It started with a tickle in my throat. Uh oh, I thought. That tickle turned out to be influenza. And that was just the beginning of bronchial affliction. Influenza morphed into whooping cough—yes, that whooping cough—and that turned into pneumonia.
Eight weeks of torso-wracking coughing—it’s not called whooping cough for nothing—has left me humbled. I don’t think of myself as old. But I’m old enough to start thinking about heading in that direction. A member of my small group at church has a funny name for the health issues that assail us as we age: “the dwindles.” But there’s nothing funny about dwindling’s work “in action.”
In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul too wrote—in his own way—about “the dwindles.” That chapter chronicles the persecution he and his team endured. Fulfilling his mission had taken a heavy toll: “Outwardly we are wasting away,” he admitted. But even as his body failed—from age, persecution, and harsh conditions—Paul held tightly to his sustaining hope: “Inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (v. 16). These “light and momentary troubles,” he insisted, can’t compare to what awaits: “an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (v. 17).
Even as I write tonight, the dwindles claw insistently at my chest. But I know that in my life and that of anyone who clings to Christ, they’ll not have the last word.
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
- What “dwindles” are affecting you or someone you love right now?
- What can help you maintain your faith and hope during seasons of struggle or discouragement with health issues?
A common theme in Paul’s writing is the connection between human frailty and God’s power. In 2 Corinthians 4:7, Paul says we’re like jars of clay, yet we hold great treasure. He illustrates this contrast by showing how the power of God has sustained him. Although he was persecuted, struck down, and continually faced harm because he was a believer in Jesus, he wasn’t crushed, in despair, abandoned, or destroyed because God’s power was at work in him (vv. 8–10). Paul returns to this theme in chapter 12, where he delights that God’s “power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9).
PRAYER
Father, even as our bodies “waste away,” help me to see those physical struggles through the lens of our hope in Jesus and the glory He promises. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!!
Read: 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 (NIV) | Bible in a Year: Isaiah 17-19; Ephesians 5 :17-33
