John Calvin Commentary 2 Corinthians 4:17

"For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;" — 2 Corinthians 4:17 (ASV)

Momentary lightness. As our flesh always shrinks back from its own destruction, whatever reward may be presented to our view, and as we are influenced much more by present feeling than by the hope of heavenly blessings, Paul for that reason admonishes us that the afflictions and vexations of the pious have little or nothing of bitterness if compared with the boundless blessings of everlasting glory.

He had said that the decay of the outward man ought to cause us no grief, since the renovation of the inward man springs out of it. However, as the decay is visible and the renovation is invisible, Paul, in order to shake us off from a carnal attachment to the present life, draws a comparison between present miseries and future felicity.

Now this comparison is of itself abundantly sufficient for filling the minds of the pious with patience and moderation, so that they may not give way, borne down by the burden of the cross. For why is it that patience is so difficult a matter, but from this — that we are confounded by experiencing evils for a brief period and do not raise our thoughts higher?

Paul, therefore, prescribes the best antidote against your sinking down under the pressure of afflictions when he places in opposition to them that future blessedness which is laid up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1:5). For this comparison makes that light which previously seemed heavy, and makes that brief and momentary which seemed of boundless duration.

There is some degree of obscurity in Paul’s words, for as he says, With hyperbole unto hyperbole, so the Old Interpreter and Erasmus have thought that in both terms the magnitude of the heavenly glory that awaits believers is extolled; or, at least, they have connected them with the verb works out. I have no objection to this, but as the distinction that I have made is also not unsuitable, I leave it to my readers to make their choice.

Works out an eternal weight. Paul does not mean that this is the invariable effect of afflictions, for the great majority are most miserably weighed down here with evils of every kind, and yet that very circumstance is an occasion of their heavier destruction, rather than a help to their salvation. However, since he is speaking of believers, we must restrict what is stated here exclusively to them. This is because it is a blessing from God peculiar to them — that they are prepared for a blessed resurrection by the common miseries of mankind.

Regarding the circumstance, however, that Papists abuse this passage to prove that afflictions are the causes of our salvation, it is extremely foolish — unless, perhaps, you choose to take causes in the sense of means (as they commonly speak). We, at least, cheerfully acknowledge that we must through many tribulations enter into the kingdom of heaven, (Acts 14:22), and on this there is no controversy.

Our doctrine, however, is that the momentary lightness of afflictions works out in us an eternal weight of life. This is because all the sons of God are predestinated to be conformed to Christ, (Romans 8:29), in the endurance of the cross, and in this manner are prepared for the enjoyment of the heavenly inheritance, which they have through God’s gracious adoption. Papists, on the other hand, imagine that afflictions are meritorious works by which the heavenly kingdom is acquired.

I shall repeat it again in a few words. We do not deny that afflictions are the path by which the heavenly kingdom is reached, but we deny that by afflictions we merit the inheritance, which comes to us in no other way than through God’s gracious adoption. Papists, without consideration, seize one little word in order to build upon it a tower of Babel (Genesis 11:9) — that the kingdom of God is not an inheritance procured for us by Christ, but a reward that is due to our works. For a fuller solution to this question, however, consult my Institutes.

While we look not. Note what it is that will make all the miseries of this world easy to endure — if we direct our thoughts to the eternity of the heavenly kingdom.

For a moment is long if we look around us; but, when we have once raised our minds toward heaven, a thousand years begin to appear to us like a moment.

Furthermore, the Apostle’s words intimate that we are deceived by the view of present things, because there is nothing there that is not temporal. Therefore, there is nothing for us to rest upon but confidence in a future life.

Observe the expression, looking at the things which are unseen, for the eye of faith penetrates beyond all our natural senses, and faith is also for that reason represented as looking at things that are invisible. (Hebrews 11:1).