The weight of glory
Dear Friends,
A friend at church reminded me of this Bible verse a few weeks ago, and then I read it again in my own reading this week: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17, NIV).
But how can Paul describe our troubles as ‘light and momentary’? It’s true that some troubles are fairly trivial. But there are plenty that are far from trivial: sickness, bereavement, depression, bad relationships amongst others. They seem to crush us, and drive us to despair. They feel unbearable. We wonder how can we carry on unless they go away. Now, it wasn’t as if Paul didn’t know what he was talking about from his own experience. Just a few verses earlier he says that he is “hard pressed … perplexed … persecuted … struck down.” But isn’t that the point?
If we’re Christians, then our troubles in this world – which all have to do with the effects of sin in one way or another, whether our own sin or the sin of others’ – are indeed ‘light and momentary’ when compared with the ‘eternal glory that far outweighs them all’. Our troubles grow in size when we fail to compare them with the glory that is to come. Paul’s advice is to keep making that comparison, to bring the weight of glory to bear on the present: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen [our troubles], but on what is unseen [the glory to come]. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Chris Hobbs,
Vicar.