“So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
To Christians in the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul advise to look into their inner nature rather the outer. He intended to teach and guide them to become the body of Christ by harnessing the love of Christ onto their whole beings.
The church is a community that is centered on and in Christ. Our passage reminds us that we are called to be in the world, but not live according to the patterns of this world. Jesus calls us to be a people of rest and service, yet the world calls us to be on the go and all about ourselves.
Being God’s people or the body of Christ in the world is not something that happens accidentally or by default. So, our aim should be on the change of our inner nature as well as that of the outer.
Last Sunday, we shared that becoming transformational is to choose to be transformed from the inside of ourselves. Now, it is time to allow our whole self to be transformed by God, devoted to God as a “living sacrifice,” so that we can, in turn transform others in and beyond our church community.
May the steadfast love our loving God be with us all the times.
Pastor Woo.