Inner Renewal and the House from Heaven

…they say, in the voice of the psalmist, as though speaking to our Lord Jesus Christ, “For Your sake we are put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter” (Psalm 44:22; Romans 8:36).

Volume 3, Discourse 2.

“Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer self is wasting away, yet the inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

One may approach the sense of these words aptly by setting the matter out as common, so to speak, to all who have chosen to live in godliness. For “the flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other,” as it is written (Galatians 5:17). We say, then, that it is altogether necessary that when the flesh has in some way wasted away and its impulses have grown weak, then above all the other, that is, the mind of the Spirit (Romans 8:6), should grow all the stronger.

The word “Therefore” introduces the giving of a reason, a kind of reminder of something said before. He has said, then: If “we who live are given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made manifest” in our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:11), then, he says, since we hold this hope and rejoice in what is to come, we do not lose heart, for we see ahead of time the beauty of the glory to come; rather, even if affliction comes upon us, we bear it nobly. For even if, being human, we feel pain and suffer some harm in the body, still we are not overcome by these things, for our inner self is being renewed.

This, then, is the sense that applies to all. So when our outer self wastes away through the labors of spiritual discipline, then of necessity our inner self is renewed day by day.

But you may also take these words in another way. Because they proclaimed Jesus to Jews and Greeks alike, they endured terrible and unbearable persecutions, and their bodies were worn down by the labors this involved. But the greater the labor, the more abundant, I think, would be the repayment of grace that fittingly follows.

“For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18).

He strengthens the resolve of those who wish to compete, making little of the contests while exalting the crowns of the victors, and assigning lightness to the afflictions but weight to the glory. For the assault of the things of this life is measured, because it is temporary, even if it should come “beyond all measure”; yet he says that it will issue in an eternal weight of glory, since the good things of the age to come are beyond words. So we must not look at the things that are seen, which are temporary, but at the things that are unseen, which are eternal.

“For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is destroyed,” and so on (2 Corinthians 5:1). By “the earthly house of our tent” he names, in a roundabout way, the tent itself, that is, the body. For it is written in Job, “But those who dwell in houses of clay, of whom we too are, made of the same clay” (Job 4:19).

So, he says, we know that when death has destroyed the earthly house of our tent, that is, the body, the dwelling from heaven, that is, incorruption, will take its place before long, at the time of the resurrection, clearly. He says that it is from above, first because the gift is given by God; and then, besides, because all who dwell in the city above, I mean the ranks of the holy angels, are in incorruptible and imperishable bodies, for the nature of angels is free of this earthly grossness. So it is incorruption that he calls “a building from God,” “a house not made with hands,” and “eternal” as well (2 Corinthians 5:1).

“For in this we groan, longing to put on our dwelling from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:2). That is why we groan, weighed down as we are by corruption, and we long for what is from above…