“It Is Well with My Soul” – 2 Corinthians 4:13-18

You’re familiar with the story.

A godly person seems to have it all: a loving family, good health, riches beyond compare. Then tragedy strikes.

The children are killed by a great wind storm. Thieves take the great herds of camel, sheep, goats and cattle. The family is left with nothing.

Then further tragedy strikes. A spouse becomes seriously ill, with no seeming hope for a cure or comfort.

Wait. We know the story of Job. Job’s wife doesn’t become ill. Job does. Get your facts straight.

I’m not talking about Job. I’m referring to Job’s wife. Did she not also lose her children and wealth? Did she not also have cause to mourn and beat her breast? And then to see her husband stricken with a debilitating illness that left him covered in sores and blisters.

It’s possible that Job’s illness was the thing that tipped her faith to a point of turning her back on God. Perhaps it was the pain in seeing her beloved husband suffering so that caused her to say, “Are you still holding onto your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:10). Job’s response was, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10a).

Perhaps Job’s words help his wife to regain a proper perspective and restored her faith. We don’t know. After all, the focus on the book of Job is on Job, not his wife. We don’t hear from her any further for the rest of the book.

There is a modern equivalent of Job. It’s a story that took place in 19th century America, in the city of Chicago. It is this story that inspired today’s hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul.”

Background

We’re familiar with the story behind this hymn.

Horatio Spafford was a successful attorney living in Chicago. He had a wife, four daughters and a son. He also had extensive real estate holdings in Chicago. A man devoted to Christ, he seemingly had it all.

Tragedy struck when his son became ill. Sadly, medications we take today to quickly heal illnesses were not available in the mid 1800’s, and the Spafford son died of his illness.

Understandably, the family was grief stricken. A close friend of Mr. Spafford, evangelist Dwight Moody, was preparing to lead an evangelistic crusade in Great Britain, and he invited the Spafford family to accompany him overseas in an effort to take them away from their recent sorrow. It was agreed, and the family made plans to sail to England.

As the family was days away from traveling, the Great Chicago Fire broke out, causing massive economic damage and loss of life. Several of Mr. Spafford’s real estate holdings were destroyed or damaged in the blaze.

Deciding to stay behind for a few days to take care of the financial harm that had come to him as a result of the fire, Mrs. Spafford and the daughters boarded a ship, the Ville du Havre, and set sail. Mr. Spafford intended to join them in a few days.

As the Ville du Havre sailed in the Atlantic Ocean midway between the U.S. and Britain, something happened. The ship sank, resulting in many lost lives, including the Spafford daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Spafford alone now survived of their family.

Mr. Spafford immediately set sail for England, rushing to his grieving wife’s side. On the voyage, Mr. Spafford requested the captain of the ship let him know when they came to the place where the ship went down and where his daughters lost their lives.

As the ship neared the site, Mr. Stafford stood alone at the railing, thinking of and mourning his daughters. So much had happened. His son’s death, the real estate tragedy, and now this. He must have been overwhelmed at the moment.

And yet, as he stood looking out over the waters, Mr. Stafford felt the comforting presence of God. Like Job before him, rather than curse God, Stafford wrote this hymn of praise and comfort. It stands as a tribute to a faith that can overcome the darkest of life’s occurrences.

The apostle Paul had a sense of what Mr. Stafford was feeling and believing. Centuries before, the apostle wrote to the Philippians that he had learned to be content in good times and bad, because God enables him to do so by His strength.

As Paul writes today’s passage, he is reassuring the Corinthian church that the grace of God gives all who believe freedom and that we reflect God’s glory. Because of this glory and grace and freedom, Paul says he does not lose heart. He talks about having God’s light in “jars of clay” (4:7), resulting in the demonstration that all our power comes from God. He writes, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you” (8-12).

And so we come to today’s passage, letting us know that in this life, if we have faith in Jesus, it is always well with our souls.

Central Truth: Faith in God allows us to see beyond the temporary and see the eternal.

We endure in God because:

1. the spirit of faith (13-15)

“It is written, ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ With that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also rais us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to the overflow to the glory of God.”

Paul begins this paragraph quoting the first part of Psalm 116:10. Turning to that psalm, I see Horatio Spafford standing at the rail of a ship, feeling so alone as he gazed out upon the waters that covered the bodies of his beloved daughters. I wonder if the Holy Spirit sent this psalm to him, reminding the grieving father. Listening to the words of Psalm 116, we get the sense that all was well with his soul.

Paul takes that first part of Psalm 116:10 and adapts it to our calling. We believe, therefore we speak of the comfort and grace and mercy and might of the God who loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us, that we might have eternal life, and so have fellowship with God the Father and God the Son through the presence of God the Spirit. Look what Paul says.

We speak because we know that the promise of eternal life is guaranteed. We know that Jesus’ resurrection is our resurrection, too. The promise of being in the presence of God is our hope and our assurance. And the presence of the Spirit within us allows us immediate access to the One who saves us and sets us free to worship and to serve Him.

It is this assurance of God’s gracious promise that allows us see beyond the temporary and see the eternal presence of God. We have that spirit of faith, and so we endure.

2. our troubles are momentary (16-17)

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

I’ve heard people say that getting old is not easy. There are days I believe this to be true. Regardless of whatever aches and pains may come upon me, though, I share Paul’s view. Such pains and aches are light and momentary troubles. Despite the aches and pains, I am blessed with a wonderful family, a wonderful church and the ability to do things for myself and for others.

As Horatio Spafford stood at the railing, he must have felt weighted down by the grief that must have pressed down on his heart and soul. Yet it was at this time that he knew that God was with him, and that God would give him the grace and strength to persevere. Somehow, he and his wife would come through these dark times—this very real valley of shadow of death—and enter into a lighter moment and time. He knew that God has an eternal plan, and that they would see their dear children again in a short time.

That’s Paul’s point in these two verses. Sure, we’re wasting away in our jars of clay, and we endure tough times and moments. But in comparison to eternity, the things of today are but a fragment of time. Compared to the glory that awaits us and the joy of fellowship with the Father and the Son and all the loved ones who have gone before, the things of today are truly light and momentary.

Once we realize the things that weigh us down are, in reality, light and momentary, then we can see past the present and see the eternal. We find God’s comfort in the reality that our troubles are negligible when compared to eternity with Him.

3. we know what is real (18)

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Socrates was one of ancient Greece’s greatest philosophers. He developed the idea of idealism. He used an analogy of a cave to demonstrate what he meant by the ideal.

Basically, the analogy states that we see shadows on the wall of a cave and assume the shadows are real. The truth, according to Socrates, is that reality is not found in the shadows, but in the images that are casting the shadows. Socrates maintains that we need to look beyond the obvious to see what the world can really be.

Paul takes this idea and twists it around to remind us that we need to no longer look at the wall. Like Socrates, Paul tells us that we need to seek that which is unseen. Our faith in Christ leads us to see that the real world is the world of His vision and His promises. The eternal life that we experience when we come to Christ in faith takes us to a higher place, a more real place, a true place.

Once we come to accept God’s promises as true, we are able to see that the reality of our world is truly transcient, and that the fleeting moment we call “time” is an illusion when it stands up to the reality of God and the gospel.

When we know this and live accordingly, we find that we can endure the light and momentary troubles because we know what is real. We know God. We know Jesus. We have the Spirit.

Conclusion

Imagine the emotions that must have swept over Horatio Spafford as he stood on the ship deck, looking down at the sea where his daughters’ lost their lives. Imagine the pain, the sadness, the hopelessness of it all.

As we imagine his feelings, imagine also the peace that came to him as the Holy Spirit, the Comforter Jesus had promised us in the Upper Room, spoke to him. The Spirit probably brought to his mind passages of scripture, verses that reminded him of God’s presence and deliverance.

When we sing the hymn, we are reminded that God sees us through the good times and the bad, that He protects us from so much and shelters us from so many storms.

Walking in faith, ignoring the light and momentary troubles, we know that walking with God allows us to say, “It is well with my soul.”