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For this light 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 Corinthians 4:17-18, ESV).
Have you ever been irritated, going through extreme trials, and then you read a passage like 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, where Paul calls our difficulties “light momentary affliction?” We think, “Come on, Paul, what do you know about my life, my finances, my sickness, my loss of a loved one?”
As if the Apostle anticipates our question, he writes …
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure (2 Corinthians 11:24-27).
I guess the answer to the “What does Paul know about suffering?” question would be “Quite a lot.” But Paul also understands a few things that we don’t. Listen to his testimony …
I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter (2 Corinthians 12:3-4).
Obviously, Paul was talking about himself, saying that he was taken to paradise, where he saw things that can hardly be explained on earth. Have you asked questions like “Why do innocent people suffer?” or “Why does God allow maniac dictators?” or “I don’t understand why God allowed me to get sick.”
I’ve been with hundreds of people in their suffering. While I can’t tell them the exact answers, I can say to them, “I do know of a man who went to heaven and he saw the conclusion of all things, how God turned evil to good, how sickness became beauty, how the most difficult tribulation enabled deeper insight into the depths of God’s love.” I haven’t been there, but this man concluded after he had seen all of this in heaven, that, “We only have light and momentary affliction on this earth!”
This same man (Apostle Paul) also wrote …
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).
God allowed the Apostle Paul to see what I, as a pastor, couldn’t explain — observing God’s eternal purposes that were so amazing and beyond his comprehension that he couldn’t describe them in words. But Paul found this motto to be true: “Seeing is believing.”
We have hope. Take it from a man (Paul) who has been there!