Today I pick up another short study in contrasts containing affliction as one of the poles. As is often (always?) the case, the affliction side of the contrast is the lighter one, this time even being considered as one side of an existential balance.
"For the light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." (II Corinthians 4:17)
Let me point out the obvious contrast in temporality of "for a moment" with "eternal." The really curious thing, though, is the expression "weight of glory." What kind of weight does glory have? Paul is here contrasting an affliction, which implies a sentient presence endowed with a consciousness of suffering, with another quality, that, whatever it is, must be the opposite of a fleeting and suffering existence. But even if it is another kind of existence, what does it mean to apply to it this very terrestrial, physics-oriented concept of "weight?" Something for us to think about my sons and daughter.
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