Year 2, Week 44, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 44, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 2 Corinthians 4-6.

Today’s reading continues Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, which is probably the most personal and autobiographical of all of Paul’s letters. Paul expresses not only the nature of his Apostolic ministry, but also some of the severe affliction that he experienced in connection with his ministry. 2 Corinthians 4 speaks of the ultimate focus of Paul’s ministry: “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5); while as the same time explaining that the power of the Gospel he proclaimed is proclaimed through a life that is weak: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). 2 Corinthians 5 elaborates further on the afflictions that Paul faced through the work of ministry: “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2). Paul maintained an eternal perspective through which he interpreted his present sufferings: "For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 5:4-5). 2 Corinthians 6 contains a description of Paul’s perspective on his hardships by joining expressions of God’s grace to the realities of his afflictions: “through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 5:8-10). Paul is telling us that when trials surrounded him and even squeezed him, the graces of Christ became more visible.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is Paul’s response to the afflictions that surrounded him and his ministry: "Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart…So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:1,16). Paul does not minimized the severity of his affliction; but he does couple each description of affliction with the exceeding superiority of the Lord’s enabling grace that was at work in him: “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” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). Paul interprets the experience of his sufferings through the lens of the sufferings of Jesus. Suffering is an assumed experience for Paul as he followed a suffering Savior. But Paul interprets the appropriate response to his sufferings to the lens of Jesus’ life. Sustaining strength is also an assumed experience for Paul as he relied upon a Risen Lord.

Paul continues explaining how he interprets the experience of his ministry afflictions by highlighting how his inner being was undergoing continued renewal: "Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” This notion of inner renewal has a connection to something that Paul stated earlier in his letter: "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The inner renewal of Paul’s life amid the outer deterioration all around him and even upon him, was tethered to the operation of the Holy Spirit as Paul focused on Christ. Paul understood that focusing on Jesus was to focus on the very glory of God: “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:5). And such a focus was inwardly transformative.

Paul’s response was not simply stated in the negative, “we do not lose heart;” but also stated positively: “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). Paul did not lose heart because he was continually supplied with good courage. But the courage did not come from an improvement in his circumstances: “but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger” (2 Corinthians 6:4-5). Paul was sustained by good courage because of the perspective that the Spirit of the Lord maintained in his inner being: “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 4:17-18). The glory to come was greater than the pain of the present. In fact, Paul interpreted that his present pain was actually producing eternal glory for him. Losing heart happens when our eyes are fixed on the visible and the temporal. Good courage comes from seeing the unseen things that are unending.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe