November 12, 2026 - 2 Corinthians 1-4

God comforts us so that we can comfort others in their afflictions (1:3,4).  Almost sounds as if Paul is continuing his thought from the first letter, that is, that we are to be helping one another and building one another up in the church.  Paul testifies that he has suffered greatly, but “that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (1:9).  Furthermore, we who have the treasure of the gospel in “jars of clay” and, though we are afflicted in every way, we are not crushed. Though we are perplexed, we are not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. (4:8)  We do not lose heart, for whatever momentary affliction we experience is actually “preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (4:17).

I cannot remember the first time I read the fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians, but I do know that I have, many times, read it and been encouraged by it over the years.  Indeed, “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” (4:18).

Jesus, I my cross have taken,

All to leave and follow thee;

Destitute, despis’d, forsaken,

Thou from hence my all shalt be.

Perish, ev’ry fond ambition,

All I've sought, and hop’d, and known;

Yet how rich is my condition;

God and Heav’n are still my own!   -- Henry Francis Lyte (1825)