"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Cor. 4:16-18 ESV
I forgot to send a summary of the 2nd Corinthians home Bible study last week so let this serve for both. These verses are some of the most wonderful and important for us as Christians in the whole Bible. Among other things they tell us that God is using affliction and suffering in our lives to accomplish His important purposes. "They are working for us," producing something wonderful. And what are they producing? I've listed in the .pdf attachment 10 categories of things God is producing in our lives through human suffering, one of the most important of which is to make us more like Christ and to produce endurance and to burn out the dross that keeps us from being the kind of person that God wants us to be. God accomplished so much through the sacrifice and death of Christ on the cross (and His subsequent resurrection from the dead). In a much lesser way He is also accomplishing important things through your suffering and affliction. I'll also post these on my new blog and you can find them there http://billandminnieburnside.blogspot.com/2010/10/traveling-together.html
Another of the wonderful verses in chapter 4 is verse 7: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." The "treasure" comes from the Gospel and is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives making us more like Christ and using us as His ambassadors in this world "as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 Cor. 5:20 The most important part is for us to recognize our own weakness and inadequacy and "that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."
Twice in chapter 4 we read these words: "So we do not lose heart." (1,16) KJV says "we faint not." We could say, "We do not get discouraged" (or, more accurately, "we are not discouraged, we do not stay discouraged"--though tempted to do so when the pressures build.) "We are not ignorant of Satan's devices" 2 Cor. 2:11--and one of his most potent, pervasive, and deadly weapons is to get us discouraged and take us out of the struggle or endurance race we are in (or you could say, "the battle" because we "wrestle" with "this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Eph. 6:12 ESV "The Old Lion’s on the prowl again. . . ." And the same scripture tells us what to do about it: I Peter 5:8-9 "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brethren in the world." "Resist the devil and he will flee from you"--and that's a promise. James 4:7
The reason we should NOT be discouraged is quite simple: there is no reason to be discouraged! God is still on His throne and He is still the sovereign Lord and He is still working "all things after the counsel of his own will" Eph. 1:11 so that in the end "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Rom. 8:28 God is still our immutable, unchangeable, faithful God. You could preach many sermons to yourself on this one subject, as King David did when he asked himself, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Psalm 42:11
Another reason for not being discouraged is because Jesus wasn't! And if anyone had "reason" for discouragement, surely it was He! He came into the world to save sinners and they turned against Him, the only perfectly righteous Man who ever lived. And his followers left him. In the Garden of Gethsemane "they all forsook him, and fled." Mark 14:50 And the brutality and suffering and agony of the cross?! And yet Jesus did not get discouraged. Isaiah 42:4 "He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law."
Jesus is not failing nor being discouraged today either–so neither should we be! "We are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Romans 8:37 Not even when, "For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." (That’s the preceding verse 8:36.) Brethren, "you have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, you might receive the promise." Hebrews 10:36
But a person may be discouraged for what is really a very good reason: he has unconfessed sin in his life, sin that he will not let go of. That leads to the 2nd point: Satan has another common device, the one he’s best known for: he tempts you to evil. And sadly enough there are Christians who fall into his trap. "God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desires, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." James 1:13-15 NIV
If you have fallen into sin, of whatever description, one way that you can tell whether you really know Jesus as Savior and have "passed from death unto life" is your attitude towards sin. If you don’t really care or if it doesn’t bother you and you continue in sin, then it might mean that you don't really know the Lord "because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16 Holiness of life is a vital mark of a Christian. And when you do sin–and we all do–then there is genuine repentance and remorse. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9 Not a casual attitude towards it. But genuine sorrow and repentance and the sincere intention never to be guilty again of that sin. "Create in me a pure heart, O God. . . . Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." Psalm 51
We can’t expect "sinless perfection" in this life but we can "walk in the light as He is in the Light." "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:5-7
There’s another "Lion" that is much more important and surely He’s "on the move," too! He’s the "Lion of the tribe of Judah." We bow to Him and honor and serve Him as King of kings and Lord of lords. And our powerful, glorified Lord told us during the days of His flesh here on earth, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John 13:35 We need a visible love, one that can be seen in the way we treat each other and think about each other. And that love is God’s love "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit." "And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. . . ." 2 Tim. 2:24 "Encourage one another daily . . . so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness." Heb. 3:13 NIV
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