Been a while since my last post - my computer died and life got really busy right after that. Life is still busy, but I wanted to get back to this since I have a few more topics in each category that have been bouncing around in my head. This one is simple - I just want to share my favorite Bible passage and why it's my favorite!

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

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.

1 Corinthians 13 says that Faith, Hope, and Love abide (and the greatest of these is Love). Of the three however, I feel my testimony over the past decade has been most accentuated by Hope. This passage is all about that Hope. It is the Hope referenced in Hebrews 11 in the definition of Biblical faith:

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Eternal life is not actual in my life (yet). I'm waiting for the resurrection like every other Christian. I don't have it yet, but I'm convinced I will one day by the revelation contained in Scripture. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 puts the difficult things of life on the scale against the hope of resurrection.

So we do not lose heart.

Just prior, Paul was speaking of the resurrection hope we have because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead as our forerunner.

Though our outer self is wasting away...

I feel that - more some days than others. This life won't last, thank God. I have a very good life, but every day I pile up sins against the God I love. I'm still young, but not too many years from now and I'll start to feel the physical side of this verse. I see it happening with people I love who are older: friends and family.

Our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Thank God for this truth. Prayer, fellowship, reading my Bible, meditating on what I've read - these are all means of grace in my life. They give me strength to walk well and joyfully. That renewal is like a good meal or (as it feels in the more difficult times) coming up for air in turbulent seas.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison...

Wow! This was the first part of the passage that I learned and fell in love with. I could probably do a post just about the phrase "weight of glory" but for now let's take this all together. What Paul calls "light and momentary" affliction is the stuff of chapter 11 verses 23-29. Go read it; it's not minor stuff. So why does he call it "light and momentary"?

Because it is being compared with the "eternal weight of glory". A man is a mind-bending titan to an ant and a spec of dust to the planet Earth. Saying that doesn't deny the reality of the ant's experience of the man, but it does contextualize it. So too Paul doesn't minimize his own or our sufferings - he just wants us to know that the goodness of our resurrection hope blows the roof and walls off our scale when we set it against our sufferings. It isn't tit-for-tat with our suffering - it's entirely disproportionately better by uncounted orders of magnitude. What delightful and encouraging thoughts!

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.

Our eyes should be on the prize: the eternal things God has granted us that are yet to be. Press on, and remember as the poem by C.T Studd says,

There's only one life, 'twill soon be past,

Only what's done for Christ will last.

In Christ,

Various