We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18
It was a hard day when my husband found out that, like so many others, he too would soon be furloughed from employment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We believed that God would meet our basic needs, but the uncertainty of how that would happen was still terrifying.
As I processed my jumbled emotions, I found myself revisiting a favorite poem by sixteenth-century reformer John of the Cross. Entitled “I Went In, I Knew Not Where,” the poem depicts the wonder to be found in a journey of surrender, when, going “past the boundaries of knowing,” we learn to “discern the Divine in all its guises.” And so that’s what my husband and I tried to do during this season: to turn our focus from what we could control and understand to the unexpected, mysterious, and beautiful ways God can be found all around us.
The apostle Paul invited believers to a journey from the seen to the unseen, from outward to inward realities, and from temporary struggles to the “eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
Paul didn’t urge this because he lacked compassion for their struggles. He knew it would be through letting go of what they could understand that they could experience the comfort, joy, and hope they so desperately needed (vv. 10, 15–16). They could know the wonder of Christ’s life making all things new.
Read: 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 (NIV)
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clayw to show that this all-surpassing power is from Godx and not from us.
8 We are hard pressed on every side,y but not crushed; perplexed,z but not in despair;
9 persecuted,a but not abandoned;b struck down, but not destroyed.c
10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,d
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.e
11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake,f
so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.
12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.g
13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”b h
Since we have that same spirit ofc faith,i we also believe and therefore speak,
14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the deadj
will also raise us with Jesusk and present us with you to himself.l
15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people
may cause thanksgivingm to overflow to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart.n Though outwardly we are wasting away,
yet inwardlyo we are being renewedp day by day.
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.q
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,r
since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
INSIGHT
- When have you experienced God’s glory in ways you couldn’t understand?
- In what areas of your life might you experience God beyond the “boundaries of knowing”?
In fulfilling his call to preach the gospel, Paul endured great dangers, persecutions, and hardships (1 Corinthians 4:9–13; 2 Corinthians 1:8–9; 6:4–10; 11:23–29). He chose to see these as “light and momentary troubles” achieving “an eternal glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Paul persevered, energized by God’s mercy (v. 1), the greatness of the gospel (vv. 2–6), and the power of Christ’s resurrected life (vv. 7–14). His confident refrain is, “We do not lose heart” (vv. 1, 16). Such confidence isn’t rooted in himself, but in God’s “all-surpassing power” (v. 7) and all-sufficient grace (12:9).
PRAYER
Loving God, there’s so much heartbreak and uncertainty in our world. Help me to learn to follow You past what I can understand to the wonder of Your life breathing new life all around me. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!!
Read: 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 (NIV) | Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 27-29; Luke 13:1-22
