Week 46 2 Corinthians
Paul compares coming to faith as something like this. It’s like having a cheap container…and then getting something really valuable and storing it in the container. Like me getting the Kohinoor diamond and I put it in a cheap little cardboard box.
The box eventually gets beat-up damaged kicked-around scuffed stepped-on. And whatever I do – glue it or duct tape it or reinforce it or repair it – my little cardboard box only lasts so long. Then it’s done.
But the diamond lasts.
Paul said: though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. The cardboard box is deteriorating. The diamond is getting rejuvenated. Disintegration is happening but there’s also a kind of coordinated magical evolution.
The idea of there being a downside and an upside isn’t so hard to accept. Part of me’s getting beat-up and demolished and eventually destroyed. But another part of me is durable & lasting & developing & expanding.
Paul also points out an interesting & unexpected thing about the downside: through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Which seems to be saying that there’s the potential for there being an upside to the downside.
Downsides can be ruinous or degrading or demoralizing or crippling or painful. I might have a downside that’s all-of-the-above. But luckily not just.
Note: quotes from 2 Corinthians 4:16 10 (NLT)