I’m not getting older – I’m getting better! Well, that sounds great, but for most of us, we are getting older, and it is not necessarily better!
When you’re young, it is hard to even conceive of being old. Your vitality is strong,…your energy level is high,…and, apart from the occasional cold or sprained ankle you feel like you’re almost invincible! But old age comes quicker than you think, and before you know it your body is rebelling and letting you down. I ministered in Florida for a number of years, and watched 80-year-old widowers fall in love with 79 year old widows. Then they would get married and spend their honeymoon trying to get out of the car…!
Well, this is the very problem the Apostle Paul is taking about in 2 Corinthians 4:16 when he says, “Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” The outer man is “decaying.”
This word “decaying” is a compound word in the Greek text. It is a verb that means “to spoil, to ruin, to decay or rot.” It is a word that is used for meat that spoils, or for flowers that wilt. Then the preposition “dia” meaning “through,” is added as a prefix so that the compound word has this idea: “to rot thoroughly; to decay utterly; to ruin totally.”
The point is that our bodies grow old, fall apart, and eventually decay in the ground. THAT, Paul is saying, is why we need to give more attention to the inner man. The reason is because the outer man is decaying.
Say – Don’t be discouraged about old age. Be encouraged by eternal life in Christ!