2 Corinthians 4:17 (KJV) For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

2 Corinthians 4:17 (ESV) For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal
weight of glory beyond all comparison, 

2 Corinthians 4:8-11 (ESV) ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed,
but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be
manifested in our bodies. ¹¹ For we who live are always being given over to death for
Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

2 Corinthians 6:3-10 (ESV) ³We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be
found with our ministry, ⁴but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by
great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, ⁵beatings, imprisonments, riots,
labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ⁶by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit,
genuine love; ⁷ by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of
righteousness for the right hand and for the left; ⁸ through honor and dishonor, through
slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹ as unknown, and yet
well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; ¹⁰ as sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing
everything. 

That doesn’t sound like “light” afflictions in the way we think of it today, but consider the
following:

• Afflictions are light--compared with what we really deserve.

Romans 6:23 (ESV) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.

• They are light when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus.

Isaiah 53:2-8 (ESV) ²For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of
dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we
should desire him. ³He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and
we esteemed him not. ⁴Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we
esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was wounded for our
transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that
brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. ⁶All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity
of us all. ⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a
lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he
opened not his mouth. ⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his
generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the
transgression of my people?

• But perhaps their real lightness is best seen by comparing them with the eternal
  weight of glory which is awaiting us!

Romans 8:16-18 (ESV) ¹⁶The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are
children of God, ¹⁷and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,
provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. ¹⁸For I
consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory
that is to be revealed to us.

If Paul called all the afflictions which he suffered as “light,” what must we call our sufferings
and troubles? That doesn’t negate them. They are real afflictions.  But, if we would compare
our suffering to what we really deserved, to the great suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, or
the joy and glory that is ours in eternity, then whatever we face in this life is “light
affliction.” Thank God there is no more than that.

Godspeed,

Pastor Bob