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2 Corinthians 4:16-18. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty on February 26, 2017.
As we continue our focus on God’s purpose that we should grow spiritually to be like Jesus, it is easy to envision the perfect environment where all bad things are removed and we are protected in an enclosed, even hydroponic, environment. Wouldn’t this be the best way to ensure spiritual growth? Of course we know that this is not how God has chosen to do it. It is easy to chafe against the wisdom of God in this matter, and why He allows difficult things in our life. The truth is that there are ways in which we can never grow without adversity. We must also recognize that spiritual growth does not follow a perfect linear increase without hiccups. However, I believe it would be a mistake to see our spiritual growth as a series of failures and successes. It is often in our “failures” that we grow the most in Christ. Thus the believer should learn not to run from difficulties and try to hide their failures. Instead we can walk in the confidence that, regardless of our mistakes, God will work all things in our life to help us grow spiritually. So we must learn to trust the Spirit of God who is daily making us new.
In this chapter Paul has been sharing some of the difficulties that he faced as an apostle. In verses 8-9 we see that though it was difficult, it was not enough to destroy him. He was continually under the threat of imprisonment and death, but through it all, the life of Jesus was being revealed to those who believed. Think about the reality of that. We need to break out of the kind of thinking that believes God will remove all obstacles for those who love Him. No honest reading of Scripture will ever sustain such an idea. Faith is always lived out over the top of obstacles, and each of them was allowed by God. Paul contrasts his inner man with the outer in this passage. So we will work through focusing on first one and then the other.
The outer being. In verse 16, Paul doesn’t go into detail because it is not the specifics he is trying to get across. He suffered persecution that physically weakened him (pain, sufferings, and arrests). He was also growing older. Thus when Paul says the outer man is perishing it points to the bodily vigor and strength that is being consumed. All the saints have had to face the difficulties of a body that increasingly refuses to cooperate. In the face of such perishing it is easy to be discouraged. I am always amazed when a 70 year old complains that they can’t do what they used to be able to do. Yet, I am sure it will be just as frustrating for me when I get there. Can we just recognize right now that growing old and watching our outer body perish is a major part of God’s spiritual growth in our life?
In verse 17 Paul uses a word that is translated “afflictions.” His outer body endured all manner of afflictions. In fact the word is elsewhere translated “tribulations.” A good picture of this would be a vice that is given a quarter-turn ever 5 seconds. The pressure continues to build up until we feel like we can’t take it anymore. Yet, Paul calls them “light” and momentary. But, we will come back to that later. The situations never feel light and momentary. They feel extremely heavy and like they will never end. I am not scoffing at Paul’s choice of words. Rather, I want to avoid the mistake of pretending like trials are easy. When we pretend like trials are easy then we diminish the glory of what lies ahead. No matter how heavy and long your affliction may be, the glory that is ahead of you is so amazing that it will cause you to not even give the afflictions a second thought. We see this same dynamic with grace and sin. If we pretend like sin is no big deal, then we actually end up diminishing the grace of God. Our sin is so horrendous that it required the God of heaven to come down, become a man, and die a horrific death in order to save us from them. If we see sin for what it really is, then we can see God’s love for how great it truly is.
In verse 18 Paul notes how easy it is to be focused on and only thinking about what can be seen. This is the thing that we usually pay attention to. Our outer being is mainly impacted by the visible. Of course, through science we have learned that there are unseen things that lie beneath the visible things. Throughout history we have often made wrong conclusions because we only focused on what we could see. We had to develop ways to discover and “see” that which was invisible to the naked eye. This has lead to a better understanding of the physical world in which we live. Am I trapped in a mindset of only see the visible and how it affects my visible body? The Word of God calls us to a greater spiritual reality. We are not mere physical beings. We have an inner, unseen part that is called our soul and spirit. This is the part that continues on when our physical bodies can no longer live. So let’s look at this side.
The Inner Being. Being ruled by the desires, fears and understanding of our body does not lead to renewal and spiritual growth. Rather, it leads to death. The believer recognizes that God offers us life to our inner being (“is renewed day by day.”) Yes, through the resurrection we will one day receive an eternal physical body. But this life is not about trying to make that happen. Our spiritual growth must happen over the top of a perishing outer body. So, we may take care of our body so that it can last as long as possible, but our real focus is on growing spiritually. We daily live in a process where God is renewing us day by day. It may not feel like it on some days. But, He is working throughout your life to renew your spirit. To be renewed is to be brought back to the condition you were made to be, or as God intended us to be. This word “renewed” is used in one other passage- Colossians 3:10. There it says that we have to “put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” Notice that a choice is involved in this. There is a part that God is doing and you will have to trust Him. But, there is also a part that we must do by cooperating. We have received knowledge through Jesus Christ of what God intends us to be. Thus we cooperate by putting off the desires, fears and understandings of our old, fleshly self, and embrace the truth and love of God.
Next Paul says that the inner man is in a process of achieving an eternal weight of glory. So let’s go back to those light and momentary afflictions of verse 17. They are light because they cannot destroy our spirit. Sure it can crush my body, but not my spirit. They are momentary because they can’t outlast our spirit. They can only last as long as our body and then they are over. Yet, they are working for us an eternal and heavy glory. So Paul is telling us that our faith and trust in God in the midst of these difficulties will be rewarded in such a way that we will not care about them anymore. No one who wins the Olympics complains about the hard work they endured to get there because of the heavy glory they have won. Yet, we are winning a place of glory that is beyond this present world. It gives us a place in the eternal world that is coming and a place among the great heavenly beings around the throne of God. We will take our place beside our Lord as His coheirs and as His Bride. Yes, it is hard to imagine that because we can’t see it right now. But this is exactly the process that we are going through. This life is where our faith is tested and proven worthy of an eternal weight of glory.
Lastly in verse 18, Paul teaches us that our spirit keeps its focus on that which is unseen. Though he doesn’t explain what the “unseen” is, we have many passages that help us understand this. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” We cannot see the final reward of our faith. However, God does give us little rewards in this life, from time to time, in order to encourage our faith. But, we must not lose sight of the greater reward that still lies ahead. We cannot see the judgment and removal of all wickedness from the earth and the heavens, but we will see it one day. Even though we go to our death bed, yet we shall see it with our own eyes, as the Lord Jesus shouts the shout of resurrection and we are raised up with eternal bodies. In this life we talk about spiritual maturity. But the truth is, when a mature believer passes away into the presence of the Lord, they are like a baby who has been brought to term and is ready to be birthed into eternity.
So let’s keep our eyes on Jesus and know that, despite what we see happening in the natural and despite our perishing bodies, God has spiritual growth and renewal for our inner being.