WE DO NOT LOSE HEART

Last week we saw the intricate composition of Paul’s letters to the Christian community in Corinth.

We were able to find three different letters in our New Testament books of 1 and 2 Corinthians.

There was the letter in which Paul answered the questions raised by the Corinthians (our 1 Corinthians).

Then there was the Severe Letter when he laid down the law (2 Corinthians 10-13).

Finally, there was the Letter of Reconciliation when problems had been resolved (2 Corinthians 1-9).

But, before we leave our analysis of Paul’s letters we must study one final mystery.

In 1 Corinthians 5.9 Paul wrote: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral people.”

This unidentified mysterious letter obviously came before 1 Corinthians. We call this the Previous Letter. It is a little mystery I will explain next week.

Last week we discovered the treasure of Paul’s faith.

Today we discover Paul’s secret. But first a few words of introduction. The city of Corinth was an outstanding metropolitan centre. All traffic north to south and east to west had to pass through Corinth.

Corinth housed the great temple of Aphrodite the goddess of love. This temple was not a holy place but rather a centre generating gross immoral living.

Corinth was a byword for immorality.

Paul realized that Corinth was important for the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For that reason he stayed in Corinth for 18 months.

But as in his entire ministry it was not easy to spread the gospel in this immoral city.

Paul wrote:“We are afflicted in every way but not crushed.

Perplexed but not driven to despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but nor destroyed”(2 Corinthians 4.8-9).

Then what was Paul’s powerful secret? Paul always lived with the Jesus Christ of Easter, the Jesus Christ who had called Paul into his service and to whom Paul had dedicated himself.

“We always carry in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in us [the Emptied Tomb]”(2 Corinthians 4.10).

The Jesus to whom Paul had committed his entire life was the Easter Jesus of Cross and Emptied Tomb, of death and resurrection.

That is what it means to be a Christian. We are Easter Christians for Jesus, Christians of the Cross and Emptied Tomb.

Paul knew how weak and frail this human existence could be (2 Corinthians 4.11).

Paul had plenty experience of life, threatening dangers.

When the Corinthian Christians mocked his frail physique and unattractive appearance he wrote in the Severe Letter: “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes save one. Three times I have been beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked. In danger from rivers, from robbers from my own people, from the gentiles”(2 Corinthians 11.21-29).

For Paul there was strength in weakness, there was victory in defeat, there was glory in humiliation, there was a glorious vision of eternity shining in the darkness of his earthly life.“We do not lose heart,”(2 Corinthians 4.1).

Then Paul’s triumphant faith: “Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. Our slight present afflictions are preparing us for an eternal weight of glory. Because 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).

Have we lost our sense of eternity? Are we no longer able to envisage an everlasting dimension to our limited temporal existence? Previous generations would plan their days with the caveat:“God willing”.

They felt the guidance and control of God. Nowadays. people seem to live in the here and now of the immediate moment.

Previous generations lived in the here and then of their present time reaching out to God’s eternal time. It is the dimension of eternity that gives significance to our immediate existence.

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations from everlasting to everlasting you are God”(Psalm 90.1-2).