Read: 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10
As we settle into a new year, there are not many things I can promise will happen. We can plan and hope and dream, but at the end of the day, so very much is uncertain. However, as a human being living in this broken world, I can promise you that your outer self will be wasting away. And as a Christian living in this broken world – this world that is not your home – I can pretty much promise you conflict and affliction. These don’t sound like good promises; they don’t seem like they’ll make for a very happy new year. However, if we look into God’s Word – yes, we will see these very truths – but we will see them accompanied by other promises that shed God’s eternal light on them. For God’s truth usually goes much deeper than the surface level that we can see.
In this passage, Paul is giving the Corinthians encouragement as they face the sometimes very dark reality of living in this sin-cursed world. In John 14-16, we find some similar passages. In these chapters, Jesus is giving His last teaching to His disciples before His death. He is preparing them for life in this world without Him physically there. He is preparing them for living in the already/not yet of His kingdom, the in-between time of His first and second coming, the church age that we are still living in today. And what does He tell them? There will be trouble. There will be persecution. There will be sorrow. Sounds really encouraging right? But He doesn’t leave them there. He tells them to “let not [their] hearts be troubled” – for He is going to prepare a place for them, and will one day return to bring them there. And on top of this, while they wait here in the in-between, He will give them the Holy Spirit to be their Helper.
These promises are the same ones Paul gives to the Corinthians; true for them then, and true for us today. He echoes the words of Jesus as he says, “do not lose heart” – for though our outward self faces decay, our spiritual self is being renewed and sanctified. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised, in us. We are being prepared for glory, transformed into the image of Christ. As we live through the sorrow and joy, the affliction and the mundane, the step-by-step walk of daily life – through it all, the Holy Spirit is at work inside of us. Why? Because this world is not our home. This is the second promise, we are being transformed for something. For glory. For eternity. For our mortal bodies to be swallowed up by life. We are being transformed for home, the thing that we must keep our focus on.
Keeping our focus on heaven can be harder than it sounds. We have so much competing for our attention on this earth. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that this world is not our home. The shiny things that vie for our attention will one day waste away; and the worries about our needs are promised to be met by our great Provider. He says to seek first the Kingdom, and He will take care of the rest.
In John 16:33, Jesus gives His followers this final promise – “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” This is what we cling to as we live our lives in the in-between this year. As we face the death and decay of this world, as we endure these afflictions. Because Jesus lived a perfect life and died and rose again, because He overcame this world, death is not all there is and these afflictions are light and momentary compared to what is to come. That day to come, the day we will be present with the Lord, is the day we focus on and cling to. And in this new year, in this time of in-between, we too can overcome the world by His victory and through the power of the Holy Spirit. For us who know Christ, the sorrow of this world is wrapped up in the joy of the one to come. And because of this, we can rejoice – no matter what comes.
