Readings for the Second Sunday after Trinity, Year B, for 2024 can be found here.

While I would normally write about the Gospel reading, the first part of 2 Corinthians 4, verses 5 through 12, featured in the First Sunday after Trinity, so it seemed apposite to continue with the next set of verses.

The Epistle is as follows, emphases mine:

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

4:13 But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture–“I believed, and so I spoke” –we also believe, and so we speak,

4:14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence.

4:15 Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

4:16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

4:17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure,

4:18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

In the preceding verses, Paul writes of his personal persecution, temporal but also spiritual, saying that it did not surpass his desire and mission to preach the Gospel because he was bringing people to salvation through a belief in Jesus Christ.

John MacArthur summarises Paul’s message and the characteristics that lie behind being a good preacher, a faithful servant of Christ:

Paul says, “If in preaching the truth I’m persecuted, so I’ll be persecuted. If in preaching the truth I’m killed, so I’ll be killed. That’s not an issue.” He was so bent on the fruit; he knew you had to preach the truth so that the elect could believe. And so, he preached the truth, whatever the cost. He was humble, invincible, sacrificial, and fruitful.

Number five, he was faithful, another key to his power …

Something else, number six, hopeful. Hopeful. You know, all of those good attitudes only go to a point. And if this one wasn’t there, you’d have a hard time hanging onto the others …

Well, I need to give you one final point. What made him powerful? He was humble, invincible, sacrificial, fruitful, faithful, hopeful, and worshipful. Worshipful. Nothing he ever did really was for him.

Again, he characteristically refers to himself by what we consider today to be the ‘royal “we”‘; he would counter that referring to himself in the first person singular — ‘I’ — would be self-centred.

Sometimes, ‘we’ refers to him and the Corinthians as well as all the faithful.

However, on the other hand, in using ‘we’, he is also speaking of the twelve Apostles, sent to fulfil Christ’s Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20):

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Paul says that he and the Apostles have the same spirit of faith that accords with Scripture — ‘I believed, and so I spoke’: therefore, he also believes and speaks accordingly (verse 13).

Matthew Henry looks at the verse in light of all the Apostles, nearly all of whom were severely persecuted unto death. St John might have been the one exception, although some scholars think that when he was in exile on Patmos that he was fed meagrely and, as such, suffered a slow death.

Henry explains, calling to our attention Paul’s citation of Psalm 116:10:

Faith kept them from fainting: We have the same spirit of faith (v. 13), that faith which is of the operation of the Spirit; the same faith by which the saints of old did and suffered such great things. Note, The grace of faith is a sovereign cordial, and an effectual antidote against fainting-fits in troublous times. The spirit of faith will go far to bear up the spirit of a man under his infirmities; and as the apostle had David’s example to imitate, who said (Ps 116 10), I have believed, and therefore have I spoken, so he leaves us his example to imitate: We also believe, says he, and therefore speak. Note, As we receive help and encouragement from the good words and examples of others, so we should be careful to give a good example to others.

MacArthur has more, including on Psalm 116:10:

Verse 13. This is a tremendous verse. “But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore also we speak.” I just absolutely love that. That is the bottom line, folks. That is the preacher’s bottom line right there.

What is that? What is Paul saying? He’s saying, “Look, if nobody listens to me, if nobody believes me, if nobody is transformed, if they persecute me, if they stone me, beat me with rods, and kill me, I will still preach because this is what I” – what? – “I believe” …

What he’s going to do is preach what he believes. He is true to his convictions. That’s integrity … And that’s the bottom line for the preacher.

Now, let’s look at that verse in parts and watch how that unfolds. He starts by saying, “But having the same spirit of faith.” What does he mean? Not the Holy Spirit, but the attitude of faith. He says, “I have the same kind of faith.” Subjective not the content of the Christian faith, but, “I have the same kind of subjective faith. That is to say I believe in the same thing.” In what? “I believe in the same thing, according to what is written” – perfect tense, what has been written and now stands in an authoritative document. I believe in what has been written in a document.” Well, what was it? Here’s what was written, “I believed, therefore I spoke.” He says, “I have the same belief that the guy had who wrote that.” That’s what he said.

Well, what’s he quoting? Psalm 116, verse 10. He’s quoting Psalm 116, verse 10, where the psalmist said, “I believed, therefore I spoke.” Don’t you love somebody who speaks their convictions? Isn’t it refreshing when you meet somebody who has integrity? The psalmist said, “I believed, so I spoke.”

By the way, this is a quote out of the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation. It varies a little bit from the Hebrew. But let me get the scenario in your mind of the psalmist, in Psalm 116; he’s in some deep trouble. He’s talking about the grave opening up, death looming over him. He is in fear for his life. And he’s very worried as that psalm opens. And then he begins to remember that in the past, God has delivered him. So, he does two things: he starts to pray, and he asks the Lord to deliver him. And he starts asking with confidence, exalting the Lord, confidently asking God to deliver him.

And then at verse 12 of that psalm, he just flips into praise, and he just spends the rest of the psalm, down through verse 19, praising and praising and praising and praising God. And nothing’s changed.

And somebody comes to him and says, “Well, you’re in the midst of this problem, why are you speaking to God about it?”

“Because I believe God answers prayer. I believe God is merciful, gracious, kind, and compassionate, and I believe that about Him, so I spoke to Him.”

“Why are you praising God and praising God?”

“Because I believe God is going to hear and answer my prayer. I believe in the God who is there, who will hear and answer my prayer, meet my need, deliver me from this situation. That’s why I pray, and that’s why I praise.” And that’s that little line in verse 10, “I believed, and so I said.”

Paul says he has that conviction of faith because he knows, just as the other Apostles do, that the one who raised the Lord Jesus — God the Father — will also raise us similarly and will bring us with you (the Corinthians and other believers) into His presence (verse 14).

Here we have the hope of bodily resurrection on the Last Day. The belief in the promise of a bodily resurrection dates all the way back to the Old Testament, where it was widespread.

Henry says:

They knew that Christ was raised, and that his resurrection was an earnest and assurance of theirs. This he had treated of largely in his former epistle to these Corinthians, ch. 15. And therefore their hope was firm, being well grounded, that he who raised up Christ the head will also raise up all his members. Note, The hope of the resurrection will encourage us in a suffering day, and set us above the fear of death; for what reason has a good Christian to fear death, that dies in hope of a joyful resurrection?

MacArthur looks at the hope in this verse:

Look at verse 14. “We believe” – verse 13 says – “therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.” What’s he talking about there? In one word, what’s he talking about? Resurrection.

Now, what does resurrection imply? Before you can rise, you have to – what? – die. So, he knows that death is an inevitability. He is saying, “I can put my life on the line. I can preach my convictions. It really doesn’t matter to me what men might think who reject the truth. For the sake of the elect, I will preach the truth. For the sake of the sanctification of the body of Christ, I will preach the truth. For the sake, if need be, of filling up the afflictions that are meant for Christ that are given to me because He’s not here, I’ll preach the truth. Because in the end, all they can do is kill me, and when they kill me, the Lord’ll raise me up.”

We live in hope, don’t we? We live in hope. In fact, he felt it would be far better to depart and be with Christ anyway, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus – who is that? Who is He who raised the Lord Jesus? God the Father. The New Testament makes it abundantly clear that God raised up Christ. Acts 2:24, Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 6:14, 1 Corinthians 15:22 to 22. The Word of God promises us that we will be raised.

Paul says that everything he was doing was for the Corinthians’ sake, so that divine grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God (verse 15).

Henry relates this to persecution, which Paul endured all of his apostolic life, as did the Twelve:

Their sufferings were for the church’s advantage ( ch. 1 6), and thus did redound to God’s glory. For, when the church is edified, then God is glorified; and we may well afford to bear sufferings patiently and cheerfully when we see others are the better for them—if they are instructed and edified, if they are confirmed and comforted. Note, The sufferings of Christ’s ministers, as well as their preaching and conversation, are intended for the good of the church and the glory of God.

MacArthur relates the verse to worship — and to witnessing for the faith:

See, the ultimate goal was the glory of God. “I do everything for your sakes so that saving grace can come to you so that you can be added to the hallelujah chorus, who forever and ever and ever and ever will glorify God. That’s it. My ultimate purpose is worship. My ultimate purpose is to worship the living and true God with all my being, to do whatever I do for His glory …

Worshipful. He was really lost in wonder, love, and praise. What did he matter? God mattered, and God’s glory mattered. The goal was never his comfort never his reputation, never his popularity, never his prosperity. It ultimately wasn’t even the salvation of others. It was the glory of God. And he was so driven and compelled to do everything he did by – by that motive, that he even told the Corinthians, “Whatever you do, whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” He just wanted to add more voices to the hallelujah chorus.

So, the servant of the Lord bathes his heart, and bathes his soul in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And he selflessly reflects that vision, that majestic gospel glory to others so that they may be saved and be added to that great throng of saved sinners who will have one eternal purpose, fulfilled in heaven, to glorify God.

All the way through the new heavens and the new earth, we’ll redound the praise from the voices of the redeemed. That’s the plan. And Paul says, “I’m just a clay pot. I carry the treasure of new covenant gospel that makes the plan work.” We’re not mighty, and we’re not noble. I’m not; you’re not. We’re clay pots. “But someday – someday,” Daniel says, “we will shine as the stars forever.” We’ll stop being clay pots, and we’ll start being stars if we’ve turned many to righteousness. Our only value is in the service we render, beloved. It’s one thing to be a clay pot, with nothing going on. It’s something else to be a clay pot, carrying a priceless treasure.

I hope you’re faithful. You have the treasure, too. You understand the saving gospel. You’re not a preacher, but you’re a witness. You don’t preach a sermon, but you give a testimony. And if you want to be powerful and mighty, follow the path and the pattern of Paul, who said, “Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ.”

With God’s glory in mind, Paul says that he and we, the faithful, do not lose heart; even though our outer nature (bodies) are wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed by the day (verse 16).

Henry reminds us of the soul:

Here note, (1.) We have every one of us an outward and an inward man, a body and a soul. (2.) If the outward man perish, there is no remedy, it must and will be so, it was made to perish. (3.) It is our happiness if the decays of the outward man do contribute to the renewing of the inward man, if afflictions outwardly are gain to us inwardly, if when the body is sick, and weak, and perishing, the soul is vigorous and prosperous. The best of men have need of further renewing of the inward man, even day by day. Where the good work is begun there is more work to be done, for carrying it forward. And as in wicked men things grow every day worse and worse, so in godly men they grow better and better.

MacArthur links the verse to spiritual endurance:

Verse 16 begins with these words: “Therefore we do not lose heart.” Now, that’s the same thing he said back in chapter 4, verse 1, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart.” He uses the exact same phrase. To lose heart means to become cowardly, or timid, or fainthearted, or weak, or hopeless, or fearful. To lose your boldness, your bravery, your courage; to become weary, and fainthearted, and quit; fold up your tent, bail out.

He says, “We don’t do that. We do not lose heart.” In view of – remember now – of the astounding, glorious realities of the new covenant, that were all the theme of chapter 3. In view of the glorious eternal life which is his, and which is yet to be unfolded in the presence of Jesus Christ and the presence of God in heaven. In view of the resurrection of all the redeemed. In view of the glorious truth of the gospel of the new covenant. In view of what has come to him through Christ, and to all others who believe.

In view of all of that, he could never lose heart. He could never despair. He could never quit. He could never become cowardly. There’s no weariness in him. There’s no faintheartedness in him. As long as he has the reality of the immense privilege of knowing Christ in new covenant truth, as long as he has the great opportunity of preaching the new covenant gospel, and experiencing personally the greatness of a fellowship with Jesus Christ, and the glory of God shining in his face, and the hope of eternity, he cannot lose heart.

No matter how he is assaulted, no matter how he is beleaguered, no matter how he is besieged, by Satan’s forces, and by even rebellious Christians, no amount of trouble can make him quit. No amount of trouble can cause him to neglect his calling, his privilege, his duty. He has no intention of ever losing heart. And as history would tell us in the pages of Scripture, he never did. He learned not to lose heart. He learned not to quit. He is a great model, the most glorious model on the human level of a man who endured.

MacArthur gives us the secrets to endurance:

And here are his spiritual secrets to endurance; mark them well.

Number one: you will endure when you value spiritual strength over physical. You will endure when you value spiritual strength over physical. Verse 16: “Therefore we do not lose heart” – and here, we want to translate but though perhaps as even if, or even when, or even by the word since …

This phrase but though, or even if, or since, introduces a condition assumed to be true. That’s how the Greek construction works here, a condition assumed to be true; that’s why we use the word since. “Since it is true, since it is a fact,” he says, “that our outer man is decaying,” we have to deal with that. It’s true. Now, what does he mean by our outer man? He just means our body. He uses the word body back in verse 10: “we carry about in our body the dying.” In verse 11, he uses the term mortal flesh; he says our mortal flesh is experiencing death.

Back in verse 7, he talks about the body as an earthen vessel or a clay pot. Now, he has the same thing in mind with this term, the outer man. It is that perishable part of us. It is our physical characteristics, our body, and all of its internal parts, and the function of our brain; and he says that part of us is decaying. It is in the current and continual process of dying. It’s decaying, present tense; he’s very aware of that. And there he initially, we could say, is just talking about the normal process of aging.

We’re all experiencing it, aren’t we; to one degree of joy or another, we are experiencing it. And we understand it, and it is reality, and it is undeniable reality, and it goes on every moment of every day. It’s not a necessarily happy thought, but it is reality …

Here was a devout man – the most devout Christian maybe who ever lived, the most faithful servant, the most virtuous Christ-honoring man – he never expected to have permanent youth. He never expected to have permanent health. He knew that the physical part is decaying and dying. Life was a process of decay; he knew that. It was for him, like anybody else. But there’s more than just that; it was also that he wore himself out, he gave himself away. And what better cause to do that, than the cause of Christ?

But there was even another aspect to his decaying: his enemies were killing him. It wasn’t just the homelessness, and sleeplessness, and beatings, and things like that, that he endured, and going without food, and being hungry and thirsty, that took a toll on his health. It was this relentless hostility and suffering that came about because of persecution. Yes, the beatings, and the whippings, and the lashings, and all of that; the wounds that had come against his body.

To say nothing of the crushing of his own inner soul, the wearing out emotionally, because of this assault that never ended, and because of the Christians who treated him so unkindly. He was a broken man at an early age. He was old before his time. He was crumbling on the outside. The enemies had left their marks on him, believe me. Any time he took his tunic off, they would be all over his body to see. And death loomed every single day.

His heart must have raced at a rate that’s unnatural and abnormal. It only has so many beats that it can give, and they were being used up fairly fast, in his case. He faced life’s troubles in a massive measure. But through it all – the normal aging process, and the fact that he spent himself so willingly for the cause of Christ, and the fact that he suffered so much at the hands of his persecutors – all of that added up to the fact that his outer man is decayed. “Yet,” he said, “our inner man is being renewed day by day.”

You see, he knew what was going on on the inside was really what mattered. In direct correlation to the dying of the outer man was the growth and maturing of the inner man. And that’s what mattered to him, and that’s what made – makes him a man of endurance. He knew that God was at work on the inside, and that God was making all things work together for what? For good, Romans 8:28. The inner man, what is that? That’s the heart, that’s the soul, that’s the real self; that’s the eternal part of us that lives forever, that’s our real being.

It is that part of us that is effected by regenerating grace. It is that highest part of our immaterial being, capable of being the temple of the Holy Spirit, capable of being the dwelling place of Jesus Christ. It is that part of us that is made into a new creation. It is what Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3 calls the new self. It is the new creation, created after Christ Jesus. It is the life of God within us. It is the spirit, of Romans 7, that desires the law of God and loves it. It is that inner man.

And Paul is saying, though trouble, and suffering, pound and destroy the outer man, the redeemed, regenerated, inner being is constantly renewed. That’s a present continuous work also. At the same time the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed, over and over, renewed, and renewed, and renewed, and renewed. As Paul says it in Ephesians 3:16, the inner man is being strengthened by the Holy Spirit; the inner man is being strengthened by the Holy Spirit …

… your troubles, and your trials, and the pain of life, and the difficulty, are contributors to the inner strength. Why? Because they drive you to God. When Paul was being assaulted he went to God, and he found there spiritual strength. When he had nothing left in his own strength to minister, he leaned on the Spirit of God, and the infusion of divine energy made him a powerful person. That’s why it’s such a tragic thing to take older saints of God, older ministers of God, older godly Christians, and put them on the shelf because they are physically weak, when, in truth, they are perhaps spiritually stronger than the rest …

Beloved, let me put it to you as simply as I can. It is the trials in your physical life that lead you to spiritual strength. Suffering is directly connected to spiritual growth. You’ve seen it, so have I. You’ve seen it when someone is told that they have a terminal disease, and as you spend time with that individual, you are astounded at the spiritual strength they manifest. Because it forces them to take their eyes off the physical, and they are left with only the spiritual to be concerned about, and therein lies spiritual strength.

Paul says that this slight, momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure (verse 17).

Henry explains:

The apostle and his fellow-sufferers saw their afflictions working towards heaven, and that they would end at last ( v. 17), whereupon they weighed things aright in the balance of the sanctuary; they did as it were put the heavenly glory in one scale and their earthly sufferings in the other; and, pondering things in their thoughts, they found afflictions to be light, and the glory of heaven to be a far more exceeding weight. That which sense was ready to pronounce heavy and long, grievous and tedious, faith perceived to be light and short, and but for a moment. On the other hand, the worth and weight of the crown of glory, as they are exceedingly great in themselves, so they are esteemed to be by the believing soul—far exceeding all his expressions and thoughts; and it will be a special support in our sufferings when we can perceive them appointed as the way and preparing us for the enjoyment of the future glory.

MacArthur says similarly:

Paul says this: “You will endure not only when you value the spiritual over the physical, but you will endure when you value the future over the present.” This is also important, essential; look at verse 17: “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” Now, here is another feature of the heavenly look that gives endurance; endurance through all trials and persecution, and all pain and suffering. And here at this point, I have to just inject, Paul towers over his enemies.

He towers over his troubles, because they can’t touch him. In fact, rather than hurting him, they are helping him, because all of his troubles are making him spiritually strong, and now we learn, secondly, they are gaining for him a greater weight of eternal glory. In that, he is more than invincible. He has an ascending invincibility, and the more his persecutors persecute him, the greater the weight of glory becomes. They can’t touch him. He transcends them. He is way beyond them. He towers over them. He is impregnable.

In fact, they are contributing to his future glory. They are benefiting him eternally, forever and ever and ever, throughout all of eternity, he will enjoy the reward of his suffering at the hands of his persecutors. The present pain matters so little to him, in light of that great future reality. Perspective here is crucial; absolutely crucial. It is looking at earth through heaven’s eyes. He puts affliction, suffering, pain, persecution on one side of the scale, and as they used to do in weighing things, on the other side of the scale he puts future glory, reward; and the glory is heavier, right?

In fact, he says, “It is an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” The glory is much weightier. That’s what swings the scale for him. It reminds me of the words of Jesus, who said in Matthew 11:30, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is” – what? – “light.” The perspective here is really amazing. Look what he says, in verse 17, “For momentary, light affliction.” Stop there a moment. Momentary? It’s been going on all his life. Light? It doesn’t seem light to me; it seems heavier than anybody else I’ve ever seen.

Affliction is the word thlipsis, pressure, affliction. He was under the pressure all the time, and yet he saw it as momentary – parautika is the word; it means a brief amount of time. You say, “Well, Paul, you had years of it. You’ve had years of it, you’re going through it now, you’ve got more of it to come before you die, and it’s every day. It’s all the time. It never goes away.” “Oh, but it’s just momentary in comparison with the future,” because as James said, “Life is a vapor that appears for a little time and vanishes,” right?

This is – this is but a blip on the eternal and endless screen. Not only is it momentary, he says, but it’s light. That is an interesting word, elaphros. It means a weightless trifle, a nothing, fluff – it’s nothing. Now, you say, “Well, it’s crushing your life.” Yeah, but it’s nothing; it’s nothing. From an earthly perspective, it was something; it was severe, relentless, and we might even say, from an earthly perspective, it was horrendous and overwhelming. But for Paul, who didn’t have an earthly perspective, it was a trivial annoyance; that’s all, nothing more …

Prominence is for those who suffer the most. That’s who it belongs to. And so, there is a direct correlation between suffering in this life and glory in the next, and that was the perspective that Paul had. In 1 Peter 4:13, “To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice.” To the degree that you suffer, you will rejoice when you get to glory, because you’re going to see the reward of that suffering.

What he’s [Paul’s] saying is, there is a weight of glory that is beyond all beyond, that is beyond all limits, that exceeds all limits, and far beyond all comparison is a good translation. And by the way, it’s the very same term that is used back in chapter 1, verse 8, where he says, “We were burdened excessively beyond our strength.” So, he is saying, “We suffered beyond all comparison, and we will be glorified beyond all comparison.”

Paul’s saying, “Time is short, a little brief moment, and what you suffer here is a trivial thing, fluff. You’ve got to look at the end result; be willing to suffer, because it produces an eternal weight of glory.” Now, let me give you a footnote right here. The only suffering that produces this eternal weight of glory is that suffering which is for the sake of Christ or honors Christ. It doesn’t mean that every pain in life, when you get illnesses, or disease, or divorce, or disappointment, or poverty, or pain, or loneliness, that all of that produces an eternal weight of glory.

But that which comes to us as a result of our Christian life, our witness, our testimony, our faithfulness, our loyalty, our commitment to Christ; that’s what gains the eternal weight of glory. And I think as well, there will be reward added to that eternal weight of glory for those who suffer just the issues of life – disease, divorce, poverty, pain, loneliness, et cetera – but do it with a spirit of gratitude, and a spirit that wants to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of it. I think that, too, gains eternal reward.

Paul says that what is eternal causes us to look not at what can be seen but what is unseen; what we can see is temporary, whereas the unseen is eternal (verse 18).

Henry points out that the driver here is faith:

Their faith enabled them to make this right judgment of things: We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, v. 18. It is by faith that we see God, who is invisible (Heb 11 27), and by this we look to an unseen heaven and hell, and faith is the evidence of things not seen. Note, [1.] There are unseen things, as well as things that are seen. [2.] There is this vast difference between them: unseen things are eternal, seen things but temporal, or temporary only. [3.] By faith we not only discern these things, and the great difference between them, but by this also we take our aim at unseen things, and chiefly regard them, and make it our end and scope, not to escape present evils, and obtain present good, both of which are temporal and transitory, but to escape future evil and obtain future good things, which though unseen, are real, and certain, and eternal; and faith is the substance of things hoped for, as well as the evidence of things not seen, Heb 11 1.

MacArthur says that this is another secret to endurance:

… lastly, he tells us another secret to endurance: you will endure when you value eternal realities over temporal; when eternity and what is eternal is more important to you than time and what is temporal. Verse 18 – this is a very important statement: “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Paul says, “We endure, we persevere joyously, contentedly, hopefully, patiently, in the midst of all our pain, and we endure because we value what is eternal over what is temporal.”

That first little phrase in verse 18, very crucial – “while we look” – that’s an excellent translation. “While we look” – listen now – the only way you can endure, the only way you can put the spiritual over the physical, and the future over the present, is while you look. That’s the key idea. This has a conditional force. As long as you look, as long as your gaze is fixed in the right place. Such endurance, such vision of the spiritual and the future, is not automatic. It demands a constant look, at what?

Not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. If you’re going to be able to focus on what is spiritual and not physical, what is future and not present, you’re going to have to look at what is invisible and not visible. He says, “We don’t look at the things which are seen, which,” he says, “are temporal.” That’s a word associated with the word time, that belong to time. What does he mean? Anything that belongs to time. What does that mean? Anything that begins and ends with time; anything. Anything that perishes …

Frankly, to the world he was a colossal failure, and I’m sure somebody perhaps said – or many people may have said – “You know, he might have been something in his life, if he’d have turned another direction or stayed where he was. After all, he was highly educated in a Hellenist culture as well as Jewish culture; he was a Pharisee who knew the law inside out and backwards, extremely religious, prominent among the Pharisees because he was a persecutor of Christians …

“Leaves a trail of devastation all over the place, has everybody, religious and irreligious, mad at him. He’s going to end up with his head on a block, getting his head chopped off. Sad. The man had some talent, could have achieved something.” Well, that would have been a worldly evaluation of the man; probably still is. Maybe he could have had a career, made some money, been famous, gained some prestige, had some possessions, entered into political power. It didn’t matter. He didn’t look at things that are seen; they didn’t interest him.

What interested him, what consumed him, what he lived for, was the things he couldn’t see. He was more concerned with the invisible world than the visible world. Boy, that is a – that is an essential reality in terms of being an enduring Christian, because what he couldn’t see was what was eternal: God. And he lived for God, and worshiping, and adoring, and glorifying, and honoring God. And his heart just poured out benedictions and doxologies toward God. You see them periodically through his letters, in times of passionate prayer toward God.

And he loved Christ, and his focus in life was to become like Jesus Christ. ”Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ.” And Christ was the goal of his life, and he pressed toward the goal of being like Christ. Christ was everything; for him, to live was Christ, and to die was gain. And then there was the Holy Spirit; he lived for the power of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the manifestation of the Spirit in his life. And he lived for the souls of men. He was so zealous for the lost Jews that he could have wished himself accursed if they could be saved.

If, somehow, he could forfeit his salvation to gain theirs, he could almost wish to do that. And he had a passionate desire for the souls of Gentiles as well, and he put his life on the block, as you know, to reach the Gentiles with the gospel to which he had been called. He was concerned about the souls of believers and Christians, and day in and day out, day after day, night and day, he prayed for their sanctification. He lived in the invisible world. He was concerned with the invisible realm. He looked beyond the temporal to the eternal.

That’s how you endure …

There’s the secret of endurance. The secret is focusing on the inner man not the outer man, focusing on the spiritual and not the physical. The secret is to look to the future not the present, to take your eyes off present pain, and look at future glory. And the secret is to be consumed with what is invisible and not what is visible; to give your life to what will never perish, not what will perish. Place the unseen far above the seen, the future far above the present, and the spiritual far above the physical.

Paul says that he — and all faithful people — know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, then we have — we inherit — a building from God, a house not made with hands, one that is eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 5:1).

Henry gives us this analysis:

He does not only know, or is well assured by faith of the truth and reality of the thing itself—that there is another and a happy life after this present life is ended, but he has good hope through grace of his interest in that everlasting blessedness of the unseen world: “We know that we have a building of God, we have a firm and well-grounded expectation of the future felicity.” Let us take notice, (1.) What heaven is in the eye and hope of a believer. He looks upon it as a house, or habitation, a dwelling-place, a resting-place, a hiding-place, our Father’s house, where there are many mansions, and our everlasting home. It is a house in the heavens, in that high and holy place which as far excels all the palaces of this earth as the heavens are high above the earth. It is a building of God, whose builder and maker is God, and therefore is worthy of its author; the happiness of the future state is what God hath prepared for those that love him. It is eternal in the heavens, everlasting habitations, not like the earthly tabernacles, the poor cottages of clay in which our souls now dwell, which are mouldering and decaying, and whose foundations are in the dust. (2.) When it is expected this happiness shall be enjoyed—immediately after death, so soon as our house of this earthly tabernacle is dissolved. Note, [1.] That the body, this earthly house, is but a tabernacle, that must be dissolved shortly; the nails or pins will be drawn, and the cords be loosed, and then the body will return to dust as it was. [2.] When this comes to pass, then comes the house not made with hands. The spirit returns to God who gave it; and such as have walked with God here shall dwell with God for ever.

MacArthur has more. Remember that Paul constructed tents for a living, so he knew all their possible flaws. God has a better structure, one that is eternal. Furthermore, MacArthur posits that Paul expected the Second Coming in his lifetime:

Let’s look at this statement carefully. Starting out, he says, “For we know” – he refers not to a wish, not to a possibility, not to some vague hope, but to a fixed reality, a settled fact, based on the promise of God. We refers to believers – we know. How do you know? Because God has revealed it to us. In fact, in the letter that we call 1 Corinthians, which he wrote to the church before this one, and the fifteenth chapter, he went through the whole chapter, 58 verses, and described our future.

He described in the middle of that chapter our resurrection body … So, the knowledge of which the apostle is here speaking is a particular knowledge, that has been granted to Christian believers by way of revelation. It doesn’t spring from human intellect. It doesn’t spring from mystical fantasy. It comes from the revelation of God in Scripture. The Bible promises resurrection. And Paul rejoices when he looks at death because the frailties, the limitations, the gravitational and iniquitous pull of sin associated with our present bodies, will be a thing of the past …

Now, notice that he says, “For we know that if” – and somebody might say, “What do you mean, if?” – “the earthly tent which is our house is torn down” – what do you mean, if?

Wouldn’t it have been better to say when? I mean, isn’t death inevitable? Isn’t it going to happen? Isn’t it appointed to men once to die? What do you mean, if? Well, Paul was in the midst of the imminent reality of death, but there was always that lingering hope that he wouldn’t die. You say, “What do you mean, that he wouldn’t die?” Well, that he would live until the return of Christ, right? That he would live until Jesus came back. So, he says if, not when, because he really doesn’t know if – if he will die.

And you know what that tells me? That tells me he believed in an imminent return. He believed it was really possible that Jesus could come in his lifetime, or he wouldn’t have said if. And frankly, that’s what he would prefer. Paul – Paul’s little priority list went like this: number one option: rapture – I’d just like to live till Jesus comes. Can you identify with that? … Number two option for Paul: death – if I can’t be here until the Lord comes, I’d like to die, and the sooner the better. Option number three: I have to live.

Now, we would probably reverse those two, in all honesty; but that’s because we have a sub-Christian perspective. Number one: I really believe Paul wanted to live till the return of Christ, and in his earlier writings to the Corinthians, in that fifteenth chapter, verse 51: “I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, and we shall all be changed.” I think he wanted himself in that we very badly. He wanted this perishable to put on the imperishable, and this mortal to put on the immortal.

He wanted to be there in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trump blew, and he wanted to go right into the presence of the Lord, without ever facing death … He wrote about it to the Thessalonians, and he similarly indicated his own longing for that. He says, “For this we say to you” – 1 Thessalonians 4:15 – “by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those that are asleep.

“The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and we shall always be with the Lord.” And I think that was his priority number one: “I want to live till Jesus comes. I want to see this thing to the end. I want Him to come and take me to glory.”

… he says, “if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down” – and in his case, it was. What does he mean by that? Death. The earthly tent is the body; he calls the body an earthly tent. It’s a great, great concept. It’s the idea that your soul lives in a tent. In the incarnation, John 1:14, it says that when Jesus Christ, the eternal God, came into the world, He tented among us – He put on one of these earthly tents.

You say, “Why’d he use the imagery of a tent?” A tent is transient, temporary, insecure, inferior, lowly, fragile, frail, dilapidating, decaying, just like a human body. And a tent belongs to somebody who wanders around and doesn’t have a permanent home. And Paul knew that as a believer, he was a stranger, and an alien, and a sojourner, and a pilgrim, to borrow the words of Peter. Second Peter 1:13 and 14, 1 Peter 2:11, Peter says the same things.

Peter has to put off his tent, he says, in 2 Peter 1:13 and 14. He’s got to get rid of his tent very soon. He knows his tent is going to be taken down very soon. So, the tent was a very good image in ancient times, because people who were nomads, who were peripatetics, who just floated around with no lasting place, moved in these tents. And there was – there were a couple of other reasons Paul might have chosen a tent. Not only because of the culture around him, but I think because, secondly, he made tents.

In Acts 18:3, it says he was a leather worker; literally, that means he made tents, as well as other leather goods. One of the things you did as a leather worker – you stitched things together – was tents. And so, he’s talking right out of his own trade. He knows the strengths and weaknesses of tents, obviously. He knows that they are transient, temporary, insecure, and inferior. But there may have been another thought in his mind as well. Not only the culture around him, not only his own trade, but even the history of Israel.

Because you remember, when God constituted the nation Israel – when they came out of Egypt, and they had their identity as a nation, and He was leading them to the promised land – the Lord gave them instructions to build a large tent, called the tabernacle. And it was a tent, which symbolized the presence of God in their midst, as God dwelt with them. They were a nomadic people, roaming and traveling all over everywhere.

The tent was associated with the wilderness wanderings, and was replaced when they came into the promised land, into the city of Jerusalem, occupied the holy land, occupied the holy city, had Mount Zion there, and on that mount they put a temple. And the temple was a permanent place, a fixed place, a building. And so, the imagery behind Paul’s thought could come from those various sources. He simply says the body which we possess in this world is like a tent, which is our house.

It’s the earthly, temporary, fragile, frail, insecure, lowly home for the eternal souls of sojourners and pilgrims, whose real citizenship is in heaven, whose real home is in heaven, and for whom the Lord Jesus is building them a place. Now, he says, “If this thing is torn down” – and it was for him, and for everybody since him who has died – “If it is torn down” – by the way, that concept of tearing down the tent meaning death is found in Isaiah 38:12, if you want to look at an Old Testament comparison. But he’s talking about death.

And the word here is torn down, but maybe a better word – and it would be fair with the Greek – is dismantled; dismantled, folded up. Paul’s body was already battered, and wounded, and weakened, and death was at work in him, he says back in 4:12, and back in 4:10, he says he was “always carrying about in his body the dying of Jesus.” And so, he says, “If I die, and this tent is dismantled, that’s good, because we have a building.” Now, that suggests solidarity, foundation, fixed, secure, firm, permanent – beautiful imagery – assurance, certainty.

“I will gladly trade my tent for a building,” is what he’s saying. What’s he talking about? What is this building? Well, if his tent is his physical body, then the building has got to be his glorified body, because it’s replacing his tent. Back in chapter 4, verse 14, he referred to this. He said, “Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus.” He knew there would be a resurrection. He knew it would be a bodily resurrection. And here he calls it a building. We’re shedding this tent, as it were, and we’re getting a building – and this is best …

And then he adds this most interesting little phrase, in verse 1: “A house not made with hands;” “a house not made with hands.” And you might say, “Well, what does that mean?” Well, just to kind of give you a little bit of a feeling for what it means, let me – let me take that phrase from some other passages. You remember, in John, chapter 2, Jesus said, “If you destroy this temple, in three days I’ll raise it up” – remember that?

Commenting on that, in Mark 14:58, it says the chief priests and the council said, “We heard Him say” – and they were harking back to John 2, when He said, “Destroy this body,” and so forth. “We heard Him say” – and here’s what they quote – “I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.” Woo – how interesting – so that the resurrection body of Jesus Christ was a body made without hands. That phrase is used a couple of other places …

Paul says, “I want a building that is not like the one I have in this life. I want a permanent, fixed, settled building made by God, not having anything to do with this creation.” That’s what he’s saying. And then he adds, “eternal in the heavens.”

MacArthur concludes on the glorified body at the resurrection of the faithful:

It is going to be imperishable – that is, eternal, cannot die, does not diminish, does not decay, never deteriorates, never grows old, is not replaced. It is glorious – that is, it will manifest the glory of God, the fullness of all that God is that can shine through us. It is powerful – it will be able to do things, on a heavenly and a spiritual plane, the likes of which we cannot even fathom.

And it is spiritual – it transcends anything that we would know as natural …

So, this body is, then, not going to be like Adam, but like Christ; that’s the point …

First John 3:2, when we see Him, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” We will be like Him in His resurrection body. That’s it. That’s the prototype. Verse 49 sums it up: “Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” The prototype is the resurrection body of Jesus Christ …

The point is, you’re not going to be a floating fog. The point is, you’re not going to be Casper the Friendly Ghost. It’ll be – it’ll be you. It’ll be you.

What a marvellous thought on which to end.

May everyone reading this have a blessed week ahead contemplating the secrets of spiritual endurance and bodily resurrection, which, one day, will come.