Theology & Life

Our eyes begin to weaken and we don’t see well and have to get glasses or contacts. Our bodies get brittle and it’s easier to get injured. Our minds aren’t as sharp and quick as they once were. We tweak our backs just by sleeping wrong. We become more prone to sickness because our body just can’t handle it any more. Our bodies are wasting away.

This is what the Apostle Paul references in 2 Corinthians 4:16. Despondency sets it and despair floods our hearts.

But that’s when the Bible says, “Do not lose heart.” In writing his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul says, “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.”

Why must we not lose heart? In this passage, the Apostle Paul gives the declaration, and gives the reason why we don’t lose heart: though our physical bodies are deteriorating and will eventually die, our spirit/soul, if we’re in Christ, is being renewed daily by God until glory. Our hope is not in our physical bodies surviving, but in God who will resurrect our physical bodies in glory. Our hope is in that God continues to renew, or sanctity, our spirits in Christ.

We know what ultimately awaits us beyond the grave: glory. This glory far surpasses any affliction or suffering or plain ole’ growing old we experience in this life. It doesn’t mean any suffering, back aches, chest pains, or chronic injuries won’t hurt any less, but it means those feelings of pain and anguish pale in comparison to the joy of eternity with God. It means we can get through them because of the glory of heaven.

On a practical level, the glory of heaven far outweighs the pains of this world when we “look to things unseen.” It is when we have our minds focused on the things of earth that the glory of heaven doesn’t mean as much. When that happens, anxiety flares up, despair creeps in, and our world crashes in. But the things of this world are temporary; the things we don’t see are eternal.

When we focus on the unseen, we don’t lose heart, but are enamored with the glory of heaven even amid our pain and suffering.