Seeing how people respond when someone mentions a biblical-sounding phrase gives a superb idea of once they grew up. If you say, “the load of glory,” and someone says, “Isn’t that a Christian book?” the chances are they grew up around or after 1980, when C. S. Lewis’ book The Weight of Glory became freshly available.
Christians across denominations have praised Lewis’ book, however the phrase “weight of glory” has much older roots. It has a biblical origin that reminds us of our true priorities while also helping us appreciate what makes Lewis’ book so compelling.
What Is the Bible Verse concerning the Weight of Glory?
The phrase “weight of glory” appears in 2 Corinthians 4:17. The apostle Paul wrote this second letter to the church in Corinth with help from his disciple Timothy, who’s listed because the letter’s co-writer (1 Corinthians 4:1). Some scholars consider the reference to Timothy means he was the scribe who wrote the letter as Paul dictated the contents.
According to Easton’s Bible Dictionary, the main points within the letter suggest that Paul wrote 2 Corinthians while traveling through Macedonia (Acts 20:1-6) and after visiting the Corinthian church twice. Paul covers various topics, from practical concerns like how the Corinthians should best collect money for believers in Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8-9) to spiritual concerns like how God empowers Christians to face up to persecution (2 Corinthians 4:7-12).
Concerns about persecution led Paul to remind the Corinthians what they ultimately put their hope in. They carry Jesus’ resurrected life inside them, and that life not only shows through their actions (2 Corinthians 4:10-12) but offers them a long-term vision. Believers are promised a final resurrection when Jesus returns and presents the church to God the Father (2 Corinthians 4:14-15). The suffering Christians experience on this life looks very different if Christians are assured that they’ll rise again someday. In fact, the suffering we experience for being Christ’s representatives might be honored at the ultimate resurrection.
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a much more exceeding and everlasting weight of glory; While we glance not on the things that are seen, but on the things which are usually not seen: for the things that are seen are temporal; however the things which are usually not seen are everlasting.” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18 King James Bible, emphasis added)
In other words, “the load of glory” refers back to the greater destiny God has in store for us. Other translations, including the New King James Bible, the English Standard Version, and the New American Standard Bible, also use the phrase “weight of glory.”
So far, this is obvious. But how does this Bible verse connect with C.S. Lewis’ book?
What Is C.S. Lewis’ Book The Weight of Glory About?
The book The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses was published in 1949 containing five sermons and speeches:
- “The Weight of Glory”
- “Transposition”
- “Membership”
- “Learning in War-Time”
- “The Inner Ring”
“The Weight of Glory” was preached on June 8, 1941, the second sermon Lewis gave on the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Oxford. The Reverend T.R. Milford first invited Lewis to evangelise on the church in 1939, and he presented “Learning in War-Time” on October 22, 1939.
Although “The Weight of Glory” is taken into account one in all Lewis’ biggest sermons, it was not all the time easy to search out. Books often exit of print if there is no such thing as a apparent demand for them, and lots of of Lewis’ books went out of print after he died in 1963. The Weight of Glory was reprinted in 1965 and 1975 but otherwise was hard to search out in bookstores. A couple of people kept smaller publications that had printed the sermon, like a 1941 issue of the educational journal Theology or a 1942 pamphlet version published by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.
As Brenton Dickieson explains, the situation improved within the Eighties-Nineteen Nineties when editor Walter Hooper collected hard-to-find Lewis articles to provide latest books like God within the Dock and arranged for old books to return back into print. A revised edition of The Weight of Glory appeared in 1980 with 4 more chapters, including famous works like Lewis’ 1940 speech “Why I Am Not a Pacifist.”
Hooper reports in an introduction for the revised edition that “The Weight of Glory” was very well-received. When he preached, Lewis spoke to “one in all the biggest congregations ever assembled [at that particular church] in modern times.” A warm response, on condition that Lewis was not a priest or an expert theologian.
If Lewis didn’t have the standard credentials, why did Milford ask him to evangelise?
Why Did C.S. Lewis Preach concerning the Weight of Glory?
Many people today know Lewis best because the creator of the Chronicles of Narnia or because the creator of apologetics books christianity.html” rel=”noopener noreferrer” goal=”_blank”>equivalent to Mere Christianity. However, the stories about Narnia didn’t appear until the Nineteen Fifties and his apologetics profession didn’t start in earnest until World War II.
Lewis worked throughout his life as an instructional, teaching literature and philosophy. In the Thirties, he established himself as an creator with academic studies like The Allegory of Love, various articles on religion, a science fiction novel featuring religious themes called Out of the Silent Planet, and an allegory about his spiritual journey called The Pilgrim’s Regress. Milford read The Pilgrim’s Regress and invited Lewis to talk at his church. “Learning in War-Time” was the primary time Lewis preached.
Joe Ricke discusses in an article for Sehnsucht how busy Lewis became: he went from preaching his first sermon to becoming an in-demand speaker at Christian events to receiving a suggestion from publisher Ashley Sampson to jot down a book on the issue of evil. Sampson was one other fan of The Pilgrim’s Regress, and The Problem of Pain became the primary of Lewis’ apologetics books. Then, in 1941, James Welch invited Lewis to offer radio talks on Christianity, talks later edited and published as Mere Christianity.
By the tip of the Nineteen Forties, Lewis was a well-regarded Christian creator known for giving intelligent advice in clear language. By the tip of the 20 th century, he was one in all the bestselling Christian authors in modern history.
What Does C.S. Lewis Say concerning the Weight of Glory?
Lewis’ sermon has been summarized in lots of places, such as Justin Taylor’s Gospel Coalition article for its seventy-fifth anniversary. Since the sermon is fairly short, summarizing it point by point would run the danger of reproducing the whole sermon in numerous words. However, we will summarize the large picture ideas.
In the sermon, Lewis covers the next points:
- Historically, Christianity has said crucial trait to practice is love, which sounds selfish unless we consider we now have misunderstood desire and assumed it’s all the time sinful.
- The fact we inherently feel a “desire which no natural happiness will satisfy” suggests that our good desires are hints that we’re designed for something everlasting that may fulfill our deepest longings.
- The Bible exhorts us to crave everlasting rewards, which implies craving glory.
- The biblical view of glory isn’t fame but God’s approval: the moment after the ultimate resurrection when God will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).
- Understanding glory helps us see that we should always crave holy desires and heavenly rewards, but additionally reminds us that anyone we meet might be someone who will serve God well and be raised to glory.
These ideas, particularly the argument that some desires are yearnings for holy things that only God can fulfill, come up in other Lewis books like Surprised by Joy. However, Lewis combined all these engaging ideas in a beautifully compact form in “The Weight of Glory.”
The sermon proves especially powerful after we consider that Lewis gave these thoughts at a dark time.
Why Is It Important When Lewis Preached the Weight of Glory?
The Pilgrim’s Regress was the rationale Milford thought Lewis would make a superb speaker, but Milford also knew there was a necessity that Lewis could fulfill. As Brian McGreevy explains, Britain entering World War II in September 1939 led many to think seriously about life, death, and faith. Christian thinkers who could offer hope and spiritual education were sorely needed. Lewis rose to the occasion by becoming a chaplain to the Royal Air Force and an apologist for Christian ideas on the radio, in sermons, and in articles.
“Learning in War-Time” has a more obvious connection to the period when it was written. It was a sermon about why pursuing education is a superb and honorable thing to pursue even during a war. “The Weight of Glory” may look like a more general discussion about living the Christian life well. However, reminding people what glory means for Christians can be vital during crises.
As discussed earlier in this text, Paul instructs believers to search out hope in dark times by remembering their future glory. It is nice and vital to do not forget that Christianity guarantees that whatever we experience on this life, our ultimate hope is in what’s going to are available in the longer term. At the ultimate resurrection, God will reveal the brand new life we are going to live in the brand new heaven and latest earth.
Lewis may not talk much about 2 Corinthians 4:17 directly in his sermon, but his words are permeated with the identical vision that Paul shares within the passage: craving everlasting glory will carry us through the darkness.
When temporary pleasures tempt us, we do not forget that divine glory is the true pleasure that may fulfill our longings when nothing else will. When death is near, we do not forget that death isn’t the tip. When we suffer for our faith, we remember to crave God’s approval, not the world’s favor. When individuals are hard to like, we remember our calling to like others because they might be heirs in that glory, too. As Lewis puts it, we focus not on the sufferings happening now, but on “what lies before us. The whole man is to drink joy from the fountain of joy.”
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