The Confidence Of The Messenger
THE CONFIDENCE OF THE MESSENGER
2 CORINTHIANS 4:13-18
What does our continued weakness show us and others about the Christian life?
The apostle and his fellow believers are closely knit in many ways, and Paul viewed his sufferings as having direct benefits to the churches (see Ephesians 3:1; Colossians 1:24; 2 Timothy 2:10). By his life of hardship and exposure to mortal peril (1 Corinthians 15:30) he was securing the maintenance of the faith and so consolidating their Christian standing (4:12).
But the hope of ultimate vindication, when death will lead through resurrection to the last home gathering of the church, is not the apostle’s exclusively. When the apostle is introduced to Christ’s presence (4:14), those who are with him in Christ will share the victory too. That was his eager longing (Philippians 1:21-23; 3:10-11), although it was no escapist death wish which had settled on him. If God willed the continuance of his apostolic trials and labors, as he tells the Philippians (1:24), the result must be that “as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory” (4:15, NLT).
Meanwhile, no other proof of the “earthiness” of the apostle’s physical frame is needed than the reminder of 4:16. His body, in its finite weakness, is constantly in the process of decay in the normal course of growing old. Added to this is the exposure he has known to all the risks and dangers described in 4:8-12, now euphemistically seen as “this slight momentary affliction” (4:17)! But, parallel with that process and the endurance of unending risks, the real life of the spirit is being renewed and revitalized by the power of God.
Paul’s horizon is set on an eternal prospect (4:18), and spiritual insight enables him to see beyond the visible and tangible to the eternal realities of that world where God’s presence is the most real of realities. From such a perspective he will go on, in chapter 5, to consider the Christian hope.
Thought “We do not lose heart … as we do not look” (4:16,18). Where are our eyes fixed today?