2 Corinthians 4:17

Such, after all, is the way with good people: when they endure something for his sake, far from attending to the appearance of what occurs, they understand the reason behind it and thus bear everything with equanimity. Likewise Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, identified imprisonment, arraignment, daily peril, all those many unbearable hardships as light burdens, not because they really were so by nature but because the reason behind their happening produced such an attitude in him that he would not turn back in the face of these oncoming threats. Listen, after all, to what he says: "For the light weight of our passing distress produces in us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison"; expectation of the glory we are destined to attain, he is saying, and of that unceasing enjoyment makes us bear without difficulty these hardships one after another and consider them of no consequence. Do you see how love of God reduces the intensity of troubles and prevents our having any sense of them as they befall us? On this account, of course, this blessed man, too, bore everything with equanimity, sustained by faith and hope in God.

"For the light affliction," he saith, "which is for the moment, worketh more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." Having closed the question by a reference to hope, (and, as he said in his Epistle to the Romans, "We are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope;" establishing the same point here also,) he sets side by side the things present with the things to come, the momentary with the eternal, the light with the weighty, the affliction with the glory. And neither is he content with this, but he addeth another expression, doubling it and saying, "more and more exceedingly." Next he also shows the mode how so great afflictions are light. How then light? "While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen." So will both this present be light and that future great, if we withdraw ourselves from the things that are seen.

But grace which lifts up is obtained through hope. The Psalm reads: "For what have I in heaven? And besides Thee what do I desire upon earth?" And elsewhere: "I say, You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living," so that …

The third point, namely, the cause of this patience, is recognition of a reward. This recognition is most efficacious, because, according to Gregory, it lessens the force of a scourge. And this is what he says: For this present, slight momentary affliction is preparing for …

He explains in what manner the inner man is renewed, and says: by the reflection that affliction is brief, that is, temporary, and light because it is temporary, while glory is both eternal and has weight, that is, greatness in the highest degree, for such …

On the other hand, the worth and weight of the crown of glory, as they are exceedingly great in themselves, so they are esteemed to be by the believing soul--far exceeding all his expressions and thoughts; and it will be a special support in our sufferings when we can perceive them appointed as the way and preparing us for the enjoyment of the future glory.

Whatever the burdens and troubles of good men may be, they have cause enough not to faint. Faith kept them from fainting: We have the same spirit of faith (

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Our light affliction - The beauty and sublimity of St. Paul's expressions here, as descriptive of heavenly glory, opposed to temporal afflictions, surpass all imagination, and cannot be preserved in any translation or paraphrase, which after all must sink infinitely below the astonishing original.

For our light affliction,.... The difference between the present and future state of the saints is here expressed, the disparity between them shown, and the influence the one has upon the other. The present state is a state of "affliction". Affliction is the common lot of the children of men, but more especially of the children of God, and is here designed by "our" affliction; for these, besides their soul trouble, meet with such in the world, and from the men of it, others do not.

PERHAPS someone here thoughtlessly says, "Well, whoever calls affliction, 'light,' must have been a person who knew very little about what affliction really is! If he had suffered as I have done, he would not have written about 'our light affliction.' He must have been in robust health and known nothing of sickness and pain." "Just so," says another, "and if he had been as poor as I am and had to work as hard as I do to maintain a sickly wife, and a large family, he would not have written about 'our light affliction.'

which is but for a moment--"Our PRESENT light (burden of) affliction" (so the Greek; compare Mt 11:30), [ALFORD]. Compare "now for a season . . . in heaviness" (1Pe 1:6). The contrast, however, between this and the "ETERNAL weight of glory" requires, I think, the translation, "Which is but for the present passing moment." So WAHL.

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PERHAPS someone here thoughtlessly says, "Well, whoever calls affliction, 'light,' must have been a person who knew very little about what affliction really is! If he had suffered as I have done, he would not have written about 'our light affliction.' He must have been in robust health and known nothing of sickness and pain." "Just so," says another, "and if he had been as poor as I am and had to work as hard as I do to maintain a sickly wife, and a large family, he would not have written about 'our light affliction.' I expect the gentleman who used that expression lived very much at his ease and had all that his heart could wish." "Yes," says another, "and if he had stood by an open grave and had to lament the loss of loved ones, as I have done. And if he had known what it was to be desolate and forsaken, as I have known it, he would not have written about 'our light affliction.'" Now, if you talk like that, you are, all of you, mistaken, for the man who wrote these words was probably afflicted more than any of us have ever been! The list of his afflictions that he gives us is perfectly appalling—"in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often.

For our light affliction, etc. - Mr. Blackwall, in his sacred classics, has well illustrated this passage. I shall here produce his paraphrase as quoted by Dr. Dodd: “This is one of the most emphatic passages in all St. Paul’s writings, in which he speaks as much like an orator as he does as an apostle. The lightness of the trial is expressed by το ελαφρον της θλιψεως, the lightness of our affliction; as if he had said, it is even levity itself in such a comparison. On the other hand, the καθ’ ὑπερβολην εις ὑπερβολην, which we render far more exceeding, is infinitely emphatical, and cannot be fully expressed by any translation. It signifies that all hyperboles fall short of describing that weight - eternal glory, so solid and lasting, that you may pass from hyperbole to hyperbole, and yet, when you have gained the last, are infinitely below it. It is every where visible what influence St. Paul’s Hebrew had on his Greek: כבד cabad, signifies to be heavy, and to be glorious; the apostle in his Greek unites these two significations, and says, Weight of Glory.” St. Chrysostom’s observations on these words are in his very best manner, and are both judicious and beautiful: ΤΙΟΗΣΙ παραλληλα τα παροντα τοις μελλουσι· το παραυτικα προς το αιωνιον· το ελαφρον προς το βαρυ· την θλιψιν προς την δοξαν· και ουδε τουτοις αρκειται, αλλ’ ἑτεραν τιθησι λεξιν, διπλασιαζων αυτην, και λεγων, καθ’ ὑπερβολην εις ὑπερβολην - τουτεστι, μεγεθος ὑπερβολικως ὑπερβολικον. “The apostle opposes things present to things future; a moment to eternity; lightness to weight; affliction to glory. Nor is he satisfied with this, but he adds another word, and doubles it, saying, καθ’ ὑπερβολην εις ὑπερβολην. This is a magnitude excessively exceeding.” See Parkhurst, sub voce ὑπερβολη.

For our light affliction - This verse, with the following, is designed to show further the sources of consolation and support which Paul and his fellow-laborers had in their many trials.

The truth is that the special impressiveness which does come from being persecuted only happens in the case of extreme persecution. For the fact that the modern enthusiast will undergo some inconvenience for the creed he holds only proves that he does hold it, which …