did the “dad joke” humor) but consider that when we suffer we are all being ushered into “Freshmen Orientation”. Trials don’t have to lead to anger or bitterness, but valuable, deep, purpose-filled but painful, preparation. May this time of trial change our perspective.