[1]Editor’s note: Tan Flippin is discipleship pastor at Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and an editor for Stand Firm, a men’s devotional magazine from Lifeway Christian Resources.
I recently conducted the funeral of a good friend. Only 65, he had suffered from early onset Parkinson’s for years and then developed dementia. He died much too soon. Preparing for his funeral, I found the perfect passage for his service: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
In that passage, Paul writes: Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (CSB).
Here, Paul admonishes us not to lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Even on our best days, our outward, physical body is slowly and imperceptibly dying. But our inward body (our soul and spirit) is being renewed by God. Suffering takes a toll on the outward man, but the inward man is being renewed and blessed every day.
Paul didn’t write as someone who had no experience in the school of suffering. In fact, he had a great deal of experience in that subject. In 2 Corinthians 11, he described some of his “momentary light afflictions”: He received 39 lashes five times. He was beaten with rods three times. He was stoned and left for dead. He was shipwrecked three times. He spent a night and a day in the open sea. He was imprisoned several times. He was in danger from robbers, from his own countrymen, from Gentiles, and from false believers. He was in danger in the city and in the country. He faced weariness, sleeplessness, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness.
[2]You get the idea. If anyone had momentary light afflictions, it certainly wasn’t Paul! Yet, he wrote that in light of eternal glory (that is, all the rewards and benefits of heaven), every bit of pain, trouble and absolute suffering he went through here on earth could be considered only momentary light afflictions.
I have full confidence that when we die, we will say: Ahhhh, those things I went through on earth? Momentary light afflictions! That cancer? Momentary! That Parkinson’s? Light! That dementia? Momentary! That chronic pain? Light! I love what St. Teresa of Avila said: In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.
At the height of Paul’s career as a Pharisee, he left it all for a life of suffering, persecution and eventually, martyrdom. He recognized that the world only sees the outward things – not the unseen, eternal things. Isn’t it ironic that what we can see on this earth is ultimately only a mirage? Yet, the things we can’t see – the spiritual things, the eternal things – are truly reality.
When we look at the things around us that we can see, it seems that all we notice are the afflictions, and they sure don’t seem very momentary or light. But when we “see” the things which are unseen, then we can appreciate eternal glory. It’s easy for us to allow suffering to destroy us and to let our afflictions make us miserable. But if we let them, our afflictions can work in us to help us see that an eternal glory that awaits us. I believe that when we arrive in heaven, we will thank God for every affliction we faced, because each of them helped us understand and appreciate even more that the eternal glory God has made for us will outweigh – far outweigh – the suffering we went through here on earth.