2 Corinthians 4:16-18 – Keeping Our Focus Rather Than Giving Up
Ministry involves struggle, wounds, and hardships. Yet, Paul refuses to lose heart; he won’t give up. What drives this perseverance? It is because he keeps his eyes fixed on what is unseen rather than on what is seen. He keeps his eyes on eternal glory rather than temporary affliction. He keeps his focus on the resurrection of Jesus rather than his ministry struggles.
Therefore, Paul writes, “we do not lose heart” (4:1, 16). Despite the struggles, the ministry of reconciliation is too important because the glory of God is revealed and mediated by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah (4:7-15). Moreover, the struggles, in comparison to that eternal glory, have a limited—though painful—shelf life.
However, it is important to frame Paul’s words in a contextual and healthy way. I think the following two frames miss Paul’s point, though they are present among many Christians.
- Some think Paul tends to minimize present pain, abuse, and wounds in favor of some kind of escapism. This, then, diminishes the reality of suffering in favor of some mansion in the sky.
- Some think Paul affirms a dualism between material and spiritual realities that ultimately annihilates materiality (including the body) and exalts spirituality (i.e., the soul or spirit). This, then, tends see salvation through the lens of the immortality of the soul. When the soul escapes the body, then the soul receives eternal life without the body.
I think both perspectives miss the essence of Paul’s meaning. They seem to assume some kind of Platonic understanding of Paul. In this view, Paul depreciates materiality in favor of spirituality such that only the spiritual (what is unseen and eternal) is real and the material (what is seen, including suffering) is dispensable and insignificant.
Paul’s contrasts in this text can lend themselves to this way of thinking. Indeed, these verses have been used as proof texts for some kind of Platonic thinking. His language is conducive to such a conclusion if read through Platonic lenses.
| Outer Person | Inner Person |
| Affliction | Glory |
| Seen | Unseen |
The outer person is seen and experiences affliction while the inner person is unseen and experiences glory. The contrast is a strong one; indeed, rather stark. The question, however, is this: what is the nature of the contrast? I don’t think it is Platonic. Rather, it is eschatological.
The contrast is not material versus immaterial, or earth vs. heaven, or physical versus spiritual. Rather, given Paul’s argument, the contrast is between this present evil age and the age to come which is, in some sense, already here. It is an eschatological contrast.
This eschatological frame, which Paul describes in several places, contrasts the “first Adam” (this age) and the “last Adam” (the age to come), who is the resurrected Jesus. In Adam, all die, but in Christ, all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22). Death came through Adam (Romans 5:12), but resurrection life comes through the Lord Jesus, who is the firstborn of the new creation.
Reading this text in the light of 1 Corinthians 15 and, more immediately, in the light of 2 Corinthians 4:12-15, we see the contrast is between a world of death, affliction, and suffering and the resurrection life of Jesus. The former age is Adamic (conformed to Adamic death and suffering), and the latter is Christic (conformed to Christ).
| Adamic | Christic |
| Outer Person | Inner Person |
| Affliction | Glory |
| Seen | Unseen |
The Adamic world is filled with human beings whose bodies are dying, decaying, and wasting away. The world is filled with affliction, and we see the reality of suffering all around us. We live in the Adamic age: death and suffering.
The Christic world includes not only future glory which is the resurrection from the dead (2 Corinthians 4:14), but it also includes the present glory of the indwelling of the Spirit and our transformation. The inner person is being renewed daily through its transformation from glory to glory into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is a present experience rather than a merely future one. The glory of God is already at work in the lives of those who are in Christ. And it is the unseen work of God by the Spirit of God.
This is not a radical dualism but a recognition of the nature of the present human condition in contrast with the glorious present and future for humanity. Inwardly we are being transformed from glory to glory even as our body decays, but the hope is that the body will be raised and it, too, will be transformed into the glorious body of Christ (Philippians 3:21). This is not soul versus body, but rather than the union of soul and body in the hope of the resurrection.
Suffering is the major point. Paul participates in the Adamic world through suffering and affliction, and he also participates in the Christic world through transformation into the image of Christ. While the outer (the Adamic) is perishing, the inner (the eschatological glory) is renewing Paul toward a future resurrection and fully sanctification.
The Adamic affliction is light and momentary in contrast with the present and future experience of Christic glory.
| Adamic Affliction | Christic Glory |
| Outer Person Wasting Away | Inner Person Renewed Daily |
| Light Affliction | Weighty Glory Beyond All Measure |
| Momentary Affliction | Eternal Glory |
| What is Seen is Transient | What is Unseen is Eternal |
How might we legitimately call our suffering “momentary and light”? Does this diminish our affliction?
It is helpful to remember the suffering Paul endured in his ministry before we too quickly dismiss Paul as one who is insensitive to suffering or minimizes suffering. His own story is filled with persecution, beatings, stoning, shipwrecks, anxiety, betrayals, rejection, and opposition from the principalities and powers. Paul knows suffering.
At the same time, Paul also knows glory. He has seen the resurrected Lord. He has experienced the power of the Spirit in his life, including his own transformation into a disciple of Jesus. He knows the glory of God because he believes in the resurrection of Jesus and its eternal consequences for his body, soul, and the creation itself.
At the same time, this slight momentary affliction has meaning: it prepares us. What does that mean? 2 Corinthians 5:5 also uses this term (prepare) to describe how God is preparing us for our glorious resurrection.
Momentary affliction produces something. It will produce glory, particularly the glory of the resurrection. Just as good works produce thanksgiving to God (2 Corinthians 9:11) or godly grief produces earnestness (2 Corinthians 7:11), so our light and momentary suffering produces eternal glory.
This is true not only in the light the resurrection of Jesus as the final goal where we will be conformed to his glorious resurrection body (Philippians 3:21), but it is also true in the present moment as we experience glory in the middle of our suffering or even through our suffering. In Romans 5:3-4, Paul “knows” that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope! God is at work in our suffering for the glorious purpose of conforming us to the image of Christ, transforming us from glory to glory.
But how can we maintain this perspective on suffering? How can we in the midst of such difficult, painful, and unbearable affliction consider our suffering light and momentary?
Paul answers. We set our gaze—keep our eyes on, pay attention to, or keep our focus on—what is unseen rather than what is seen. We keep our focus on the eternal glory—experienced in the present and anticipated in the future. From the perspective of eternity, the suffering appears light and momentary. This does not diminish the pain but compares it with the goal God has for those in Christ. The eternal reality of the resurrection far outweighs what is seen (the affliction). That is our hope.
We don’t live by what we see but by faith in what is unseen, which is ultimately the hope of the resurrection. The God we serve is the “God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9). As Paul continues in 2 Corinthians 5:1, we don’t give up because “we know” that we will exchange our earthly tent for an eternal building, our resurrection body.
Therefore, we don’t lose heart. We are the ministers of eternal glory, both now and in the future. We are ministers of God’s eschatological reality, God’s glory. Consequently, we don’t give up.