The Epistle for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost

2 Corinthians 4.13-5.1 (NRSV)

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, ¹⁴because 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.¹⁵Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

Living by Faith

¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, ¹⁸because 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.

⁵For 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.

Paul begins this passage with a quotation from Psalm 116.10: ‘I believed, and so I spoke’.  Paul explains that he too has believed and so now he now proclaims the Gospel. For Paul, faith is not merely a subjective experience because it also has an objective content viz. the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead, and that he has the confidence that he too will be raised – at the end of time – to be with Jesus – and implies that this is also true for the Corinthians to whom he now writes.

Everything Paul does is for the sake of his converts to Christ as a result of his ministry and this is beautifully expressed in verse 15.  His purpose is not to increase his own stature, position or station, but so that more people can be blessed by being united with Christ, and know what it means to have life and that in all its fullness. This will result in an increase in thanksgiving as people experience this life of blessing.

Francis Fallon (upon whose work I am indebted for this reflection) points out that the passage from verse 16, ‘... has long been notoriously difficult for interpreters of Paul for a number of factors.

1.      This part seems to digress from the main theme;

2.      There are severe shifts in images – from the inner person to a house and then to clothing to being at home;

3.      There seems to be a conflict between the eschatology expressed here and that which Paul refers to elsewhere in his writings. In 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians, Paul seems to await the second coming of Christ, where he seems to think that he will be alive at the time and he looks forward to being transformed into a person who will live for all eternity. Here Paul seems to be thinking of an intermediate state, including those who have died earlier – who are already ‘with the Lord’. Here too Paul seems to adopt the Greek idea of a dualism between body and soul.

As always, William Barclay cuts to the essence and applies Paul’s ideas here to our present Christian experience.

All through our lives, our bodies weaken, but as this happens, for the Christian, our souls ought to be strengthened. Even those sufferings that especially weaken our bodies, ought also to fortify our souls. From a spiritual understanding, age should mean ‘... climbing up a hill that leads to the presence of God.’ Barclay continues: ‘... No man need fear the years, for they bring him nearer, not to death, but to God.’

Paul was convinced that anything that he had to suffer in this life was nothing compared with the wonder of what he would experience in the next. Barclay uses the example of a godly Scotswoman who was, by force of circumstances, had to leave her idyllic life in the country and move to live in a city slum. Barclay writes: ‘... She still lived close to God, and one day said: “God will make it up to me, and I will see flowers again.”’ Earth’s sufferings are often forgotten in the glory of heaven.

It is interesting to be reminded that Jesus never spoke of his death without also mentioning his Resurrection. Our eyes must always be fixed on the things of the Spirit and not of this world – on the unseen things of God and not the seen things of this world. Robert Louis Stevenson adds that if we think only of the things that are visible, we are bound to see life in the same way and he quoted a simple byre man whose daily toil was in the muck of the byre. On sympathising with him, the man responded: “He that has something beyond need never weary.” Barclay concludes: ‘To him it will be a day of joy when he is done with this human body.’ It is merely our tent, a temporary dwelling place. One day it will end and then we will ‘... enter the real abode of our souls.’