The Scale For Suffering

The Scale for Suffering

What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

Romans 8:18

Our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

2 Corinthians 4:17

These trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory.

1 Peter 4:13

How many different kinds of scales have you used or seen? There are all kinds of different scales you can use depending on what you’re weighing, but one type is called a balance scale. It has two bowls on opposite ends of a beam.

This might have been the type of scale Paul had in mind when he described the suffering of this life as “small” and “momentary.” Because those who have suffered in terms of their bodies, their emotions, their relationships, or their faith might have a hard time describing that suffering as insignificant or temporary. We might wonder if Paul really knew what it is like to suffer. But the truth is that Paul’s suffering included being imprisoned, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, robbed, hungry, thirsty, cold, and naked—none of which we would describe as small or momentary. So how could Paul describe his experiences that way?

Paul saw a set of balance scales. On one side of the scale is the suffering of this life—the temporary pains and short-term losses. On the other side of the scales is the glory we will experience in heaven—the satisfying joy of being with Jesus, the overflowing inheritance of our eternal reward, and the unending pleasure of heaven. When Paul said his trials were light, he didn’t mean they were easy or painless. He meant that compared to what was coming they were small and insignificant. All our hard times now are like feathers on one side of the scale compared to the weight of glory ahead in heaven.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

Do you have any scales to weigh things in your house? Bathroom scales? Kitchen scales? A postal scale? How do they work?

What perspective on suffering and glory does each of the verses on the right give us?

What can we do to remember that the glory ahead is weightier than our suffering now?