Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Light Affliction?
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Matthew 10:21-22
The question always is: How do we endure to the end no matter what we face now or in the future? Like Christ and Paul, how can we set our minds so that we see our burdens and afflictions as “light” (Matthew 11:30)? This is critical because, if we consider our trials as too much to bear, will we endure? But if we see our trials as light, whatever they may be, enduring to the end almost becomes assured. So how do we make this mindset a part of our lives? In II Corinthians 4:17, Paul gives us something to consider: “which is but for a moment. . . .” The simple fact is that, when compared to eternity, our existence in this life—no matter how long—is but for a moment. Several scriptures emphasize this reality: » For He remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again. (Psalm 78:39) » Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (James 4:14) » Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does not continue. (Job 14:1-2) Our lives are only a moment in time when compared to eternity. After a thousand years under Christ's rule, will today's pains even be a memory? Many readers have had a taste of how this works: Ladies with children have experienced how a short period of intense pain in the now can be overwhelmed by the joy that comes afterward (John 16:21). It must be a light burden in comparison, because many knowing the pain will repeat the experience, and for some, often. In subsequent years, how often does the memory come back? Probably not often, if at all. A helpful practice, then, is to embed in our thinking this foundational concept of just how short our lives are compared to eternity. This takes prayer and meditation to make this a living reality for each of us, helping to guard against being overwhelmed by the now.
Pat Higgins
Light Affliction?
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2 Corinthians 4:17
To help us endure hardship, Paul gives us a valuable mindset when he says our suffering “is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” To see our afflictions as light (Matthew 11:30), we must recognize the value of our calling. We would do well to consider its benefits often. As Paul indicates, the understanding that there is “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” is a necessary component to seeing our trials in this life in comparison as a light affliction, a recognition that enables one to endure to the end. Therefore, it is vital to know that the price we pay now is minuscule compared to the reward that awaits us. Note the power of that vision: These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:13-16) Having this vision in their lives as a daily reality enabled the heroes of faith to endure to the end. In modern jargon, they did a cost/benefit analysis and concluded that the benefits made the costs insignificant. Christ and Paul made the same analysis, concluding that their burdens and afflictions were light costs compared to what the benefits of eternity held for them. In Romans 8:18, even with the weight of his trials, Paul again emphasizes that they are infinitesimal costs, so trivial that they are insignificant compared to the mindboggling benefits that await us: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” In the King James Version, the first part of Proverbs 29:18 reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” For “perish” a better translation is that they “cast off restraint.” Without a vision they lack restraint, leading to disobedience. This results in a people who will not endure to the end, whose fate, then, is to perish. Without a vision of the future that is as tangible to us as the present, we will walk by sight, only seeing the now, rather than by faith seeing as real a true vision of the future. Without that vision, we risk trading the future for the now (Galatians 6:9; II Thessalonians 2:15), a poor bargain indeed.
Pat Higgins
Light Affliction?
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Revelation 2:26
Consider how much the lust for power is a major motivating force in this world. It can be seen operating in families, in workplaces, in churches, and in commerce—and possibly, it is most visible in politics. We can see in all of these instances that people are doing what they can to obtain power, often by any means available, fair or foul. They are just following the influence (I John 5:19) of the one who first lusted for power: “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High'” (Isaiah 14:13-14). While the world is struggling to get power, God promises to give it to us as a byproduct of enduring to the end. In this life, the only power we have to strive for is power over ourselves. In the next, God will provide the rest. Those who seek power in this world miss the fact that our life is but for a moment. Even if they do receive the power they seek, it lasts only for an instant in comparison. Consider how long our power will last if we endure to the end: “The LORD knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever” (Psalm 37:18). The vision Scripture provides is so all-encompassing that not one of us can truly comprehend its breadth. After all, this vision is actually God's own vision. Our minds are limited in what we can see, as Paul points out in I Corinthians 2:9: “But as it is written: eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But with that said, God gives us the means, His Spirit (I Corinthians 2:10), to follow the example of our predecessors so that we, like them, will see a vision that ensures our enduring to the end. Part of that vision involves identifying the things we hate about this evil world around us and then finding the scriptures that illumine the vision of how God will—together with us using the power He will give us—create a new world devoid of these evils. Each of us is unique, and what part of that vision will motivate us will likewise be unique. So, before our burdens and afflictions begin to weigh us down, we can choose to prepare now (Matthew 25:1-13) and take the time to identify the evils we hate. With that, we can begin building a vision from Scripture that, through meditation and prayer, allows God to use His Spirit to make that vision as real as the present to the effect that, in comparison, we will be able to say along with Christ and Paul, “My burden is light” and my “light affliction . . . is but for a moment.”
Pat Higgins
Light Affliction?
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