God’s power in a paper cup
As Christians we have access to two realities – the seen and the unseen.
The reality we see with our eyes is the world around us – God’s creation and all that is in it. This seen reality can be beautiful – the sunrise, a beautiful beach, the joy of child at play, but also very ugly – disease, war, murder and suffering. The truth is the reality we see is corrupted. In contrast, the unseen reality is what God has created to be eternal. The Bible shows us glimpses of this unseen reality and it is described as a place of beauty and perfection (Rev 21:1-7, Rev 22:1-5, Isa 65:17-25).
What is most real to you – the reality you can see or the unseen reality?
I would assume, like me, the reality you see is more real to you. But this is not God’s desire for us. As Christians, the Lord desires us to be people whose eyes are fixed more on the unseen eternal reality - the reality of beauty and perfection, than the reality that we see - the suffering, the brokenness and the ugly.
In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 and 11:23-28 Paul describes the reality he sees - and not just what he sees but what he is presently experiencing. Paul’s seen reality is suffering - in many forms! For example: persecution in different forms; imprisonment; physical beatings; being stoned; frequently in threatening and hostile environments; living without regular food or clothing; being slandered and betrayed; having the constant weight of concern for the churches. It would be reasonable to assume that an individual immersed in this current lived experience could only see this reality. But not for Paul.
In 2 Cor 4:7 Paul describes the Christian life as “treasure in clay jars”. What he is describing is the immense extraordinary power of God that is manifested through their lives. Their lives are surrendered to and serving God, however, “the treasure” is not their lives but rather the Holy Spirit and his power that brings change and transformation through them, to be become more like Jesus (2 Cor 3:18). Their lives are like “clay jars”, or perhaps a contemporary equivalent would be a ‘paper cup’. However, we must remember this: the power of transformation does not come from the cup but the contents of the cup - the Spirit of God. Our physical life is like a ‘paper cup’ – fragile and slowly decomposing. In this present world our physical life will suffer, we will face obstacles, opposition, enemies trying to demoralise, discourage and destroy us. Don’t focus your attention on the paper cup but rather focus on the contents of the cup. Paul said it like this:
“So we do not focus on what is seen, but what is unseen, For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”.
(2 Cor 4:18, CSB)
Focussing on “what is seen” could be your present suffering and your apparent failure or it could be your present influence and apparent success. The point is, while we are focused on “what is seen”, we cannot see “what is unseen”. This present corrupted reality we see with our physical eyes and our ‘paper cup’ life is only temporary and will pass away. We need to look beyond ourselves and see something more important – the eternal unseen!
In the following passage Paul also describes the some of this unseen realm. He depicts our present physical lives as a “tent”, for the purpose of emphasising the temporary nature of our present life. For Christians, the gift of the Spirit – the contents of the cup, produces in us a “groan”. This groaning is the inward knowledge given to us by God’s Spirit that our ‘paper cup’, our “tent” is not our real home. In other words, the gift of the Holy Spirit to us, gives us the ability to have eyes to see the unseen realm:
“For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment”
(2 Corinthians 5:1–5, CSB).
God’s purpose for us is to have an “eternal dwelling in the heavens”. This is our future resurrection with a new eternal body. If we have the gift of the Spirit, deep within in us we will sense the “groan” that speaks to us: this present life is just temporary – don’t focus on your ‘paper cup’, don’t make your ‘home’ this present world, focus on the “treasure” and see your future eternal destination!
As Christians we are meant to live in one reality but be looking into a different one.
How do we do this? We do this through prayer and renewing our mind:
Prayer: God had given us his Spirit to help us to pray (Rom 8:26-28). As I reflect on my prayer life, over the past eight years this has been the common theme as I pray daily: “Lord, help me to see your reality”. We are all spiritually blind without the Lord. If we pray with this desire, the Spirit will help us to see the ‘unseen’ eternal realm.
Renewal of the our mind: Our eyes and minds are bombarded with the images, thinking, reasoning and justifications of this broken, corrupted and evil world. It is no wonder we experience so little love, hope and joy. Our eyes are wide open to all the horror of this present world! To renew my mind, for me, this is probably the most challenging and demanding task. We constantly have the noise around us of different voices: world news, political views, public opinion and the millions of voices shouting through different forms of media and the internet. Even in the Christian space, we have a plethora of different theological and spiritual viewpoints, research, answers and opinions disseminated through the Christian websites, emails and books all attempting to get our attention with the purpose of influencing our mind.
However, our spiritual eyes become open to see the ‘unseen’ world with revelation - from the Spirit of God and the Scriptures (Eph 1: 17-19, 2 Tim 3:16). We need to discipline ourselves to limit what we allow ourselves to see and hear otherwise we will become disciples of this world and not of Jesus Christ. The world’s wisdom is foolish and futile. As Paul says,
“Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool so that he can become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written, He catches the wise in their craftiness; and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are futile.”
(1 Corinthians 3:18–20, CSB)
Choose carefully what you look at and who you listen to. These images and voices will shape how you think, what you believe and what your eyes see. Even when listening to other Christians and reading Christian books, learn to discern between those who speak with the voice of the Holy Spirit and those who speak with the voice of the world. Those that speak with the voice of the Spirit impart life and hope. These voices redirect our eyesight - away from fixating on our present suffering in this corrupted world, our temporary success or our inflated self-importance - to the glorious world ahead of us. As Paul says below, with these things “we do not give up”:
“Therefore, since we have this ministry because we were shown mercy, we do not give up. Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth…For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake”.
(2 Corinthians 4:1–5, CSB)
And,
“Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory”.
(2 Corinthians 4:16–17, CSB)
As we suffer in this present life and turn our back on the corrupted ways of this world, we remain faithful to Christ and our inner life is transformed, preparing us for our eternal life to come. And importantly, we will not always remain a ‘paper cup’! In our eternal life to come we will have a new, true home – our home will be with the Lord:
“For we walk by faith, not by sight. In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord”.
(2 Corinthians 5:7–8, CSB)
The grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you as you seek his unseen reality.
