Your Suffering Is Working for You — Eternal Weight of Glory

“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.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

I was talking to a woman the other day about this issue who struggles with assurance. And I said, “You know, God designed your heart to experience the sweetness of assurance by what you focus on with your head.” And she looked at me like: Where is that in the Bible? That sounded new to her.

And I thought: That’s all the Bible is — a bunch of “therefores” and “becauses.” It is talking about peace and joy and strength and power, and all of that for reasons that God has revealed in His word and acted out in history. So Paul really does experience not losing heart because of truths, realities, that he puts into his head day by day for renewal.

Preparing Glory

Now, what about that for at the beginning of verse 17? We are going to beat verse 16 to death if we don’t move on. But, my, there is a lot of life in there. [...]

Verse 16: “We do not lose heart.” We are going to be renewed every day. “For [because] 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.”

Verse 17 is the main argument, the main because, the main thing. This light, momentary affliction is doing something. It is working for us an eternal weight of glory. All verse 18 does is say: Look at it. You can’t see it, but look at it. If you look at the fallenness of man coming at you with its guns or the fallenness of nature coming at you with its tsunamis, all you have left to do is lose heart. Stop looking at that. Look at the unseen.

What unseen things are you talking about? And how do you look at something that is unseen? That is a contradiction. You can’t look at what you can’t look at. You said it is unseen. Stop telling me to see it. So what do you mean, Paul? And I think it becomes pretty clear what he means: the basis of our not losing heart is something you cannot see. [...]

Decades of Suffering

How do you look at the unseen so as to not lose heart and so as to be renewed every day? And verse 17 is the main unseen thing you look at. We do not lose heart, because this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. Look at this, he says.

What do you see when you look at verse 17? You see him calling his affliction — which lasted a lifetime — momentary. I am 67. People are supposed to retire, right? Paul suffered until the sword severed his head from his body. There was no year or two of fishing or golf. If Paul was going to have a retirement it would be post-beheading. So if he didn’t have this, he had nothing. He said: If there is no resurrection from the dead, I am an idiot. That’s what he said in 1 Corinthians 15:19. 

He called his lifelong beatings and shipwreck and sleepless nights and agony for the church, he called it momentary (verse 17). He called it light, and he called it momentary. That is crazy. I am not sure how old he was when he died, but that’s a long time of suffering — twenty, thirty years of relentless imprisonments and persecution, and he calls it momentary and he calls it light.

How to See the Unseen

The contrast between momentary in verse 17 is eternal. And the contrast with light is weight. Notice those parallels. His light, momentary affliction “is preparing for [him] an eternal” — that corresponds to momentary — “weight” — that corresponds to light — “of glory.”

So he saw beyond the grave, according to promise, he saw glory — the glory of God that would be seen and the glory of God that would be given to him, and it made his lifelong suffering look momentary, and it made the weight of the pain look light.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

You are kidding me. You’re going to die for Jesus. You call that light? Yes. Why? Because I look to the unseen. What? Glory. Glory beyond the grave that is going to so make up for this brief life, it will look momentary, and it will look light. That is the unseen you got to look at.

J.P.