Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 4:7

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels ] ‘I grant you that the exterior of the ministers of the Gospel is by no means in accordance with the description I have just given of the Gospel they preach. But why is this? but because, as I have said before, they desire not, they are not intended, to claim the glory and power as their own. It is stamped in their character, appearance, demeanour, sufferings, that they seek nothing for themselves, but are simply the servants of God, while the extraordinary results of their labours prove that it is He Whose messengers they are.’ The metaphor of the glory is dropped, and the Apostles represented as the earthenware vessels in which treasures were frequently in those days kept, and often (see Wordsworth in loc.) carried in triumphal processions. Cf. ch. 2Co 2:14. The treasure is Christ Himself, ministered by His disciples. See ch. 2Co 3:3, and cf. Mat 13:44.

excellency ] This word has somewhat lost its force in modern English, its place has been taken by the word superiority. See 2Co 4:17, where the Greek is the same as here.

of us ] The Greek implies from ourselves as a source.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

But we have this treasure – The treasure of the gospel; the rich and invaluable truths which they were called to preach to others. The word treasure is applied to those truths on account of their inestimable worth. Paul in the previous verses had spoken of the gospel, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, as full of glory, and infinitely precious. This rich blessing had been committed to him and his fellow-laborers, to dispense it to others, and to diffuse it abroad. His purpose in this and the following verses is, to show that it had been so entrusted to them as to secure all the glory of its propagation to God, and so also as to show its unspeakable value. For this purpose, he not only affirms that it is a treasure, but says that it had been so entrusted to them as to show the power of God in its propagation; that it had showed its value in sustaining them in their many trials; and they had showed their sense of its worth by being willing to endure all kinds of trial in order to make it everywhere known, 2Co 4:8-11. The expression here is similar to that which the Saviour uses when he calls the gospel the pearl of great price, Mat 13:46.

In earthen vessels – This refers to the apostles and ministers of religion, as weak and feeble; as having bodies decaying and dying; as fragile, and liable to various accidents, and as being altogether unworthy to hold a treasure so invaluable; as if valuable diamonds and gold were placed in vessels of earth of coarse composition, easily broken, and liable to decay. The word vessel ( skeuos) means properly any utensil or instrument; and is applied usually to utensils of household furniture, or hollow vessels for containing things, Luk 8:16; Joh 19:29. It is applied to the human body, as made of clay, and therefore frail and feeble, with reference to its containing anything, as, e. g., treasure; compare note on Rom 9:22-23. The word rendered earthen, ( ostrakinois) means that which is made of shells (from ostrakinon), and then burnt clay, probably because vessels were at first made of burnt shells. It is suited well to represent the human body; frail, fragile, and easily reduced again to dust. The purpose of Paul here is, to show that it was by no excellency of his nature that the gospel was originated; it was in virtue of no vigor and strength which he possessed that it was propagated; but that it had been, of design, committed by God to weak, decaying, and crumbling instruments, in order that it might be seen that it was by the power of God that such instruments were sustained in the trials to which they were exposed, and in order that it might be manifest to all that it was not originated and diffused by the power of those to whom it was entrusted. The idea is, that they were altogether insufficient of their own strength to accomplish what was accomplished by the gospel. Paul uses a metaphor similar to this in 2Ti 2:20.

That the excellency of the power – An elegant expression, denoting the exceeding great power. The great power referred to here was that which was manifested in connection with the labors of the apostles – the power of healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out devils; the power of bearing persecution and trial, and the power of carrying the gospel over sea and land, in the midst of danger, and in spite of all the opposition which people could make, whether as individuals or as combined; and especially the power of converting the hearts of sin ners, of humbling the proud, and leading the guilty to the knowledge of God, and the hope of heaven. The idea is, that all this was manifestly beyond human strength; and that God had of design chosen weak and feeble instruments in order that it might be everywhere seen that it was done not by human power but by his own. The instrumentality employed was altogether disproportionate in its nature to the effect produced.

May be of God – May evidently appear to be of God; that it may be manifest to all that it is Gods power and not ours. It was one great purpose of God that this should be kept clearly in view. And it is still done. God takes care that this shall be apparent. For:

(1) It is always true, whoever is employed, and however great may be the talents, learning, or zeal of those who preach, that it is by the power of God that people are converted. Such a work cannot be accomplished by man. It is not by might or by strength; and between the conversion of a proud, haughty, and abandoned sinner, and the power of him who is made the instrument, there is such a manifest disproportion, that it is evident it is the work of God. The conversion of the human heart is not to be accomplished by man.

(2) Ministers are frail, imperfect, and Sinful, as they were in the time of Paul. When the imperfections of ministers are considered; when their frequent errors, and their not unfrequent moral obliquities are contemplated; when it is remembered how far many of them live from what they ought to do, and how few of them live in any considerable degree as becometh the followers of the Redeemer, it is wonderful that God blesses their labor as he does; and the matter of amazement is not that no more are converted under their ministry, but it is that so many are converted, or that any are converted; and it is manifest tidal it is the mere power of God.

(3) He often makes use of the most feeble, and unlearned, and weak of his servants to accomplish the greatest effects. It is not splendid talents, or profound learning, or distinguished eloquence, that is always or even commonly most successful. Often the ministry of such is entirely barren; while some humble and obscure man shall have constant success, and revivals shall attend him wherever he goes. It is the man of faith, and prayer, and self-denial, that is blessed; and the purpose of God in the ministry, as in everything else, is to stain the pride of all human glory, and to show that he is all in all.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

2Co 4:7

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.

The treasure in earthen vessels

I. Compares the ministers of the gospel to earthen vessels, A vessel contains what is put into it. The vessels of the temple were some of gold, others of silver, and they were consecrated to God. In the most ancient times there were vessels of gold. This may remind you of Enoch. It must have seemed strange to observe one so much devoted to God as he was. He persuaded few. The treasure then, as now, was little esteemed. Silver vessels may represent the prophets. As the vessels of silver were the ornaments of the sanctuary, so were the prophets the ornaments of the Church. Earthen vessels may represent the weakness of man.

II. The gospel is compared to a treasure. The gospel finds man in a state of poverty, and he must remain in the same state unless enriched by it. The gospel is a treasure that the soul can enjoy. The gospel is a treasure which the thief cannot touch. The gospel is a treasure which will not leave the Christian at death.

III. The gospel gains glory from the meanness of the vessels in which it is contained. It is wonderful that such a treasure is in earthen vessels, because it exceeds the expectation of men. God is more observed when the instrument is weak. Such as are furnished with this treasure ascribe it all to the goodness of God. We shall now make a few inferences.

1. Is it so, that there is a treasure? Then it requires diligence to secure it. No man succeeds in this world who is not active.

2. Is it so, that there is a treasure? Then take heed that you do not despise it. When the Spaniards conquered South America, they made it evident that they adored its gold, and they practised every exertion to obtain it. Let the Christian show that he values the heavenly treasure by his diligence in seeking it.

3. Is it so, that this treasure may be obtained by all? Then value it. It is not in the power of all to be rich. (W. Syme.)

Divine power illustrated by the triumphs of the gospel

God designs His glory as the result of the instrumentality He employs. What apparently could be more visionary than the design of Moses to deliver the Israelites? But God chose to illustrate His power by leading His people like a flock by the hands of Moses and Aaron. But the twelve fishermen of Galilee appeared, in fanaticism, to exceed all their predecessors. But ere they died they had filled the world with their doctrine.

I. It states an important fact. We have this treasure in earthen vessels.

1. The depositaries of Divine truth. Need I specify the truths of which they were made the depositaries? They received Christ crucified; they were put in charge of the gospel; the doctrine of mans ruin by nature, and his recovery by sovereign grace. These truths are beautifully styled a treasure.

(1) Think on their value.

(2) Think on their magnitude.

(3) Think on their permanence.

There is a sense, peculiar to the apostles, in which they were made the depositaries of this treasure. Most of them had been admitted to personal converse with the Lord of heaven; the Spirit had taken of the things of Christ and showed to them what they had heard.

2. The instruments of Divine agency. That the power may be of God. All believers have this invaluable treasure, but to some it is committed with a more extensive design than to others. Jehovahs wise and gracious plan is that of co-operation, and when He blesses any being it is to make him a blessing. Thus the world of grace corresponds with that of nature. The sun has the treasure of light and heat. Why? That he may shine–may display the glory of God, and show through nature His handy work; may fertilise the ground–may illuminate the system, and shed a lustre which some of tim receivers shall again reflect. The recommendation of Divine truth, according to the station which we fill, necessarily results, not only from the Divine appointment, but from the knowledge of the truth itself. It is a treasure which cannot be concealed.

3. The occasions of Divine glory. The power–the excellence of the power–reminds us that something worthy of God is produced. What has been the effect upon society. In the metaphorical language of Scripture, the wilderness and the solitary place was glad for them, and the desert rejoiced and blossomed as the rose.

II. As the statement of a principle which religion will improve. The excellence of the power is of God. Let us consider it–

1. With reference to God. He will be acknowledged; He has written His name in all His hands have made. Jehovahs eternal praise is to result from the redemption of a lost world. By it His nature is exhibited, His perfections are displayed, His government is illustrated. By this method He impresses us with the nature and importance of salvation; for we see the necessity of His immediate agency to effect it.

2. With reference to ourselves. The excellency of the power is of God, and not of us. This conviction is calculated to qualify for the engagement. It is adapted–

(1) To keep us humble.

(2) Therefore the conviction is further calculated to keep us near to Himself.

(3) This principle, further, will prevent our discouragement. Therefore, seeing, we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.

3. With reference to our hearers.

(1) It wilt produce in them satisfaction with our message. They will remember that our doctrine and our reproofs are not ours, bug His that sent us.

(2) Again, the belief of the truth in our text will induce our hearers to aid us–to aid us by their prayers. (J. Innes.)

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The gospel treasure in earthen vessels

I. The gospel as a treasure.

1. There are on earth many mines of material treasures, but the mine which contains this is the Word. Here are contained all things which are profitable.

2. But while this treasure is spiritual, it is invaluable. Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living. And if you ask for the evidence of this, you may see the price that it cost–not silver and gold, but the precious blood of Christ.

3. Spiritual and invaluable as it is, it is an obtained treasure. We have it.

II. This treasure is deposited in earthen vessels.

III. This treasure is contained in earthen vessels to show that the power is Divine.

1. When God predicted the success of the gospel, He said, My Word shall not return unto Me void. When the apostles looked upon their hearers, they said, The power is of God. And even now, when the gospel is preached, that mind which authority could not govern, nor vengeance terrify–how often has it been carried captive by Christ! And how excellent is this power! It keeps the heart and mind in the knowledge of Jesus Christ; it is a good hope through grace.

2. Now, had an angel been the depository of this treasure, we might have been ready to give praise to the angels eloquence and power; but it is not so now, for God, saith the apostle, hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. (J. Alexander.)

The gospel treasure

I. That the gospel of Christ is a treasure indeed, and it is our unspeakable privilege that we have that treasure. The gospel of Christ is indeed a treasure, for–

1. There is in it an abundance of that which is of inestimable value. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal them, the onyx, or the sapphire (Job 28:19). There are treasures of wisdom and knowledge in the truths which the gospel discovers to us. There are treasures of comfort and joy in the offers which the gospel makes us, and the blessings it assures to all believers. These are things of value to the soul of man. And there is an abundance of them, infinitely exceeding that of light in the sun or water in the sea. In Christ there is enough of all that our souls need.

2. This is safely laid up for a perpetuity, and therefore it is a treasure. It is deposited in good hands. It is hid in God–in His wisdom and counsel. It is hid in Christ and in His undertaking for us, which contain all that we need as sinners. It is hid in the Scripture. There it may be found; thence it may be fetched by faith acting on Divine revelation, assenting to it with application and resignation. It is a treasure, for it is laid up for hereafter. The bulk of these riches is that which is reserved in heaven for us–a glory that is to be revealed in due time.

3. It is of universal use to us, and therefore it is a treasure. It is not only valuable in itself, but every way suitable and serviceable to us. It is a treasure in the world; it puts honour upon it, and puts good into it. It is a treasure to any nation or people. It is a treasure in the heart of every true believer who receives it.

II. Ministers are earthen vessels in whom this treasure is put. They are said to have this treasure, not only because they ought to have it in their hearts themselves firmly to believe it, but because they have the dispensing of it to others.

1. They are but vessels that afford no more, no other, than what is put into them, nor can give but just as they have received. God is the fountain of light and life. Ministers must remember this and religiously adhere to their instructions. People must remember this, and not expect more from their ministers than from vessels. We have a gospel to preach, not a gospel to make.

2. They are but earthen vessels. Some think here is an allusion to Gideons soldiers, who, advancing to battle in the night, took lamps in their earthen pitchers, with the glaring light of which, upon breaking the pitchers, the enemy was discomfited. By such unlikely methods is Christs cause carried on, and yet is victorious. Let us see why the ministers of the gospel are here compared to earthen vessels.

(1) They are made of the same mould with other people. All the children of men are earthen vessels; the body is the vessel of the soul, and it is of the earth, earthy. We are not only children of men, as you are, but we are by nature children of wrath, even as others.

(2) They are oftentimes, in respect of their outward condition, mean and low and of small account, as earthen vessels are not only men, but men of low degree, sons of earth, as the Hebrew phrase is. Their family, perhaps, like Gideons, poor in Manasseh. The first preachers of the gospel were poor fishermen–earthen vessels indeed–bred up to the sea.

(3) They are subject to many infirmities, to like passions as other men, and upon that account they are earthen vessels; they have their faults, their blemishes, as earthen vessels have.

(4) They are made of different sorts of earth, as earthen vessels are–all of the same nature, but not all of the same natural constitution. The bodies of some are of a stronger make, and more cut out for labour, while others are feeble, and soon foiled. But those of the finest mould, even the china vessels, are but earthen ones. A great deal of difference there is likewise between some and others of those earthen vessels in respect of natural temper; some are more bold, others more timorous; some more warm and eager, others more soft and gentle.

(5) They are of different shapes and sizes, as earthen vessels, notwithstanding which they may all receive and minister the treasure according to their different capacities.

(6) They are all what God, the great potter, makes them. Therefore we ought not to envy the gifts of those who excel us.

(7) They are all vessels of use and service in the family, though they are but earthen ones.

(8) They are oftentimes despised by men, notwithstanding the honour God has put upon them, and are thrown by as broken vessels in which is no pleasure. It has often been the lot of some of the most faithful ministers of Christ to be loaded with reproach.

(9) They are frail and mortal and dying, and upon that account they are earthen vessels. Thus the apostle explains it here: We which live are always delivered unto death. They are worn out with their labours, and are spent in the service of Christ and souls.

III. God has put the treasure of the gospel into earthen vessels that the divine power which goes along with the gospel may be so much the more glorified. The great design of the everlasting gospel is to bring men to fear God and give glory to Him. There was an excellency of power going along with the apostles which appeared to be of God, and not of themselves.

1. To strengthen them for the work they were employed in. To preach down Judaism and paganism, and to preach up the kingdom of a crucified Jesus, was a service that required a far greater strength, both of judgment and resolution, than the apostles had of themselves.

2. To support them under the hardships that were put upon them.

3. To give them success in that great work to which they were called.

Now for the application of this.

1. It may be many ways instructive to us who are ministers, and may remind us of our duty.

(1) Are we earthen vessels? Then we have reason to be very humble and low in our own eyes, and to take great care that we never think of ourselves above what is meet, but always think soberly.

(2) Are we earthen vessels? Then let us not be indulgent of our bodies, nor of their ease or appetites. What needs so much ado about an earthen vessel when, after all our pains about it, we cannot alter the property of it.

(3) Are we earthen vessels? Then let us not be empty vessels. A vessel of gold or silver is of considerable value though it be empty; but an earthen vessel, if empty, is good for little, but is thrown among the lumber.

(4) Are we earthen vessels? Then let us be clean vessels.

(5) Are we earthen vessels? Then let us take heed of dashing one against another, for nothing can be of more fatal consequence than that to earthen vessels–no, nor to the treasure that is deposited in them.

(6) Are we earthen vessels? Then let us bear reproach with patience, and not think it strange, or fret at it.

(7) Are we earthen vessels? Then let us often think of being broken and laid aside, and prepare accordingly.

2. This doctrine may be of use to you all. Are your ministers earthen vessels?

(1) Thank God for the gospel treasure, though it be put into earthen vessels–nay, thank God that it is in such vessels, that it may be the more within your reach.

(2) Esteem the earthen vessels for the treasures sake that is put into them.

(3) Bless God that the breaking of the earthen vessel is not the loss of the heavenly treasure. Ministers die, but the Word of the Lord endureth.

(4) Let the glory of all the benefits you have, or may have, by the ministry of the gospel be given to God–to Him only, to Him entirely–for from Him the excellency of the power is.

(5) Let the consideration of the frailty and mortality of your ministers quicken you to make a diligent improvement of their labours while they are continued with you. (Matthew Henry.)

The gospel treasure in earthen vessels

I. The excellency of the gospel. The gospel is described as a treasure for–

1. Its value. By some it is not estimated as a very great treasure; but let a man be convinced of sin, or be threatened with death, and he will prove its value.

(1) Is a Saviour of any value to the lost and the guilty? Why, this is a revelation of Christ and of salvation by Him.

(2) Is free favour of any value to the poor criminal, whereby the judge tells him the king has pardoned him? Then the gospel is precious to such a mind, for it is the gospel of the grace of God.

(3) Is life valuable to a dying man? Then the gospel is precious, for it is the word of life, and he that believeth it hath everlasting life.

(4) Is light valuable? This is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

(5) Is wisdom precious? All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are summed up in the gospel.

(6) Is not food precious? I have estimated the words of His lips more than my necessary food.

2. Its abundance. It is the glory of the gospel that in it atonement is complete. All the influence necessary to apply this gospel with Divine power to the heart is treasured up in Christ. When the Spanish ambassador was shown the treasures of St. Mark in Venice, he immediately groped to find the bottom of the treasure, and a page who was standing by said, In this my masters treasure excels yours–in that it has no bottom. So we say of the gospel. None have ever reached the depth and sufficiency of this heavenly treasure. Millions in all ages have received, and yet there is abundance. There are in it the riches of pardon, justification, sanctification, expectation; and hence proceeds satisfaction. A man is never satisfied till he enjoys the gospel.

3. Its duration. Riches and honour are with Me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. Other treasures make to themselves wings, and flee away. Does it announce mercy? The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. Does it speak of joy? The ransomed of the Lord shall come to Zion with everlasting joy upon their heads. Does it tell me of love? It is the everlasting love wherewith God has loved me. Does it tell me of strength which I am to receive? Well then, it is everlasting strength. Does it speak to me of salvation? Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Does it speak of the habitations beyond the grave? These are everlasting habitations.

II. The instruments who proclaim the gospel–earthen vessels. And ministers are so called for various reasons.

1. As to their origin.

2. As to the estimation in which they are held. They are received by the world only as earthen vessels–their poverty, their appearance. Pauls bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible. Moses said, I am not eloquent heretofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant. Amos was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. Peter was a fisherman, Matthew a publican, John Bunyan a tinker, Whitfield a servitor at college.

3. As to their bodily constitution. Are you sick and dying? So are we. Are you subject to infirmities? So are we. Earthen vessels are subject to knocks, to falls, and speedily to be broken; they last generally but a short time. This has been the case with some of the most eminent servants of Jesus Christ.

4. As to their usefulness. An earthen vessel is useful for reception and effusion. Something must be put in, and something must be poured out.

III. The reason why this treasure is given to such instruments to dispense. That the excellency of the power, etc. Now, this Divine power is almighty, and therefore not all the powers of hell, of prejudice, of error, of ignorance, of obstinacy and blindness, can stand before it. But it is not a power which subjects an individual against his own will, but it is the power of light discovering darkness to the mind; of mercy showing the way of escape from the wrath to come; of truth overcoming error and prejudice in the mind; of love silently yet effectually drawing the soul to attend to Christs voice. (J. Sherman.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels] The original, , signifies, more literally, vessels made of shells, which are very brittle; and as the shell is the outward part of a fish, it is very fit, as Dr. Hammond observes, to resemble our bodies in which our souls dwell. The Platonists make two bodies of a man: the one they call , the chariot of the soul; the other, that which we see and touch; and this they call which is the same to us as the shell is to the fish. The word not only signifies a shell, or vessel made of shell, but also , an earthen vessel which has been burnt in the kiln, and earthen vessels or pottery in general; the difference between , earthen ware, and , the potter’s vessel, is this: the latter implies the vessel as it comes out of the hands of the potter BEFORE it is burnt; and the other is the vessel AFTER it has passed through the kiln. St. Chrysostom, speaking of this difference, observes that the vessels once baked in the kiln, if broken, are incapable of being restored, , because of the hardness once gotten by fire; whereas the others are of clay unbaken, if they be spoiled , they may easily, by the skill of the potter, be restored to some second form. See Hammond. This comports excellently with the idea of St. Paul: our bodies are in a recoverable form: they are very frail, and easily marred; but by the skill of the workman they may be easily built up anew, and made like unto his glorious body. The light and salvation of God in the soul of man is a heavenly treasure in a very mean casket.

The rabbins have a mode of speech very similar to this. “The daughter of the emperor thus addressed Rabbi Joshua, the son of Chananiah: O! how great is thy skill in the law, and yet how deformed thou art! what a great deal of wisdom is laid up in a sordid vessel! The rabbi answered, Tell me, I pray thee, of what are those vessels in which you keep your wines? She answered, They are earthen vessels. He replied, How is it, seeing ye are rich, that ye do not lay up your wine in silver vessels, for the common people lay up their wine in earthen vessels? She returned to her father, and persuaded him to have all the wine put into silver vessels; but the wine turned acid; and when the emperor heard it he inquired of his daughter who it was that had given her that advice? She told him that it was Rabbi Joshua. The rabbi told the whole story to the emperor, and added this sentence: The wisdom and study of the law cannot dwell in a comely man. Caesar objected, and said, There are comely persons who have made great progress in the study of the law. The rabbi answered, Had they not been so comely they would have made greater progress; for a man who is comely has not an humble mind, and therefore he soon forgets the whole law.” See Schoettgen. There is a great deal of good sense in this allegory; and the most superficial reader may find it out.

That the excellency of the power may be of God; and not of us.] God keeps us continually dependent upon himself; we have nothing but what we have received, and we receive every necessary supply just when it is necessary; and have nothing at our own command. The good therefore that is done is so evidently from the power of God, that none can pretend to share the glory with him.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

By the treasure here mentioned, the apostle meaneth either his ministration, or apostolical office, which he before had proved glorious, more glorious than that of the law; or else, that light of the knowledge of the glory of God, which (as he had before said) God had made to shine into their hearts in the face of Jesus Christ. This treasure (saith he) we, even we that are the apostles of the Lord, have in our souls, which are clothed with bodies; and these not made of iron, or stone, or any other matter not capable of impressions of violence, but made of earth, like earthen pots or shells, that easily receive impressions of violence, and are presently broken in pieces.

That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us; that the world may see, that whatsoever powerful effects are wrought by us, they are the work of the excellent power of God; not done by us, but by him; that he, not we, might have all the glory.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

7. “Lest any should say,How then is it that we continue to enjoy such unspeakable gloryin a mortal body? Paul replies, this very fact is one of the mostmarvellous proofs of God’s power, that an earthen vessel could bearsuch splendor and keep such a treasure” [CHRYSOSTOM,Homilies, 8.496, A]. The treasure or “the light of theknowledge of the glory of God.” The fragile “earthenvessel” is the body, the “outward man” (2Co4:16; compare 2Co 4:10),liable to afflictions and death. So the light in Gideon’s pitchers,the type (Jdg 7:16-20;Jdg 7:22). The ancients often kepttheir treasures in jars or vessels of earthenware. “There areearthen vessels which yet may be clean; whereas a golden vessel maybe filthy” [BENGEL].

that the excellency of thepower, c.that the power of the ministry (the HolySpirit), in respect to its surpassing “excellency,”exhibited in winning souls (1Co 2:4)and in sustaining us ministers, might be ascribed solely to God, webeing weak as earthen vessels. God often allows the vessel to bechipped and broken, that the excellency of the treasure contained,and of the power which that treasure has, may be all His (2Co 4:102Co 4:11; Joh 3:30).

may be of God . . . not ofusrather, as Greek, “may be God’s (may beseen and be thankfully [2Co 4:15]acknowledged to belong to God), and not (to come) fromus.” The power not merely comes from God, but belongsto Him continually, and is to be ascribed to him.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But we have, this treasure in earthen vessels,…. This is a further commendation of the Gospel; and by which the apostle removes an objection against it, taken from the cross and persecutions that attend it, and the outward meanness of the ministers of it. The Gospel is called a “treasure”, for not grace, nor Christ, but the Gospel is here meant; which is so styled, because it contains rich truths, and an abundance of them; comparable to gold, silver, and precious stones, for the price of them, their antiquity, distance of place from whence they come, and their duration; because it has in it rich blessings, spiritual ones, the blessings of the new covenant, solid, substantial, and irreversible ones, and a fulness of them; and because it consists of exceeding great and precious promises, of more worth than thousands of gold and silver; free, absolute, and unconditional ones, which are yea and amen in Christ, and relate both to this, and the other world; and also because it exhibits and shows forth to us the riches of God and of Christ, of grace and of glory; which are unsearchable, substantial, satisfying, and durable: the repository, or cabinet, in which this treasure is, are “earthen vessels”; by which are meant, ministers of the word, who are so in themselves, in their own esteem, and in the esteem of others; probably the apostle might have in view La 3:2. The doctors and scholars among the Jews are compared hereunto;

“says R. Eleazar p, to what is a disciple of a wise man like, in the esteem of a man of the world? at first he is like to a golden cup; when he has conversed with him, he is like to a silver cup; and when he has received any profit by him, he is like , “to an earthen cup”, which, when broken, cannot be repaired again: the law (say they) is not confirmed but by him, who makes himself

, “as an earthen vessel” q: R. Joshua r was a great man in the king’s palace, and he was deformed; wherefore Caesar’s daughter said, wisdom is beautiful

, “in an ugly vessel”; and he brought her a simile in proof of it from wine, which is not kept in a silver vessel.”

The allusion is either to the earth itself, in which treasure lies, or is hid, and out of which it is dug; or to pots and vessels made of earth, into which treasure has been used to be put; or to earthen pitchers, in which lights or lamps were formerly carried; see Jud 7:16 where Gideon’s three hundred men, are said to have empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers; they carried lamps with them to give them light, it being night when they went into the camp of Midian; and those they put into pitchers, that the Midianites might not perceive them afar off, as a Jewish commentator well observes s; in like manner the Gospel put into earthen vessels is a glorious light to some, whilst it is hidden to others: yea, even lamps themselves were no other than earthen vessels, in which light was put; for so says Maimonides t, a lamp, a burning light, is

, “an earthen vessel”, like a reed; and on the top of it is a little ear, which joins to it; and when it is made, a piece of old cloth is put upon the burning oil, and it continues in it; also an earthen vessel is made, in which there is a hollow place for to set the light in, and in it is gathered all that flows from the oil out of the light; and it is strengthened about the head of the candlestick, that the brass might not be hurt by the oil; and this vessel is called the house in which the light subsides, or the receptacle of the light; and which receptacle, another of the Misnic commentators says u, is an earthen vessel, made to put the light in; and the lamp, he also says, is like an earthen platter, sharp pointed below, c. and this allusion well agrees with the context, in which the Gospel is represented as a glorious light, shining in darkness, 2Co 4:4. The Greek word , the apostle uses, signifies also “shells of fishes” and in like manner does Philo the Jew w compare the human body;

“I am (says he) very little concerned for this mortal body which is about me, and cleaves to me , “like the shell of a fish”; though it is hurt by everyone.”

And the reference may be to pearls, which are said to have been found in such shells, particularly in oysters; and is designed to express, either the frail mortal bodies of the ministers of the Gospel, comparable to brittle shells; or baked earth; or rather the outward mean despicable condition of the apostles, and preachers of the word; being men of no figure in the world, for birth, learning, or outward grandeur; and being attended with sinful infirmities also, as other men; and more especially as they were labouring under reproaches, afflictions, and persecutions, for the sake of the Gospel; see Jer 32:14. The reason why it pleased God to put such a rich and valuable treasure into the hands of persons so mean and contemptible was,

that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us: that is, that it might appear that the making of such persons ministers of the word was not of themselves, was not owing to their natural abilities, or to any diligence and industry, and acquirements of their own, or to any instructions they had received from others, but to the grace of God, and the effectual working of his power; and that the success which attended their ministrations in the conversion of sinners, and building up of saints, could only be ascribed to the exceeding greatness of divine power; and that the supporting of them in their work, under all the persecutions raised against them, and opposition made unto them, could be attributed to nothing else; of which power, instances are given in the following verses.

p T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 52. 2. q Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 4. 2. r Juchasin, fol. 33. 2. s Laniado in Judg. vii, 16. t In Misn. Celim, c. 2. sect. 8. u Bartenora in ib. w De Joseph. p. 536.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

This treasure ( ). On see Mt 6:19-21. It is the power of giving the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God (verse 6). “The power is limitless, but it is stored in very unlikely receptacles” (Plummer). This warning Paul gives in contrast () with the exultation of verse 6 (Bernard).

In earthen vessels ( ). This adjective is common in the LXX with , and . It occurs again in 2Ti 2:20 with . It is found also in the papyri with as here. It is from , baked clay (same root as , bone), so many fragments of which are found in Egypt with writing on them. We are but earthen jars used of God for his purposes (Ro 9:20ff.) and so fragile.

The exceeding greatness ( ). See on 1Co 12:31 for this word, “the preeminence of the power.” This is God’s purpose (—). God, not man, is the

dynamo (). It comes from God ( , ablative) and does not originate with us ( ).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

This treasure. The divine light which is the guide and inspiration of the apostolic ministry.

In earthen vessels [ ] . The adjective occurs only here and 2Ti 2:10. Herodotus says of the king of Persia : “The great king stores away the tribute which he receives after this fashion : he melts it down, and, while it is in a liquid state, runs it into earthen vessels, which are afterward removed, leaving the metal in a solid mass” (iii., 96). Stanley cites the story of a Rabbi who was taunted with his mean appearance by the emperor ‘s daughter, and who replied by referring to the earthen vessels in which her father kept his wines. At her request the wine was shifted to silver vessels, whereupon it turned sour. Then the Rabbi observed that the humblest vessels contained the highest wisdom. The idea of light in earthen vessels is, however, best illustrated in the story of the lambs and pitchers of Gideon, Jud 7:16. In the very breaking of the vessel the light is revealed.

Excellency [] . Lit., a throwing beyond. Hence preeminence, excellence. See on exceeding, Rom 7:13. Rev. renders exceeding greatness. The reference is to the fullness of power apparent in the apostolic ministry.

Of God – of us [ – ] . The A. V. misses the difference between the two expressions. Of God is belonging to God; God ‘s property : from [] is proceeding from ourselves. Rev., of God – from ourselves.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,” (echomen deton thesauron touton en ostrakinois skeuesin) “and we have this treasure in earthenware vessels;” this treasure of light, the living Christ, and the Holy Spirit of covenant promise, 1Jn 4:13; Rom 5:5; Rom 8:14-16. Tho the earthly vessel be weak it bears precious treasure, 1Co 2:3-5.

2) “That the excellency f the power,” (hina he huperbole tes dunameos) “In order that the excellency of the dynamic power;” Rom 1:16. The saving, transforming, sustaining power, Joh 1:11-12.

3) “May be of God,” (e tou theou) “may be of God,” as an energizing source, or origin of source, may be seen to be of God, 2Co 3:5.

4) “And not of us,” (kai me eks hemon) “and not out of us,” or not originating in us, Eph 2:8-9; Joh 1:13.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

7. But we have this treasure. Those that heard Paul glorying in such a magnificent strain as to the excellence of his ministry, and beheld, on the other hand, his person, contemptible and abject in the eyes of the world, might be apt to think that he was a silly and ridiculous person, and might look upon his boasting as childish, while forming their estimate of him from the meanness of his person. (464) The wicked, more particularly, caught hold of this pretext, when they wished to bring into contempt every thing that was in him. What, however, he saw to be most of all unfavorable to the honor of his Apostleship among the ignorant, he turns by an admirable contrivance into a means of advancing it. First of all, he employs the similitude of a treasure, which is not usually laid up in a splendid and elegantly adorned chest, but rather in some vessel that is mean and worthless; (465) and then farther, he subjoins, that the power of God is, by that means, the more illustrated, and is the better seen. “Those, who allege the contemptible appearance of my person, with the view of detracting from the dignity of my ministry, are unfair and unreasonable judges, for a treasure is not the less valuable, that the vessel, in which it is deposited, is not a precious one. Nay more, it is usual for great treasures to be laid up in earthen pots. Farther, they do not consider, that it is ordered by the special Providence of God, that there should be in ministers no appearance of excellence, lest any thing of distinction should throw the power of God into the shade. As, therefore, the abasement of ministers, and the outward contempt of their persons give occasion for glory accruing to God, that man acts a wicked part, who measures the dignity of the gospel by the person of the minister.”

Paul, however, does not speak merely of the universal condition of mankind, but of his own condition in particular. It is true, indeed, that all mortal men are earthen vessels Hence, let the most eminent of them all be selected, and let him be one that is adorned to admiration with all ornaments of birth, intellect, and fortune, (466) still, if he be a minister of the gospel, he will be a mean and merely earthen depository of an inestimable treasure Paul, however, has in view himself, and others like himself, his associates, who were held in contempt, because they had nothing of show.

(464) “ Ils le iugeoyent selon l’apparence de sa personne, qui estoit petite et contemptible;” — “They judged of him according to the appearance of his person, which was small and contemptible.”

(465) “The term σκεῦος ( vessel), from σχέω to hold, has an allusion to the body’s being the depository of the soul. ́̓Οστρακον properly signifies a shell, (of which material, probably, the primitive vessels were formed,) and, 2dly, a vessel, of baked earth. And as that is proverbially brittle, ὀστράκιος denoted weak, fragile, both in a natural and a metaphorical sense; and therefore was very applicable to the human body, both as frail, and as mean. ” — Bloomfield. — Ed.

(466) “ De tous ornamens, de race, d’esprit, de richesses, et toutes autres choses semblables;” — “With all ornaments of birth, intellect, riches, and all other things of a like nature.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

2Co. 4:8.Pressed for room, and still having room (Stanley). Perplexed, but not utterly perplexed (Beet). Apparent, not real, contradiction to 2Co. 1:8 (same word).

2Co. 4:9.Pursued in our flight, but not left behind as a prey to our pursuers; struck down (as with a dart, or thrown down as in wrestling), yet not perishing (Stanley).

2Co. 4:10. Dying.Note margin. See under 2Co. 1:5 for the thought.

2Co. 4:11. Live.In more than the physical sense. See, a few months later, first clause of this verse exemplified at Corinth (Act. 20:3).

2Co. 4:12.Might almost personify, and write Death, Life. The preachers daily felt themselves sinking into the grave [query, rather being led by a Via Dolorosa to a cross on a Calvary]; and their daily deliverance was daily working eternal life among their converts (Beet). The thoughts recur in 1Co. 4:8-10 and Php. 1:19.

2Co. 4:13.The same (Holy) Spirit of faith as is implied in the thought of Psa. 116:10, LXX. [Perowne says this is an impossible rendering of the Hebrew. He submits

(1) I believe when I speak, i.e. when I break forth into the complaint which follows in the next clause; but he prefers

(2) I believeemphatic, i.e. I do believe, I have been taught trust in God by painful experiencefor I must speakI must confess it, I, even I (pronoun emphatic), was greatly afflicted; I myself, etc. The Psalmist declares that he stays himself upon God (I believe), for he had looked to himself and there had seen nothing but weakness; he had looked to other men, and found them all deceitful, treacherous as a broken reed.] Is there anything more intended than a happy quotation of a familiar phrase, quite apart from its correctness as representing the Hebrew? Nothing depends on that correctness, though in some phrases of the context in the Psalm there is an appropriateness to Pauls peril and deliverance. As it stands in the LXX., the phrase happily expresses a very great principle.

2Co. 4:14. With Jesus.Not by, or, as often, in, but exactly along with, as 1Th. 4:14. More than sharing His condition (Stanley). More truly Beet says: Since our resurrection is a result of Christs resurrection, wrought by the same power, in consequence of our present spiritual union with Christ, and is part of that heritage which we share with Christ, Paul overlooks the separation in time, and thinks of his own resurrection and Christs as one Divine act.

2Co. 4:15. All (these) things.If I live such a life, it is in order that there may be more souls partaking of the grace, and then the more to thank God for it. Similar to 2Co. 1:11 and 2Co. 9:12-14.

2Co. 4:16. The inward man.Same original as the inner man in Eph. 3:16, or Rom. 7:22; but hardly in the same sense; the moral aspect is there prominent, here only the immaterial character of it. So renewed is not prominently the moral renewal of Col. 3:10.

2Co. 4:17.Note the While.If we cease to look, it ceases to work. This verse helps to fix exegetically the meaning of eternal. If Restoration were a certainty in the ultimate future for the lost, they might in hell quote 2Co. 4:17-18. Dean Plumptre wrote to Archdeacon Farrar: I have never been able to attach any great importance to the discussions which have turned upon the meaning of the word . I cannot, on philological grounds, agree with Mr. Maurice in thinking that our Lords teaching in Joh. 17:3 excludes from it the idea of duration, and the whole history of the word shows that it cannot of itself denote, though it may suggest, the idea of endlessness. [Spirits in Prison, p. 338. He repeats all this expressly, p. 336 (in an essay ad hoc).]

HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.2Co. 4:7-18

I. The outer life of an apostle (2Co. 4:7-12).

1. A distressed life;
2. A vicarious life.

II. The inner life of an apostle (2Co. 4:13-18).

3. A believing life;
4. A victorious life.

Who is in the succession?

I.

1. Distressed.

(1) Not an unmixed good to get too vivid or realistic a view of the externals of the earthly life of Jesus. [See Homily, Knowing Christ after the flesh (2Co. 5:16).] It is a great, and unmixed, good to realise the externals of Pauls life. Troubled, perplexed, persecuted, cast down, to a readers heart, and for the purposes of his practical encouragement, gain very helpful force, if from (say) the Acts, read with such instructive side-lights as in 2Co. 6:3-10, these words be filled out by the realising imagination. Persecuted, e.g., falls lightly from the lips of a reader, and only lightly impresses the attention of the hearers. But it should be remembered how from the day of his conversion Paul was the object of persistent, deep, malicious, murderous hatred, which never relaxed its pursuit until his head fell beneath the sword of the executioner, somewhere on the Appian Way. [It was really Jewish persecution which led to his journey on appeal to Rome; the influence of Poppa, the wife of Nero, and a Jewish proselyte, was possibly one of the factors which made his imprisonment to end in death.] Hunted out from city to city. Not safe for long together anywhere. Smuggled out of Damascus by night; hurried secretly away from Thessalonica [to Athens (Act. 17:14)]; stoning attempted (Act. 14:5) or actually accomplished (ib. 19); and the examples in the Acts are only the cases which happen to be mentioned, out of an unrecorded mass of facts illustrative of this word. [Just before this time (Act. 19:31); a little after it (Act. 20:3).] He was the fox hunted from hole to hole; the bird of the air not suffered to shelter long in even a temporary nest. Very graphic (see Critical Notes) are the other words. Troubled [tribulated; it is, radically, the word so frequent in chap. 1] in everything, at all points, perpetually under the threshing-drag; within him, as well as around him, were the instruments, or the occasions of, perpetual, crushing pressure. [One thinks of the martyrdoms by crushing between boards or plates of iron, under heavy weights. There are daily martyrdoms, not suffered just once, for a short, sharp hour or two of agony, and then done with, but prolonged through a lifetime of distress. See the crowding, pushing, pressing, choking cares of his life graphically illustrated, Luk. 8:45 (cognate word), as also in Mar. 5:24; Mar. 5:31.] To the very limit of endurance. [Patience in its New Testament sense of pressing on, bearing up, is the counterpart of this pressure.] Perplexed. What next? Where next? Hemmed in; where is the way of escape? At our wits end; what is the wise and right thing to do? Is there anything that can be done? And this when something must be done; for time is slipping on, circumstances are closing in around, the last door of escape will soon be closed up. Yet what to do? To see advancing trouble or disaster draw nearer and nearer, yet to stand hanging down helpless hands. Cast down; thrown in the wrestle, struck down in the conflict [as Christian by Apollyon in the Valley of Humiliation]; lifted, in the strong grip of circumstances or of the Tempter himself, clean off ones feet, off ones foothold on the promises and faithfulness of God; blow following on blow, buffet raised on buffet in quick succession; facts arising in fertile crop, which seem to compel doubts and questions that it is an agony to be obliged to entertain, even though only that they may be dismissed; until all strength to fight on, or even to follow on, seems lost. Reason, trust, hope, sinking, stricken down by the quick succession of staggering facts, in even the providential path; or of disheartening circumstances in the work of God. Every reader adapts to his own special circumstances the words of Paul; they are a frame which will hold many a picture of a distressed life. It is as much his personal, as his official, life which is in question. [

(2) In it we meet the time-old, world-wide fact, and the problem which is at its heart,how scant a recognition the greatest men of their time get; how often the truest benefactors are unrecognised; how often, indeed, goodness, and the holiest life, are only recognised to be met with rebuff, to be made to suffer; how they are persecuted even to the death. This alone is, of course, no complete or adequate account of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, but, at the least, it is an account which falls in with and exemplifies this law. If Gods people do not really serve Him for nought, at least they do not serve Him for what the earthly life has to give. [Some lives only show their full beauty when distressed. The incense only gives out its full savour when cast upon the burning coals.] What is the rationale of persecution? For no man ever seriously entertained the thought of changing opinion by external, or physical, compulsion. There has been an element of political, governmental action in much persecution of Christianity. In the Roman Empire religiones illicit were always obnoxious to the State. The necessary, regulative effect of Christianity upon the action and conduct of its professors has sometimes inevitably involved disobedience to some State legislation, and very much oftener a disconformity to the informal, social, customary legislation of the world in which they were citizens. To any form of absolute government, individualism, particularly such as seems aggressive and in conflict with the established order, is a thing to be repressed, if it cannot be destroyed. But this by no means accounts for all persecution, even organised and quasi-governmental. It by no means explains the elaborated ingenuity of cruelty in punishment which is no necessary accompaniment of (even mistaken) justice. It by no means explains the elaborately ingenious and the subtly invented pain inflicted, in cases of personal, as distinguished from quasi-official, persecution. One sentence of Paul is a summary formula for the answer to the question proposed. As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now (Gal. 4:29). John traces the matter further back. In the Book of OriginsGenesishe sees in the slaying of Abel by Cain his brother the origin and first example of the deep, innate, inevitable, murderous antipathy between the world and the children of God (1Jn. 3:12). The Roman State persecuted the Church; the heathen state in Madagascar persecuted the Christian community; the Romish Church persecuted its fellow-Christian Albigenses and Vaudois; the Greek Church persecutes its fellow-Christians and fellow-subjects, the Stundists; Episcopal Church government persecuted Presbyterian, or Quaker, or Methodist nonconformity; in the same congregation, the laxworldlysection if in the majority, will give practical, painful, penal effect to its dislike of the spiritual minority; in the same household, the world pursues the Church with its effective, pain-dealing dislike. It is, in fact, the same world everywhere, though it may be a baptized world called a Church or a section of one, hating the spiritual; it is the same natural heart everywhere, which cannot simply be indifferent to, and leave alone, the spiritual, the pure, the holy, the Divine. The mere contrast is exasperating; it arouses antagonism; the antagonism becomes active. And, finally, the deep underlying animal or devil, of which there is too much in every natural heart, may make its persecution the occasion to display its love of inflicting and witnessing pain. In much persecution there has been seen that streak of the cruel, of the savage, which is a possibility of universal human nature, apart from the grace of God.]

2. Vicarious. All things are for your sakes.

(1) Living for others. Except this corn of wheat had fallen into the ground and died, it would have abode alone. Paul must be killed daily, so that Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippian gaolers, Lystran Timothys (Act. 14:5; Act. 14:19; Act. 16:1-2; 2Ti. 3:11; ib. 2Co. 1:8; 2Co. 1:12; 2Co. 2:1-2; 2Co. 3:12; 2Co. 2:11-13; a Bible-reading in germ), may have life. Through death to life is the law for a mans own life. If a man will live for himself, introverting upon himself all thought and actionwill save his life for himselfhe will lose it and die. [There is no life that can more utterly be selfishness and death than that of self-culture.] Through the death of one to the life of others is the law for the life of all. Christs death the highest exemplification of this, though it is unique qu the link of connection between His death and our life; there is no analogy in this between the solitary case of Christ and the common cases of ordinary mankind, though both may be stated in terms of the same great law. For your sakes. Not for Pauls own? Certainly. They no doubt had a sanctifying and sanctified efficacy in the training and development of his own Christian life. [Below, they are seen, at the least, dissolving the tabernacle, and working out the exceeding weight of glory for him.] But in the fulness of his Christlikeness of affection, he for the moment sees this no longer; it disappears out of all reckoning. He approximates very closely to Him Who could alone say with full and exact truth, All things are for your sakes. [On lower planes of illustration are seen instances of the same law at work. Some must sacrifice the sorely needed rest of the Sabbath, that others may hear the Gospel and find life on the Sabbath. Any life which is to be a blessing and a comfort and a joy in a family, must be continually putting aside its own work or plans or ease, giving itself up to others, and indeed, in its highest types, be laying itself out with loving ingenuity, to contrive the pleasure or the convenience of others. Birth, in many ways, and in many instances, means death to the giver of the new life. No man permanently blesses his race with even new thought, except by sore pangs of mental labour. Etc.] For your sake. So that in two directions Pauls life is the very opposite of self-centered; Christwardto me to live is Christ; manwardall for your sakes [cf. beside ourselves to God; sober for your cause (2Co. 4:13)]. Poised between, pointing toward, these two poles, the Paul who hangs central between them is forgotten!

(2) Especially, suffering for others. So, probably, 2Co. 4:12. The daily dying is the priceby him thankfully paidfor their daily life. (To extend Alfords remark:) God shows death in the living in order that he may through them awaken and show life in the dying. Yet, as if an instinctive perception, that vicarious dying in its fullest sense was the propriety of Christ alone, guarded his language, where it trod on the very precipice-edge of error, he never says, We die for you, or for your sakes. Only this: We are delivered daily unto death for Jesus sake. [Farrar does indeed paraphrase: So then death is working in usseeing that for Christs sake and for your sakes we die dailybut life in you. The trials are mainly ours; the blessings yours.] [The vicarious idea (in an inexact sense of the word) is suggested in 2Co. 4:5-7. The Gospellers have themselves been illumined, as from a central fount of Light, that so in their turn they may show light to, and shed light upon, other dark hearts. They are filledearthen vessels though they bewith treasure, in order that they may make many rich. Or as some see the picture in the words, they are the soldiers of a greater captain than Gideon, carrying each of them his light in his earthen pitcher. But earthen then conveys no thought of disparity between means used and ends accomplished, between contents and vessel; yet such a disparity seems required by the concluding clause of 2Co. 4:7.]

II.

3. Believing.

(1) With the same faith, begotten of the same Spirit of faith, which prompted, and breathes in, the declaration of the Psalmist. The whole drift of Hebrews 11 is to exhibit this real unity of the principle of faith, through all the ages and dispensations. Believers are all of a pattern; they conform to a distinctly marked and permanent type, to whatever Church they belong, in whatever age they live, how much or how little soever of light they have upon the matters for which they exercise faith, and upon Him Who, to them all, is the Object towards which faith directs itself, and on which, having reached It, faith rests. It may have the distinctly Gospel colouring and character, but that is rather gained from the matter with which it is concerned. Concerned with providential things, or with distinctly evangelical, faiths hand is in either case subdued unto the colour of the thing it works upon, but it is the same hand, and the same grasp upon the same God. [Indeed, it is specially noteworthy how, e.g., the faith of Noah is declared to have won for him a grace which is described in a very Pauline phrase, Became heir of the righteousness which is of God by faith. And so in other instances. The examples of Hebrews 11 are in the closest connection with the critical points of the developing history of Redemption,the nodes in the growing stem, at which miracles (and prophecy) and faith all blossom in fullest profusion.] Old Testament psalmist, New Testament apostle, both belong to the same set; [they are of the true Abrahamic stock;] they are believers. In every age, and in every sense, does Gods just man live by faith. In every age, in every believer, faiths activity conforms to the general formula of Heb. 11:1; it makes things hoped for and future to be working realities, assumed, taken for granted, in all reckoning and action in the present; it makes things unseen into elements and factors in the daily life, as powerful and as real as the things seen. [So 2Co. 4:18.] Indeed, God and His word of faithful promise are more certainly assured conditions of lifes problem, than are man and his character or words. [E.g. the purpose and the protection of God are more potent considerations than is the wrath of Pharoah (Heb. 11:27).] Begotten of the same Spirit. Exegesis, and the whole strain of Scripture, growing clearer as the Pentecostal age advances, require the S. Faith is not natural to the human heart; it is induced; it is the Spirits grace. No better, surer proof of this than the fluctuations in its strength, of which every believer is conscious. So unreasonable are they; and yet so little amenable to, or to be put away by, reasoning. After all the experiment of a long lifetime, with its resulting, accumulated experience, what more logical than hope? (Rom. 5:4). What more reasonable, and right, than that the One Friend Who has never failed His people in any slightest particular; Whose resources of wisdom and power, and Whose love and character, have, absolutely without exception, always responded adequately to every demand made upon them by mans need and faith; should be met with a perfectly restful trust? And yet, no! After years of accumulated experience; in the very presence of a great deliverance; with the very greatest mercy only a recent memory; still the heart, ungratefully, illogically, will doubt and be distressed, as if it were only beginning to learn the lesson of faith, instead of being already a lifelong pupil. Faith is a gift, a grace, to be used and cultivated by man, but needing to be created by Gods Spirit. Whatever grieves the Spirit weakens faith.

(2) The immediate object of Pauls faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is accepted by faith as a fact; its consequences are also a fact to faith. In His being raised is contained and involved the further miracle that Paul and his fellows shall be raised up also. The daily deliverance from the daily, deadly peril is involved in it too. That peril is a foretaste of death; the life, thus daily guarded and renewed, is, in principle and in foretaste, a real raising up again. Whether in now daily renewing and preserving that life, or in raising it up from the grave hereafter, He Who is the God of Pauls life is really doing one and the same great work. The daily deliverance is a simple corollary of the truth that the eternal life, in which resurrection is just one episode and incident, is already begun, and is to be kept unto the Day. Faith accepts the premissChrists resurrectionas fact; faith draws the inference, with its own sure logic; and accepts, and rests in the consequencePaul shall be raised up. This strength of assurance affects his whole life; in its every expression of character. Such a faith, resting on such a God, stiffens the man; puts a backbone into him. When Paul speaks he uses great boldness of speech; he does not need to speak in equivoque or doubt, with bated breath or qualified certainty, or in adulterated Gospel. [He is a preacher who preaches not doubts, or speculations, or hopes, but what to him are certaintiesI believe, therefore have I spoken.] And so, finally,

4. Victorious.

(1) The earthen vessel is troubled, is perplexed, is persecuted, is cast down; it always bears about the dying of Jesus; it perishes; naturally it would faint. Yet it is not distressed, nor in despair, nor forsaken, nor destroyed; the treasure enriches many; the words are bold, with a confidence victorious over doubt or any human and unworthy motive whatever; it looks away from the seen and temporal to the unseen and eternal; it pursues its way, in the midst of all and in the face of all, accounting all as but the momentary lightness of our affliction. It is, on the one side, the victory of the vessel of frailest earthen mould and material; on the other, it is the victory of the resurrection-working power of God. The excellency of the power which works the daily wonder, guarantees, and will by-and by make real, the weight of glory which grows from excellency to excellency. [Same words. Note also 2Co. 1:8.] The eternal victory is but the present daily victory writ large.

(2) Not distressed; there is always the way of escape. The close-hemming foesmen and circumstancesare never suffered to complete and close up their environing circle. The threshing-roller has its limit of weight; our strength of patient endurance is always just a little more than the heaped-up burdens. Frail as is the vessel, it is always made strong enough for its purpose. Not in despair; the word is alway heard; I have given thee the valley of Achor for a door of hope (Hos. 2:15); somehow it is always possible for the pilgrims to walk out of Giant Despairs castle; they have a master key for every door. Not forsaken; the army of Christ has no stragglers who are left behind to perish; the weakest, who falls out of the ranks when the pursuit is hot, is never abandoned. The Captain Himself is the rear-guard for His host. Not destroyed; the touch of mother earth, when they are stricken down or thrown in the wrestle, seems to set them, Antus-like, on their feet again. The wrestler is flung upon the ground, but never appeals in vain to his King and Master, Who from His throne is watching the struggle; it is not He Who, with thumb turned down, will leave him to his adversary and his fate.

(3) Worketh out. Which is more than merely victory, and much more than deliverance. It is the strain of the pan of Rom. 8:37, more than conquerors. The trials have helped the afflicted man. He has not only been through them, but on them has levied contribution toward his best welfare. He has not only escaped, but they have helped and enriched him. One more such victory, and I am ruined, cried Pyrrhus. There have been to this conqueror, Paul, no victories only less calamitous than defeats. Conquerors! More than conquerors!

(4) Whilst we look. [Whilst Peter looked at His Master, he could tread the waves; they bore him toward his Master.] Let a man become secular in temper and view and outlook, he will soon find that lifes burdens are becoming crushing in their weight. If he focus (as the photographer says) for the near, the distant will become faint and indistinct. To get his picture right, he must focus by the things eternal. He focusses for an unseen object, but the earthly, temporal foreground somehow always thus comes right. In lifes scheme and picture all is then in due and true proportion and definition.

SEPARATE HOMILIES

2Co. 4:2. The Sphere of the Pulpit.Commending ourselves to every mans conscience. Of all who teach the religious teacher occupies the highest position. Others are giving in the school the lessons whose actualisation shall be the principles and habits and conduct of the men of the coming generation. They have to do with mind, and that in its most impressible condition. They may give to very much of the stream of the worlds moral and social life a tinge and a direction, as they please. But the religious teacher ought to be, might beevery faithful one isone who deals with the conscience.

I. With the conscience in every man.Without the physical senses, I could never feel my connection with this material system,the green earth beneath my feet, and the blue heavens that encircle me, would be nothing without these; so without this conscience, this moral sense, I could have no idea either of moral government or God. Had you no conscience, I might as well endeavour to give to one that is born blind and deaf the idea of beauty and sweet sounds, as to give you the idea of duty and God. To this the religious teacher appeals. Expect him to appeal to it. Honour him in proportion as he does.

1. There is a ministry which reaches the conscience through the passions.Hope and fear are appealed to; emotions are stirred, tears flow; the fear of wrath leads up to a sense of sin and guilt. There is a ministry which aims at the imagination. Beauty is the idea. Whatever in thought or form, in sentiment or style, will please the taste or charm the fancy are freely introduced. Truth is cast into sonorous periods, and presented in poetic pictures. No reason why not, if only all be consecrated to the use of reaching, in order to awaken, the conscience. The attention must first be arrested, somehow; else the preacher is a dead failure. The wrong is done, when the catching and satisfying of the imagination becomes in itself the goal of the aim of the preacher, and the only desire of the hearer. So of the ministry which aims mainly at the intellect. Verbal criticism, philosophic discussions, subtle distinctions, ingenious hypotheses, are the staple of its discourses, with the accompanying danger that the whole should be exclusively an intellectual performance. Commending ourselves to every mans intellect, by all means. Religion has nothing to fearrevealed doctrine has nothing to fearfrom fair, sober, reasonable reason and intellectual scrutiny. But neither the preacher nor the hearer should be satisfied if the intellectual exercise and the satisfaction it gives, be all. This should be made one of the approaches, one of the parallels, by which the spiritual engineer seeks to get near, that so he may seize the stronghold of the conscience for his Master, Christ. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal (2Co. 10:4); the aims must not be carnal either. In the day of his success and gathered applause and goodwill, let the preacher ask, Did I aim at, did I reach, the conscience? In the day of his failure, and accompanying despondency, let him pray that the poor performance mayperhaps the better for its povertyhave reached a conscience. Let the hearer ask for a preacher who is mighty with the conscience.

2. Every mans conscience.The torpid; those that have never been awakened, or who, having been once aroused, have relapsed into insensibility again. Unhappily the most commonly occurring condition of the conscience. Turn over the pages of universal history; look the world through; search its literature, institutions, trades, professions, amusements; you see the flames of passion reddening the sky of ages; the creations of the imagination filling the horizon; the inventions of genius, the theories of intellect, piled mountains high on every hand; but the activity of Conscience all but absent and unknown. The alarmed and guilty conscience, with its fear of wrath, vain struggles against the tyranny of Sin, all the experiences of Romans 7, consciousness of accumulating transgression, and so of accumulating guilt. The peaceful, victorious conscience. From which the sense of guilt has been removed; which has won a conquest over all the inner antagonists of the soul; which soul has ascended the throne within the man, grasped the sceptre, and is ever carrying out the will of God, and rejoicing in God through Christ, by Whom it has received the Atonement. For each of these the true pulpit must have its message; the true Christian teacher is the man who has the word for each, which it at once recognises as the message from God, just adapted to its necessity.

II. Through the medium of the truth.Paul saw truth everywhere, breathing in pagan systems, sparkling in philosophic speculations, circulating in the general current of common language and common life. But to his mind, The Truththat which humanity wanted to raise it from its fallen statethe sin-correcting, soul-saving truth, was this: The special revelation of God developed in the teaching, embodied in the life, illustrated and concentrated and energised in the death, of Christ. This central Truth alone could uncover in daylight the awful heavens of being, and bless with new life and beauty this fallen earth. Paul could move, he knew, the conscience of his age by this potent instrument. With this he was an Archimedes who could move a world. Truth as truth is in Jesus (Eph. 4:21).

III. As under the felt inspection of Almighty God.Paul set the Lord always before him; he toiled and suffered as seeing Him Who is invisible. This abiding consciousness of the Divine inspection would remove three hindrances to the work of the preacher.

1. Man fear. By all means let the preacherevery thoughful man willhave a deep awe as he stands in the presence of souls, every one of them an heir of the interminable hereafter, every one an originating fountain of everlasting, ever-effective influencegood or evil. He may well tremble as he presumes to influence for eternity deathless intelligences. In the sight of God will deepen this, but it would destroy the enervating, enslaving, inordinate over-anxiety to avoid the hearers disfavour, and to ensure his praise and approbation.

2. Affectation. In the felt presence of the conscience, and, still more, of God, a man will become, and will be kept, real.

3. Dulness. The man who is desperately in earnest to get at, and grapple with, the conscience, and that by means which he can honestly employ as in the sight of God, will never be dull. And there will be no commendation to the best sense of the hearer like this of the evident aim, and still more of the success, at reaching and blessing the conscience. That is the type of minister who will always command an audience. He may offend some, may lose many, but he will be sought by the men of conscience. He will always have a clientele. There is always amongst the masses the demand for a man who can reach, and teach, and guide to rest, the conscience in men.Suggested by Homilist, ii. 225.

2Co. 4:3. Veiling the Gospel.Two noteworthy things here:

A. A veiled revelation.

B. A redeemed man lost.

I.

1. Amazing! Two purposes of God crossed and thwarted. Re-vel-ation? The very word means the drawing back of a veil. An evil will is seen interposing a veil again! A man for whom Christmark that, no other, no less, than Christdied, lost. Now in the process of being lost,such is the force of Pauls present participle. It is the mystery to thought; a mystery which sooner or later brings us up sharply, as if before a dead wall that stops all further progress in our knowledge, in all inquiries on moral questions. The Problem of Evil; the Problem of Will. The marvel that the Creator has made so many of His own handiwork to possess a Self so like His own in its self-determining power, that it can use its power to say No to its very Maker and His purpose and desire.

2. The revelation is a Gospel.Thoroughly, and only, practical in its object and scope; not at all to help speculation, or merely to give certain knowledge, even on the topics most urgent to the inquiring intellect. For ages, behind the veil, God had been preparing for the day when it should please Him that the mystery hidden from ages and generations, the mystery which had been kept in silence through times eternal, should at last be made manifest (Rom. 16:25). At last, like some completed statue beneath its covering, it stood waiting for the momentit came at Pentecostwhen the veil should be lifted, and The Gospel stand out in all its perfection of salvation-beauty. [A sub-section of this revelation is in Isa. 27:7, and 2Ti. 1:10. All heathen, all natural lifeto some extent even Jewish lifewas spent under the overspreading shadow of death. A terror and a bondage (Heb. 2:15) to thought and heart. In the Gospel of Christof the dying and risen Christthe meaning of death, and the certainty of a life beyond death, and the hope of blessedness in that lifeall stood out in the only certain, serviceable light which mankind possesses. It was revelation of the morning, when Light shines out of darkness. Night is a covering cast over all creation. What under its veil the great creative forces are silently producing, is unseen till the day dawns, and brings to light what was there all the while, but under the veil.]

3. The central Fact, the central Figure, of the Gospel is Christ.He is in Himself a Revelation; His very appearance amongst men is a Gospel. The ambassador of England resident in Paris is, in his very residence there, a token of peace and amity between the two nations. [His absence or withdrawal would be understood to mean ruptured relations.] Christ going in and out amongst men for thirty-three years was in Himself a message of peace, a message of goodwill, from God to men. [Then, as below in 2Co. 4:6, He discloses God to mens mind and heart; in a fashion also which is good-news of God, as well as from Him.]

II. But there is a velation, over against this revelation. There is a veiler as well as a Revealer.

1. The blindness is moral.The mind is blinded; but the mischief goes deeper; to the conscience (2Co. 4:2), and the heart (2Co. 4:6). The man who on these topics is enlightened in mind, knows that the light reached the mind through these channels. After all, it is to moral causes that we must assign a main influence in the prevalence of unbelief. Our systems of philosophy, said Fichte, are very often but the reflex of our hearts and lives. Each mans position towards Christianity is ultimately determined by the inward condition of his heart and will. Action must go before knowledge (Joh. 7:17), and a certain inward condition prepare the way for the Gospel message. To understand the truth we must first stand in it (Jer. 23:18; 2Jn. 1:9), or at least be willing to enter and submit to it. Wherever there is a real [ignorance of and] aversion to the Gospel, ethical causes have much to do with it. There is something humiliating in the first aspect of all Christian truth. It reminds us of personal responsibility, of personal shortcomings. It wounds our natural pride and self-sufficiency. How hard it is to many great and aspiring spirits to come down from their high estate and confess to guilt and error! For others Christianity has too much that is alarming. It makes of human life so serious a thing; it warns so solemnly of the nearness of eternity, and the certainty of future judgment; its sign of the cross reminds us so awfully of the Divine holiness and the hatefulness of sin. Too many also are not prepared to fight their way through all these terrors to real and solid peace, and catch at the idlest doubts and shallowest surprises to escape from the pressure of unwelcome truths. What pride does for the former class, fear does for those in deterring them from embracing the faith of the Gospel. And as for both these classes the entrance to the way of life is found too strait, so for many others the way itself has proved too narrow. Their love of ease refuses to engage in the striving after holiness; their love of gain and worldly honour shrinks from the thorny path of humility and self-denial. With many, alas! sins of sensuality are either parents or offspring of unbelief; nay, every sin may be regarded as a step in that direction. (Christlieb, Modern Doubt, p. 26.) Vice, worldliness, self-worship are most common, and most fatally dense veils. [Even as renunciation of self, consecration to Christ, holy and serviceable living amongst men, gracious submission to Gods hand when under trial, are most fruitful preparatives of a heart for receiving the revelation.]

2. Men can blind their own eyes.To see requires light and eyes. God has given both. Man can close his eyes to the light. [Has eyelids as well as eyes.] Cannot give himself light; but can make darkness for himself. But

3. Their action is referred to a power, a person, behind them, the god of this world.His culminating temptation to the Representative of mankind was that he should be accepted as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ! Fall down and worship me! The world is found bowing before his seat (Rev. 2:13); as Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego stood erect amidst a plain-ful of prostrate peoples, nations, and languages, so the man not of the world even as his Master was not, stands erect, exceptional, singular, to be in consequence cast into the furnace for his disconformity. And the bait is still: If thou wilt, all shall be thine!] As behind, and in, and through, the mind of the inspired man, and the will of the ordinary Christian, there stands and works a Holy Spirit, prompting all good, giving all susceptibility; so it is the constant, and self-consistent, teaching of Scripture that in perfect but evil analogy, there stands and works behind, and in, and through, the mind, heart, will of man an Evil Personality, an Evil Spirit, who has made it his business to counterwork the work of God; who is the opponent, and in himself the antithesis, of Godthe anti-God, the anti-Christ. Good Spirit and evil,both are disclosures of Revelation. And, in closest analogy, just in the same sense, and so far, as all good is referable to the Holy Spirit, without (in a true sense) taking any merit from the man; so, without taking any responsibility from the man, all evil is referable to the Evil Spirit. Man blinds his own eyes; yet the God of this world blinds the eyes of them, that believe not. In all the moral causes above suggested, he is at work.

III. The eyes them that believe not them that are (being) lost.These stand in closest connection in the text, and in the closest relation in fact. Man has eyes for the supernatural world; eyes which may see God. To believe is to use these eyes. They who see not, who believe not, are already the lost. To have these things eternally hidden from the eyes is to be lost for ever. [Though this may include more than the mere penalty of loss, the pna damni.]

2Co. 4:6. The Glory of God.

I. Revealed.

II. Received.

III. Reflected.

I. Revealed in the face of Christ.We are the gazing Israel; Christ is more than our Moses. He is showing no reflected glory; He is an original source of the glory; it is His own. When, with Peter and His brethren, we are caught up to some Mount of Tranfiguration, and see the face of Christ glorified, it is not that, like Moses face, His has been shone upon. It is shone through. The native glory withinthe glory of Godpermeates, penetrates, irradiates, the features. The clearest, fullest, altogether peculiar, manifestation of God is made to every creature in Christ and His Gospel. Herein is

1. The one real and direct expression of God.The Infinite brought down, softened, adapted to mans capacity. [Can bear to gaze at the sun when reflected in the still pool.] In nature we have the indirect, inferential revelation of God; in Judaism the typical, illustrated revelation; in Jesus Christ the direct and true.

2. An embodiment of Divine excellencies in a living person.In their abstract presentation the attributes of God are too little effective with the heart and conscience. Men cannot rest in abstractions, nor find much help in them. They want the concrete; they can only rest in a Person.

3. This personal exhibition is human in character.The essential holiness proper to the Godhead is shown, though in the midst of the ordinary conditions and surroundings of humanity.

4. All this is in perfect exhibition.In other revelations of God men have the divided, in some the distorted, beam; here in the face of Jesus Christ shines the whole, pure, perfect light of God.

II. Received into human hearts.Analogy, Scripture, Fact, all show the necessity of a heart preparation for receiving the glory. The light shines on the material world; it shines into the adapted manhood with its eye.

1. This is specially a heart preparation.The carnal mind, at enmity against Gods law, cannot perceive the beauty of holiness; how should it? Or how should the narrow, petrified, selfish heart realise a love as wide as the world, stooping from the highest glory to the deepest abasement, giving itself unto death that others may have eternal life?

2. This preparation is a great and Divine work.Religious truths do not grow out of logic; but pre-supposing certain spiritual tendencies and affections, they arise from immediate contact of the soul with God, from a beam of Gods light, penetrating the mind that is allied to Him. The hearts eyes sometimes unclose as if under the brightening beams of the morning, gently and almost unconsciously. Sometimes a lightning-flash arouses and alarms. But the opening of the eye is of God. Whose heart the Lord [Christ] opened (Act. 16:14). All the capacity for this revelation found in the child or in the heathen is of God, the work of His Spirit upon the universal heart.

III. Reflected upon, and into, other eyes and hearts.The Son of Righteousness shines upon men largely through the instrumentality of men. All who have received are under obligation to reflect upon, and impart to, others the light. [Holding forth the word of life (Php. 2:15-16) as lights (=light bearers) in the world, suggests a company holding out and up, at arms length, high above their head, the Light which may guide other souls through the darkness to the source of Light for themselves. Take up the torch, and wave it wide, The torch that lights lifes thickest gloom.]

Some suggestions from Homilist, vii. 253.

2Co. 4:7. Treasure in earthen vessels.

I. The Gospel a treasure.An unexpected, suddenly new illustration. It was light in 2Co. 4:6.

1. As there it first illumined the preachers hearts, so here it is treasure which has first enriched themselves; there, they next must endeavour to make it shine into other hearts; here, they must endeavour with the Gospel to make many rich. The preacher can only give what he has first received; can only enrich others with what is first riches to himself; can only preach what he knows, if his preaching is to have the power even of reality, to say nothing of spirituality.

2. It is the one knowledge, happiness, power, which is an eternal possession to man. All else is valuable relatively to the time and the man, only: this absolutely, in relation to God and eternity. Wealth is what has exchange value. No other has exchange value at the bar of God, or even it the hour of death. There are men with barns full to bursting, yet not rich toward God (Luk. 12:21). Many a wise, fair, lovable life in the congregation is enriched with many goodly pearls, but not with that one pearl of great price, with which it is natural to link this text. Cold water to a thirsty soul is this good news from the heavenly country to an anxious sinner. What is the wealth of a caravan crossing a desert? Water, before all things besides; water, just then, and just there; as the Gospel is wealth to a soul unsatisfied with anything that earth can give. [What best gift shall I get for my children? See to it that they are enriched with this.] It has enriched the world with its grandest ideas of God, of immortality, truth, purity; giving the highest certainty and authority available to man in regard to these high themes. [What is the worlds greatest possession to-day? Before every other answer, Paul would put his own: The Gospel of God in Christ.] [See how this enriching of the world with hope, and light, and moral power, and God (Eph. 2:12), is interwoven with the rejection of Israel (Rom. 11:12).]

II. The preachers are earthen vessels.

1. Like the earthen crock in which, perhaps, the ploughman found the treasure hid in a field. It had no value comparatively, and very little intrinsically. The lucky discoverer of the treasure would not preserve the pot; if indeed his ploughshare did not, by breaking this, reveal the gold within. [In the great house of 2Ti. 2:19-20 there are for the masters use vessels (N.B. not necessarily vases only; the word is vaguely wide and all-inclusive) of gold and silver, as well as wooden and earthen ones. All unto honour and fit for service if purified, those of humbler material as well as of costlier. No necessity to force into comparison two quite independent uses of the same figure of vessel. If one is to illustrate the other at all, it may perhaps be said that oftener, for the reason which concludes this verse, God uses the earthen rather than the golden or silver vessel, for this particular purpose. (The golden and the silver ones have their use.)] The humble vessel may often enrich with its contents a soul of far nobler calibre in all natural capacities. The humble local preacher, or perhaps only exhorterin Primitive Methodist terminologyis forgotten, was forgotten almost immediately, his name a matter since of vehement dispute, who enriched the soul of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Many a man who received the treasure from Paul himself would hardly see more than the Tarsian Jew, the tent-maker, in poor health, full of tears, beyond most men dependent upon sympathy, talking a provincial sort of Greek, scouted and hunted by his own nationality. Paul was by no means to many converts the vessel of gold we prize in him; in himself a real wealth to the universal Church; set high in the Great House as not only useful, but as a glorious adornment to it.

2. Treasure holders.That only. [As the sun in Genesis 1 is only a light-bearer; light is independent of the sun, and known in Genesis, as in science, to be anterior to it.] Paul and his fellow-workers do not make the Gospel which they carry about and dispense. The vessel is the mere holder; containing, until it can pour out, the treasure. Simply first filled and then kept full, that they may fill the need of others. Without intrinsic value; containers; and besides

3. Frail.Yet, as 2Co. 4:8-12 show, endowed with a wonderful tenacity, kept by the excellency of the power; sorely knocked about yet not broken, so long as the Master needs them to hold and carry about His treasure. Still only earthen. The minister is a man. The Spirit of God must do His work through his manhood, and through his particular type of manhood; through his specialties (and frailties) of mentaland to some extent of moralcharacteristics. The human medium will affect the Truth in no small degree. This treasure takes something from the human vessel which contains it. The make and temper of the vessel will affect the delivery of the riches.

(1) The minister will remember this; nor be too absolute and positive, as though he could not err.

(2) The people will remember this; nor expect anything but an earthen,very humanvessel. It will save mistake on both sides, and disappointment, to remember that the vessels are men. Committees and ordaining boards must remember that no ideally perfect men are to be found for the ministry. They must take earthen vessels, or none at all. However, they are frail, fragile. The daily failing of the earthly [though, N.B., not earthen, as here] house of the tabernacle is already in Pauls thought. (See Critical Notes, 2Co. 4:12.) Every year sees the vessel the worse for wear. He is breaking, men say of the old minister; whether with a loving tenderness of charity that understands and allows for failing powers, or with an impatience that would hastily put the old vessel aside for one of a newer pattern or stronger make.

III. This secures the fulfilment of a great purpose.It is so plainly the treasure, and not the vessel, which has value; it is so manifest that the man himself is not an adequate explanation of the success of the work, that the thought and heart of man enriched turns instinctively elsewhere for explanation. This is the finger of God must be the verdict in every conversion. Nobody more than the true minister of Christ rejoices to stand back and be forgotten in the first joy of the soul who has found the riches. Earthen vessels, so manifestly inadequate in themselves to accomplish the evangelising of a world, or even of a Roman empire, that the success of Christianity becomes an argument for its Divine origin. Now that the issue is no longer doubtful, Gamaliels argument has new point.

2Co. 4:17-18. A Contrast and a Connection.Our light affliction, etc.

I. A contrast.Affliction; glory. Light; far more exceeding weight. (Observe in Critical Notes.) For a moment; eternal.

1. What an exposition of our light affliction is given in Pauls own case in 2Co. 4:8-11, and more wonderfully in 2Co. 11:23 to 2Co. 12:10! In the experience and observation of the people of God nothing puts greater strain upon faith in the wisdom and love of God than the convergence of many, and many kinds of, trial upon one single head. Any one would have been enough, we think; yet they are cumulative. [Before the smart of one stroke has ceased to be acute, and whilst indeed the heart is still smarting, another stinging stroke seems to fall; another follows quickly, and sometimes on the same place, on the old wound.] Faith, too, is tested by the fact that the accumulation is often upon the head of that one of Gods children who, it seem to others, might best have been spared any stroke at all; who seems to need it least, for rebuke or for education in holiness. The burdens are heaped, it sometimes appears, heaviest and most numerous upon the holiest. Paul says, Our light affliction.

2. Set over against this a weight of glory. Perhaps not very definitely conceived even in Pauls own mind. At most, probably, there is suggestion of a balance, in whose scales the Now and the Then, the affliction and the glory, are poised one against the other. [As in Rom. 8:18, not worthy to be compared with.] He watches the scale heaped up on the affliction side, yet rising outweighed, and he cries to it triumphantly: Ah! afflictions mine, ye are weighed in the balances and found wanting! Yet, as the afflictions are a burden, so we may suggest what, measured by our earthly standards and strength, a burden would even glory itself be. The vessel often all but breaks, with even the foretaste of the future given into the heart of the child of God. Yet see how the immortal vigour of that life contains, carries, that weight of glory! Heavy and light are relative terms to strength: The light afflictions are all but overwhelming to earthly powers, even when reinforced by the grace of God. That exceeding weight sits light upon the strength of the life eternal. Everything is revised in the presence of the eternal world: Whilst we look, etc. Turn away the eyes from that, and everything adjusts itself to the earthly standard; the strength reverts to the earthly measurement. The vision of the things eternal is a real power to us amidst the things temporal. Let a man be lifted to the level of those and look down upon these; let a mans life be enlarged to the scale of the eternal, with all his views and standards of judgment enlarged accordingly, and he understands this light affliction. He anticipates the estimate of the eternal world. The principle of the process is seen at work on a small scale in every-day life. With what leaden feet the hours creep along when aching temples count the number by their throbs! Or when a man must stand awaiting the fall of certain calamity, and can only hang down helpless hands and wait. Or when his heart carries day after day a load of anxiety or sorrow, or smarts under wrong, or slander, or persecution, or misconception, or misrepresentation. Or when, hour after hour, the mind is chained to thoughts which will not be shaken off. Such a day takes a great deal of living through! Every such hour seems lengthened to a day; a day, and much more a year, of perplexity, of tried faith, of walking in darkness,they seem an eternity! By-and-by, when the cloud is gone; when pain is over; when all perplexing circumstances are resolved into clear, plain providential love; when the year that seemed endless has become only one of the thirty, forty, fifty in the review of the past life; then all becomes simply a passage in the story of life,the tale that is told,exceptional and brief. Even a year becomes by-and-by only a bar of shadowrather broad, perhaps, but only a barthrown across a path whose whole extent beside shows as a line of light. After a little lapse of time the proportions of things come out more clearly; the endless day, the interminable year, become mere episodes and incidental passages in the whole life-story. Let a man write to a sympathetic friend, out of the thick of it all; he fills sheet after sheet; every detail is of importance. Yet even then he realises, and almost resents the fact, that it is more to live through than to write about. And in a year he will summarise in a page or two all that is salient in the review; in a few years all goes into a sentence, or is dismissed in a written line. So, in the review from the standpoint of the things eternal [whilst we look, etc.; cf. Rom. 8:18], whether actually occupied or only mentally and by anticipation; if the life be all shadowed over; if the pain last as long as the man lasts; if the one crushing sorrow never be lifted, an affliction to the end; if the long strain never be relaxed; yet a very brief space in eternity, a very short section of the story there, and that whole long life will become dwindled down to a mere episode in the eternally continuous life of which death is also merely an incident not far away from the commencement of its course. The story of the years which meant so much to live through will become merely a page or two prefatory to the main story, to be gathered up and dismissed in a thought, hardly indeed to be accounted of at all in the longer review of life. The burden whose weight was carried along a road which itself was measured out by its painful steps, will have been decreased to scale, to fit into the new proportions of life, and will be remembered as that light affliction which we once carried just for a moment. In view of eternity nothing is long which is terminable; in the presence of, and actual enjoyment of, heaven, nothing is heavy which only belongs to the burdens of earth.

II. A connection.The one works out the other.

1. The course of Pauls thought, especially as disclosing itself in the opening of chap. 5, makes it evident that he, at any rate, had mainly in mind the ultimate release into glory by reason of the bodys death. Sickness, a thorn in the flesh, hunger, wounds, weariness, all in the broadest sense are forms of death. They hastenthey arethe destruction of the bodily frame, each in its measure. Not one of them but contributes something to expedite the loosing of the immortal part from its mortal companion. Did the young generation of Israelites look with unfriendly eyes upon the last lingering few of the old generation who lived on in the wilderness? When will you old men die off? We cannot enter into the land whilst you live. So the Christian, though honouring his redeemed body, yet says to it: Body, I cannot enter into my glory, whilst I am tied fast to you. You are yourself a burden, and you bind me to a world of afflictions each of which is a burden! Everything which helps forward dissolution (2Co. 4:1) brings Paul nearer to the weight of glory which is before him; everything which expedites bodily death is not mourned over, shrunk from, counted an evil, but a good, an assistance; works out the happy issue which is glory.

2. That may have been his thought; but the thought of the Holy Ghost, Who so guided the true and natural expression of a real mans actual feeling that it became a saying, permanent, normal, for all Christian experience, was more than this. More than the quasi-mechanical removal of a physical disability for entering into the awaiting glory. When even Paul exclaims, Now is salvation nearer, etc. (Rom. 13:11), there is more than the rejoicing that by mere lapse of time it has every night come nearer. A days march nearer home is true, but not all the truth of any Christian hope worthy the name. If some lotus-eater Christian simply folds his arms and lets his vessel drift with the stream of time, then if he be finally saved at all, it is true that he is each night a days drift nearer home. The very days drift has in that sense worked out something towards the attainment and enjoyment of the glory. But nearer than when we believed includes a ripening for the approaching heaven. Men grow readier as they get nearer. And everything which tends to ripen, to develop, to educate character, and put it upon what are essentially heavenly lines even here, is working out the glory. There would be no glory for a man who is not made heaven-like beforehand. To an unprepared, uncongenial, non-correlated man heaventhe placewould be intolerable, a hell. Everything which makes the man receptive, prepared for the ready hereafter of a prepared glory, is so far working out, etc.

3. There is a suggestion in the figure of a life-story, employed above. The old epic, or dramatic, unities were made a bondage to authors, yet there was reason in them when they required that a plot, a plan, a motive, should run through and bind together into a real oneness every story, or poem, or drama which was to take rank as a work of art and genius. So in strictness no incident but such as would really help forward this plot to its development, was rightfully admissible; it was a redundance, perhaps an excrescence or deformity. So, further, every personage who comes upon the page should in some direct way be contributory to the unfolding and to the fulfilment of the authors purpose. Only a childish reader of a story is plunged into inconsolable distress over the troubles of the personages whose futures are being followed. An old hand knows that this is a common writers artifice, and reads on calmly, knowing that such imbroglios of trouble always come out right. A seasoned student of such literature knows that in the midst of such embroilment of fortunes and circumstances the author is not forgetting his plot and its destined ending, but is steadily pursuing his way to it. Indeed, he is pursuing it by means of these. Such pages, such incidents, are as really part of the whole machinery by which he is working out for his personages the happy issue, as are those where all goes smoothly and without a cross. So Pauls faith is that, though he is the maker and writer of his lifes story, there is a conjoint, supreme Worker and Author, Who has His own plot in the story, and by means of the afflictions of life is helping forward the accomplishment of that purpose. By means of even the most untoward incidentsnot in spite of, or merely in the midst of themHe is leading on His man to, and making him ready for, glory designed for him. These afflictions are working out the glory, which, when it comes, shall prove so preponderantly great above all earthly suffering.

HOMILETIC SUGGESTIONS

2Co. 4:7-10. The Weakness of the Agents contributes to the Furtherance of the Gospel.

I. In their weakness Gods power is displayed.

II. In their affliction Gods help is manifest.

III. In their dying the Divine life is revealed.[J. L.]

2Co. 4:14. [For Easter. Much material under 1 Corinthians 15] The Resurrection of Christ a Comfort in Affliction.

I. The fact is certain.Christ was raised up by the power of God.

II. The inference is just.God will raise us up, and present us in glory.

III. The conclusion is inevitable.God will deliver us out of all our afflictions. He has the power. Intends to do it.

IV. The duty is obvious.To suffer patiently. [How easily a reader bears the distress of the entangled and distressful parts of a story, when he has looked at the last pages and knows how it is going to end (see p. 472). So we know how our life is going to end. This will kill me, we say. No, it will not. We are being kept unto salvation, etc. (1Pe. 1:5).] To speak confidently.[J. L., in part.]

2Co. 4:15. For your sakes.

I. A general principle.Vicarious suffering, the death of one, the life of another, obtains sometimes in nature; often in human life; usually in spiritual relations (Joh. 12:24); pre-eminently in the Atonement of Christ. There is a vicarious element in the purpose of much sanctified suffering. A Christian lady, standing with a friend, by the bedside of her Christian father, who had lain for two years helpless and nearly speechless, said to her friend: All that, for so long, is not for him; it is for us. Many times the work seems perfected in the sufferer, who, as we think, need not be kept longer out of rest and glory in heaven; but the sufferer lingers on in pain, to be a factor in the training and moral development of those who minister in the sick-room.

II. A particular application here.Pauls [the Apostolic, and, in some degree, all Christian] sufferings benefit others in that they

1. Exhibit his Faith.

2. Confirm the common Hope.

3. Evoke in others a spirit of Love and Praise.

4. Exemplify the grace of Patient Endurance.[J. L., with additions.]

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Butlers Commentary

SECTION 2

Mortality (2Co. 4:7-15)

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you.

2Co. 4:7 Of The Dust: The servants of the Lord have their treasure (the glory of God in the Spirit of Christ) in earthen vessels. The Greek word ostrakinois is translated earthen and is the word from which we get the English word ostraca (inscribed potsherds)a word familiar to archaeologists. The Greek word skeuesin is the regular word for vessel.

Paul is reminding the Corinthians of the mortality of human beings, even of apostles, for the purpose of puncturing the inflated egos of the Judaizers in their midst. Human mortality is a stark reality that often produces moments of discouragement and depression for all preachers of the Gospel. The Judaizers were proud of themselves. They gloried in their own greatness (self-righteousness). The apostle states a truth that all human beings should remember constantly man is as frail as the dust from which his earthly body is made. He is worthless when compared with the treasure he holdsthe glory of Christ.
This constant fact demonstrates that the power available to man through Christ in him transcends anything of which he is mortally capable. The gospel transforms the very being of man. It regenerates and renews him. He sees nothing from a human point of view after the gospel has been received in his heart and mind. He has a divine perspective (see 2Co. 5:16 ff). He has hope, faith, and power to overcome wickedness. But he has all this in an earthen vessel that is dying, wasting away. So he knows the power does not come from himself. Legalism, on the other hand, has only self-righteousness and is powerless because it is self-condemning. It has only the earthen vessel to glory in and aggrandizeand that is manifestly futile!

If Christians did not have the precious promises of Gods grace through the Spirit of Christ, the fact of their mortality would be depressing and unbearable. There are still moments, in every Christians life (even of apostles) if they are honest, that their mortality is discouraging and depressing. Only by resting in the hope of eternal life in heaven is such depression overcome. The grace of God is the treasure believers hold in earthen vessels.

2Co. 4:8-10 Often Downtrodden: Paul, and his co-workers in the Gospel were continually, and in every way, pressured. The Greek word thlihomenoi is translated afflicted but means pressed, compressed, squeezed. In addition to all the emotional and mental pressures brought to bear upon Paul from his enemies, there was his constant anxiety (Gr. merimna, care, 2Co. 11:28) for the churches, and for individual brothers-in-Christ. There is tremendous pressure upon the emotions and mind of any person in the ministry. The constant carping and criticism most preachers and missionaries have to endure just from church members is enough to cause ministerial burn-out. Couple criticism with the miserly financial remuneration most full-time gospel workers are often grudgingly allotted, no wonder that many of them pursue other vocations for the spiritual and physical survival of their families. Many faithful preachers struggle mightily under pressure, refusing to follow personal inclinations to quit the ministry while they watch their own children rebel against the church, destroy their own marriages, and occasionally suffer untimely heart-attacks or other diseases which cripple them in the prime of life.

Perhaps part of the fault for ministerial burn-out may be attributed to a lack of commitment or lack of faith on the part of the preachers. But the churches must bear part of the blame for this tragedy, too, just as the congregation at Corinth was part of the reason for the constant pressure experienced by the great apostle Paul.
Although Paul literally experienced the pressures of the ministry, he never considered himself crushed. Actually, the Greek word is stenochoroumenoi and means, crowded into a narrow place. We get our English word stenography from the two Greek words, steno and graphe, meaning, shortened writing. It is impossible to eliminate pressure in the ministry. It will never cease this side of Glory. But it is possible for ministers to endure pressure until the Lord calls them home. Paul learned to be content in whatever state he found himself (Php. 4:10-13). He cast all his cares upon the grace of God and found that when he was weakest, he was strongest (2Co. 12:7-10). Paul rested in the fact that while God allows men to be tested under pressure, God also provides a way of escape so that no man is tested beyond what he is able to endure (1Co. 10:13). Let no preacher think he is tested or pressured where no other preacher has ever been pressured, or that he cannot endure it.

Next, Paul declares he has been perplexed (Gr. aporoumenoi, from two Greek words, a privative, and poros, a way, meaning literally, deprived of a way, or without means), but not despairing (Gr. exaporoumenoi, a compound of the previous word aporoumenoi, this time with the prefix, ex, out from attached). Paul is saying there were times when he was perplexed but he always came out from his perplexity. Barclay paraphrases, We are at our wits end, but never at our hopes end. Indeed, every minister of the gospel has experienced perplexity, puzzlement, confusion and perhaps doubt. And he gets discouraged. He sometimes blames himself, sometimes he blames others. Occasionally he burdens himself with guilt because he believes that he, as a spiritual leader of Gods flock, should never experience confusion or doubt. But the preacher (and every Christian), even though experiencing times when he does not know what is to be done, can be faithful to Christ never doubting that something can be done, and will be done, ultimately by the Lord to serve his glorious purpose. Even Jesus experienced perplexity and a troubled soul (Joh. 11:33; Joh. 12:27; Mat. 26:38; Luk. 12:50). But Jesus endured it (did not resolve it) by resigning himself to the care of Gods blessed will (. . . nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.).

The next statement is: persecuted but not forsaken; (Gr. diokomenoi all ouk egkataleipomenoi). Diokomenoi may be translated, pursued. That is what a persecutor doespursues in order to catch and abuse or destroy. The Pharisees pursued Jesus like a pack of hounds. The Jews pursued Paul from city to city trying to destroy him and his ministry. Persecutors never give up, they stay hot on the trail of their victim. Egkataleipomenoi is an intense form of the word which means to leave behind. Jesus used this word on the cross when he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? While God forsook Jesus, punishing all sin in him, God will never forsake the minister of the gospel or any other Christian because of Christs gracious death in their place. It is a real temptation for any servant of the Lord who is persecuted for his loyalty to Jesus to despair and consider himself abandoned by the Lord. Elijah, hounded by Jezebel, believed he was all alone because God had not come down in a whirlwind or fire (1Ki. 19:1-21). Jesus has promised that he will not leave us desolate (Joh. 14:18, Gr. orphanous, orphans). Jesus has promised that he will be with us until the end of the age (Mat. 28:20). The question, when we are being hounded by the persecutors, is: DO WE BELIEVE HIM . . . DO WE TRUST HIM?

The apostles last phrase in this quadruplet is poignant with allusion to boxing in the Greek games. Paul says, . . . struck down but not destroyed (Gr. katahalloumenoi all ouk apollumenoi). J.B. Phillips translates, . . . we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! That is a good translation. Barclay says, The supreme characteristic of the Christian is not that he does not fall, but that every time he falls he rises again. It is not that he is never beaten, but he is never ultimately defeated. He may lose a battle, but he knows that in the end he can never lose the campaign. Paul, himself, was knocked down many times, but never knocked out. And when he was in prison, apparently facing the executioners axe, he eagerly anticipated the ultimate victorythe crown of righteousness (2Ti. 4:6-8).

This is the only recourse for the knocked down minister of the gospel today. There are no quick fixes or sure-fire defenses against being knocked down if one takes up full-time service in the vineyard of the Lord. There is only the assurance that there will be knock-downs, bumps, bruises, persecutions (see Mar. 10:30; Mat. 20:22-23; Joh. 15:18-21; 2Ti. 3:12). Life is full of defeats for every Christian (and especially preachers) just as well as for non-Christians, but the Christian hopes in the blessed assurance of Christs word that finally, and eternally, he will have nothing but victory in the next life. That is a hope the non-Christian does not have. The Bible promises the unbeliever an existence in the next life of eternal defeat! The eternal destiny of the unbeliever is to be crushed, despairing, forsaken, destroyedjust the opposite of Pauls hope.

Finally, the Christian minister, as Paul states, may be tempted to despair because he has covenanted with Christ to always carry in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested. . . . Paul is not talking about the physical death of Jesus here. No man, not even Paul, may duplicate in his body the substitutionary, atoning death of Jesus on the cross. Paul is talking about the death to self that Jesus accomplished in the flesh on earth in total surrender to the will of God. Paul states the idea clearly in Gal. 2:20; Gal. 5:24; Gal. 6:14. Paul discusses it at length in Romans, chapters 6 through 8. Jesus demanded it of those who would follow him (Mat. 10:38-39; Mar. 8:34-38; Luk. 14:25-33; Luk. 17:33). Jesus demonstrated it in his every action, but especially in his willingness to put self to death and go to the cross (see Joh. 12:27; Mat. 26:36-39). For the finest discussion of this in writing today, see Learning From Jesus, by Seth Wilson, chapter XVI, New Life Through Accepting Jesus Death. pg. 495, pub. College Press.

Paul is talking about bearing about (Gr. peripherontes) in his life (body) the same surrender of self (death to self) demonstrated by Jesus. Paul was eager to share (participate) in his (Christs) sufferings (Php. 3:10-11), and become like him (Christ) in his death, in order to attain the resurrection from the dead. Paul died every day! (1Co. 15:31). By all this Paul did not mean, of course, the kind of death Jesus dies on the cross, which only Jesus, exclusively, could die. Paul meant the kind of death Jesus died every day to self.

One of the reasons the preacher sometimes despairs in his daily crucifixion of self, is the seeming injustice and unfairness in such constant abnegation. He often questions, Will my sacrifice of self ever be vindicated? Will it ever be rewarded with something besides the exploitation I experience on this earth? Jesus, the Messiah, experienced the same depression (see Isa. 49:1-7; Isa. 50:4-8; Isa. 53:1-12)! But God vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead!

The only way the preacher and the Christian manifests the life of Jesus while he is dying to self in this mortal body is by his faith in the word of God as he trusts it and obeys it. There is no physical, material way for mortal man to manifest eternal life which Jesus manifested in his physical resurrection. No one has risen from the dead since Jesus (and those resurrections performed by the apostles). Not one of the apostles literally, physically arose from the dead. Paul, then, is talking about a manifestation of faith in obedience to Gods word. That is how we manifest the life of Jesusin dying to self!

2Co. 4:11-12 Obviously Dying: Paul says, while we live (not after we die, but while we live) we are always being given up to death for Jesus sake. In 2Co. 4:10 Paul spoke of the death the Christian chooses when he decides to follow Jesus. It is the self-surrender made by deliberate, free choice of the individual. In 2Co. 4:11 Paul tells us God also places us in circumstances where we have to die whether we like it or not. The Greek verb paradidometha (being given up) is passive!

Everyone experiences, sooner or later, situations in which no matter how much they want to exalt self they cannot. God knows how to give us all thorns in the flesh to keep us from being too elated (2Co. 12:7 ff). That is exactly where God wants every person, occasionally, because out of such situations and experiences God is slaying the sinful self so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortality.

And, as Paul said of his dying. others are perhaps being given life because of the death to self we are dying (2Co. 4:12). We must die (spiritually), not only in order that we may live, but that others may live also! Our death to self must be obvious so that others may see and glorify God in their own lives. God in his providential disciplining offers us ways and means to make that death obvious. But it takes strong faith to accept the ways and means! It seemed to Paul that he was always being slain by God (see 2Co. 1:3-11; 2Co. 11:22-33; 2Co. 12:1-10). The Greek work energeitai, present tense, middle voice, means, death is operating, or being energized, in the Christian as he daily dies to self.

The death of self is not easy. Christ never pretended following him would be without pressure, persecution and provocation. The way of self-surrender is narrow and difficult (Mat. 7:14; Mat. 19:24). But look what happens!

In 2Co. 4:13 Paul quotes from Psa. 116:10. That entire Psalm should be read to get the benefit of the context. The Psalmist declares by faith that the trials and pressures he is going through are going to have some effect and impact in his surroundings. He cannot see it yet, but he says it is going to be true because God has promised it. Paul affirms that since Christians have the same spirit of faith as the Psalmist, they may believe just as surely that their dying to self will produce the same praise for God and his Son in the life of the believer and in others to whom it is obvious.

2Co. 4:14 is one of the most precious promises in the New Testament. On the basis of the historical, actual, physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the believer may anticipate being presented by Jesus to God the Father. Our resurrection and ushering into the presence of our gracious Heavenly Father is dependent upon Jesus atoning redemption and justifying resurrection. He is the first fruits of our glorification (1Co. 15:20 ff). Peter wrote that Christ died for us that he might present us to God (1Pe. 3:18). And Paul wrote, And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has not reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him (Col. 1:21-22).

If we die to self through faith in Jesus, because of his resurrection, it will be obvious, and it will be not only for our sake but for the sake of all others who know us. And as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. Has anyone thanked God lately, because they know you have died to self through the grace of Christ?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

Appleburys Comments

Pauls View Of His Ministry
Scripture

2Co. 4:7-18. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves; 8 we are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; 9 pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed; 10 always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you. 13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, and therefore did I speak; we also believe, and therefore also we speak; 14 knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus, and shall present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound unto the glory of God.

16 Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Comments

But we have this treasure.Pauls ministry as an apostle in connection with the New Covenant had been obtained through the mercy of God. He, therefore, did not hesitate to declare that he was in no way shrinking from the responsibilities involved in it. To him, it was a privilege to proclaim the gospel of the glory of Christ, for it is this gospel that gives enlightenment to the believer as he comes to know about the glory of God as it is seen in the Person of Christ. This gospel message is the treasure in such earthen vessels as the apostles. God had committed it to them as a trust. See 1Ti. 1:11.

Paul wrote to Timothy telling him to guard that which had been committed to himthe gospel which was the precious treasure which had been given to him in trust for safe keepingurging him to turn away from profane bablings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith (1Ti. 6:20-21). The human being is indeed a fragile vessel in which to entrust the precious message of eternal life, but such is the confidence that God had in Paul and others who dedicate themselves to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said to Timothy, The things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also (2Ti. 2:2).

the power may be of God and not from ourselves.This is the secret of Pauls ministry. The power of his message was not in himself but in God. He had written to the Corinthians in the first letter saying, I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling: And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of mens wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1Co. 2:4). To the Romans he wrote, For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:16).

Pauls enemies at Corinth were evidently proud of their personal appearance, their ability as orators, and their power to persuade the Corinthians to believe them rather than the gospel which Paul had preached. Paul did not bother to defend himself against their insinuations that his bodily presence was weak. He took it as an occasion to point out that his power was from God, not from himself. This power could be seen in the miracles which the apostles performed. The miracles demonstrated that their message came from God. Its effect had been seen in the transformed lives of those whose sins had been washed away by the blood of Christ. They were living a life of separation from sin and dedication to the service of God. They had been pardoned in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God. See 1Co. 5:11.

There was another side to this ministry that had to do with life and death. It was that of human frailty facing the hardships of this ministry, facing them in such a manner that the power of God might be seen in His servants. Paul pointed out five examples of this human weakness. In none of them was he preaching about himself, for his faith and hope were in God throughout all his trials. The first four examples present contrasts between the hardships he faced and the relief that always came. The last explains his attitude toward all the hardships which he suffered in preaching the gospel.

pressed on every side, yet not straitened.This begins the list of physical hardships which Paul suffered in his ministry. He had been in tight places, but always found the way out. The not at Ephesus is a good example. See Act. 19:23-41. The town clerk quieted the mob that would have destroyed Paul and made it possible for him, after having exhorted the disciples, to go on to Macedonia. The arrest in Jerusalem was another tight spot in which Paul was saved from the violence of the angry crowd by the Roman soldiers that policed the temple area. See Act. 21:35. The pressures of his ministry finally resulted in his imprisonment. On the night following his arrest in Jerusalem, the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, for as thou hast testified concerning me at Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome (Act. 23:11).

perplexed, yet not unto despair.The difficulties involved in communication between himself and the Corinthian church left him at his wits end. He was eager to help them and to prevent the false teachers from making havoc of the church of God. But he did not despair; he took the necessary action that finally led him to Macedonia where he found Titus and learned about the situation at Corinth.

pursued, yet not forsaken.Pauls enemies pursued him wherever he went; but he was never left in the lurch, for the Lord was always with him. His enemies pursued him until they succeeded in having him arrested, but this led to his being sent to Rome where he presented his caseactually, the case for the gospelbefore Caesar. In the stormy crossing of the sea that threatened the lives of all on board the ship, an angel of God said to Paul, Fear not, Paul, thou must stand before Caesar. And lo, God hath granted thee all them that sail with thee (Act. 27:23-24). In the trial that followed, when all other had forsaken him, the Lord stood by Paul. See 2Ti. 4:17. Out of confidence of victory, Paul wrote this message to Timothy, Be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at the last day; and not to me only, but to all that have loved the Lords appearing (2Ti. 4:5-8).

smitten down, yet not destroyed.Paul knew what it meant to be struck down like a soldier on the battle field. At Lystra the enemy stoned him and dragged him out of the city thinking that he was dead. But as the disciples stood around him he rose up and entered into the city, and on the next day went on to Derbe. See Act. 14:19-20.

always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus.The Jews were constantly seeking to kill Jesus. See Joh. 5:18; Joh. 7:1. When they could not meet the logic of His wisdom in open debate, they took up stones to cast at Him. See Joh. 8:59; Joh. 10:31. They would have done it too, except for the fact that it was not His hour to die. He had the right to lay down His life and the right to take it again. See Joh. 10:18; Joh. 7:30. But they were determined to put Him to death; their only problem was how to get it done. Judas gave them the opportunity they had been looking for when he offered to betray Him into their hands. Their charge of blasphemy on which they agreed that He was worthy of death meant nothing to Pilate, and they knew it. Therefore they brought such charges as insurrection against Caesar that they might force the governor to sentence Jesus to die on the Roman cross. But He arose in triumph from the dead and ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25) As an apostle of Christ, Paul was always facing death at the hands of his persecutors. They finally succeeded; but for Paul, death simply meant being absent from the body and at home with the Lord. See also Col. 1:24 for further information on Pauls attitude toward suffering for Christ.

that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.The life of Jesus is His life which survived the experience of death, for God raised Him up.

So then death worketh in us, but life in you.The earthen vessel was subject to death and persecution. But it held the glorious message of eternal life for the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was their servant for the sake of Jesus Christ.

the same spirit of faith.Defending his courage to speak even in face of death, Paul turned to the message of Psa. 116:8-11 to show that he had the same attitude of faith as the Psalmist who faced the threat of death. Pauls confidence was in God and in the power of the gospel to save. He knew that God had raised Jesus Christ from the dead, for he had seen the risen Lord. He was also certain that God would raise him up from the dead and present him to Christ along with the saints at Corinth. See Eph. 5:25-27.

For all things are for your sakes.All that God had done through the Lord Jesus Christ was for the sake of the believer. All that Paul had suffered in order to bring the gospel to them was for their sakes. Gods grace multiplied by the many who were brought to life in Jesus Christ caused thanks to abound unto the glory of God.

Wherefore we faint not.Paul declared again his courage to carry on the ministry of the gospel of Christ. He had faced hardships, even death itself, in fulfilling his ministry. He courageously continued on his course knowing death would overtake him some day. He develops this thought beginning in 2Co. 4:16 and continuing through 2Co. 5:10.

our outward man is decaying.By outward man Paul meant the physical body in which he had endured so many hardships. See the list in 2Co. 11:24-28. It leaves us wondering how any man could have endured all this. But it was a different story with the man who lived in that body, that is, the inward man. While the body was subject to death, the inward man was being renewed day by day. Paul said, For which cause I suffer also these things: yet I am not ashamed; for I know him whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day (2Ti. 1:12).

our light affliction.As we think of the affliction suffered by Paul, we wonder how he could have called it light. It was light as compared to the eternal weight of glory which he anticipated at the close of his faithful ministry. The affliction was for the moment, but the glory will be forever, eternal in the heavens. The afflictions could be seen, but the glory cannot be seen with the physical eye. The things that are not seen, however, are eternal. Paul discusses these things in 2Co. 5:1-10.

Summary

Explaining his attitude toward the ministry of the New Covenant, Paul showed why he preached Christ, even though his gospel was obscured in the minds of some.
He had obtained this ministry through Gods mercy, not by any merit of his own. He was determined not to act like a fainthearted coward in discharging his obligations to it. He renounced methods and motives not in harmony with the gospel and rested his case on the presentation of the truth. He refused to resort to the secret things that belonged to the shameful practices of false teachers. He did not resort to craftiness, nor did he deceitfully use the gospel. By making the truth clear to his hearers, he commended himself to the consciences of men before God.
Paul had said that some were blind to the true nature of the Old Covenant, and he readily admitted that the gospel might be obscured in the minds of those who were blinded by the god of this age. The sin of unbelief kept the glorious light of the gospel from dawning oh them. Even so, Paul was determined not to preach himself, but Christ Jesus as Lord. He was their servant for Jesus sake. God caused the light of the knowledge of His glory to shine through the preaching of the apostle that it might bring enlightenment to the believer.
This gospel was like a precious treasure which God kept in earthen vesselshis apostles and preachers of the Word. Paul trusted, not in himself, but in God for strength to endure the hardships of his ministry. He was hard pressed, but not to the extent that he could not move. He was perplexed, but never gave up. He was pursued by men, but never forsaken by God. He was struck down, but never left to die until his time to go home to be with the Lord. Paul, just as Jesus had done, faced death constantly at the hands of his persecutors. But he was delivered from death that he might continue to tell of the risen Lord, for this meant life for the Corinthians who believed.
As the Psalmist believed in God who delivered him from death, so Paul also believed that God would deliver him. He spoke with boldness and confidence about his hope that God who raised up Jesus would raise him also from the dead and present him in the resurrection with the faithful Corinthians. He reminded them that he had endured all these things for their sakes in order that Gods grace which was multiplied by the many trials through which the faithful go might abound in thanksgiving on their part to the glory of God.
Paul was not afraid to face the hardships of his ministry, even the constant danger of death. He knew, of course, that his physical body was wearing out. But this was more than offset by the fact that his inward man was being renewed constantly. These afflictions were a momentary light load as compared to the eternal weight of glory to which he looked after patiently enduring the trials of this life. He did not look at these perils as one who keeps his eyes on things which can be seen, for he was thinking of things that cannot be seen with the physical eye, that is, the things that are eternal in the heavens.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(7) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.The imagery here begins to change. The treasure is the knowledge of the glory of God as possessed by the Apostle. It was the practice of Eastern kings, who stored up their treasures of gold and silver, to fill jars of earthenware with coin or bullion (Herod. iii. 103. Comp. also Jer. 32:14). So, St. Paul says, in a tone of profound humility, it is with us. In these frail bodies of oursearthen vesselswe have that priceless treasure. The passage is instructive, as showing that the vessels of wood and of earth in 2Ti. 2:20 are not necessarily identical with those made for dishonour. The words have probably a side glance at the taunts that had been thrown out as to his bodily infirmities. Be it so, he says; we admit all that can be said on that score, and it is that men may see that the excellence of the power which we exercise comes from God, and not from ourselves. The words that follow, contrasting sufferings and infirmities in their manifold variety with the way in which they were borne through Gods strengthening grace, show this to be the true underlying sequence of thought.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

7. Treasure vessels The divine gold gives even now its own lustre and imperishability to the brittle clay.

Excellency of the power of God The fragility of the clay proves that it is divinized. Its natural weakness proves that it survives by God’s power.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2. Antithesis of apostolic trials and triumphs resulting in glory, | 2 Corinthians 2Co 4:7 to 2Co 5:5.

In the divine glow of martyrly enthusiasm of this passage a passage which doubtless did much towards rousing the Christian heroism of the martyr age Paul draws, in a series of antitheses, the sublime contrast between the more than golden treasure and the earthen vessels in which it was contained a contrast meeting in contact in his own person. By the glorifying power of the treasure the vessel could bear unbroken all the raps the world could administer. The striking sentiment of Whitefield runs through the whole, that “a minister is immortal until his work is done;” and then, it may be added, he is doubly immortal. Paul views his preservation as essentially a sort of bodily immortalization. The life, life of Jesus, which conserves and immortalizes his present body amid daily deaths, is the same divine vitality as will produce his resurrection and glorification; and his own very suffering and death are transfigured into a oneness with the divine martyrdom of Jesus, the dying of the Lord.

Through the whole lofty passage the Corinthian opponents entirely sink from view, and do not reappear until 2Co 10:1.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.’

However, although God has shined in their hearts and they therefore carry within their inner selves something of the glory of God, they do not thereby boast. For they recognise that that glory is contained in earthen vessels. The comparison is with the earthen vessel that contained the oil and the wick which gave off light in people’s homes. The earthen vessel is but a cheap container, it is not itself the light. Therefore none should look at the earthen container, they should look at the light within to see whether it is genuine or not. And if they look at the light that Paul reveals he has no doubt what their decision will be.

There may also be behind this the idea of God as the potter and we as the clay. The vessels are made by God and can be broken or not as He will. It is God Who determines all that will happen to them (Jer 18:1-6; Isa 45:9).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Illustration: Comparing His Hardships to Eternal Glory In 2Co 4:7-16 Paul illustrates his perseverance by showing his steadfast hope in the fact that the hardships in carrying out his duties are only momentary, light afflictions when compared to the exceeding weigh of glory that is awaiting him. His ministry is a lifestyle that is given over to death on a daily basis. Such a lifestyle is seen by God’s grace reaching greater numbers that resound in more and more thanksgiving unto God. Paul says that with such an excellent ministry he never loses heart as he bears the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

2Co 4:7 Comments – This treasure is generally understood as the light of the knowledge of God that is mentioned in the previous verse, while some scholars include the ministry of taking the Gospel to the world. [59] The earthen vessels reflect the mortal bodies of God’s servants that have been chosen to carry this priceless message. The common, everyday clay vessels of the ancient world were cheap, fragile, easily broken, and soon discarded. Thus, God has chosen fragile vessels to carry his priceless treasure of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that man will see the power of God displayed rather than the eloquence of man.

[59] James Denney, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, in The Expositor’s Bible, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1894), 158.

2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

2Co 4:9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

2Co 4:8-9 Comments Illustration of Earthen Vessels Paul choses to illustrate the weakness of God’s servants in 2Co 4:8-9 by describing their mortality, subject to the same pressures of life as those to whom they preach and minister; yet, in the midst of their frailty, God is always lifting them up, intervening so that they will walk in victory above the circumstances of this world. Paul will sum up these events 2Co 4:8-9 by describing them as our “light affliction” (2Co 4:17).

2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

2Co 4:10 “ that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” Comments – This means that people can see Jesus Christ in us.

Gal 3:1, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?”

Php 3:10, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”

Gal 6:17, “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

2Co 4:11  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

2Co 4:11 Comments – In the midst of his constant perils, persecutions and sufferings, Paul’s life became a constant miracle, a testimony of God’s all sufficiency. Paul’s body suffered abuse in order that the healing, sustaining, resurrection power of God might be made manifest to all. In other words, the resurrection power of God brings us through life’s toils and despair so that men may see Christ in us as His servants.

2Co 4:12  So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

2Co 4:13  We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;

2Co 4:13 Old Testament Quotes in the New Testament – This is a quote from Psa 116:10

Psa 116:10, “I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:”

The context of this passage of Scripture is the same context as that of Psalms 116, from which this verse is quoted. The context is thanksgiving to the Lord delivering his life. Note that 2Co 4:16-18 would be an excellent conclusion to Psalms 116.

2Co 4:14  Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

2Co 4:16 “yet the inward man is renewed day by day” Scripture References – Note similar verses:

Rom 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Col 3:10, “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:”

2Co 4:16 Comments – Even though our bodies are getting older and frailer, our inner man is growing in the Lord. We do not retire from God’s work. We just get better.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Paul’s bodily weakness:

v. 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

v. 8. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

v. 9. persecuted; but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

v. 10. always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

v. 11. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

v. 12. So, then, death worketh in us, but life in you.

Here the great humility of Paul is again evident, since he says that the glorious ministry with which he is identified was entrusted to weak and decaying vessels. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is borne by the ministers in earthen vessels, as the apostle calls their bodies, vessels made of clay, cheap and fragile. The description fits the human body in general, and that of the apostle in particular, as his humility prompts him to write. It may seem strange that so great a treasure should be kept for distribution in so frail and perishable a vessel as that of the human body, but the fact shows the principle of the divine purpose: That the exceeding greatness of the power (which is exhibited in the work of the Gospel) may be God’s and not from ourselves. “Our hands and tongues are indeed perishable and mortal things, but through these means, through these perishable and earthen vessels, the Son of God wants to exhibit His power. ” The very fact of the weakness and insignificance of the human vessels of God’s merciful proclamation therefore makes His own glory stand out all the more prominently by contrast. “Not the excellence of the vessel, but the great value of the treasure; not the person of the preacher, but the name which the preaching proclaims; not natural strength and ability of man, but the grace of God and God’s mighty Word: behold the superabundant power triumphing over the substance of this world, which goes forth from the preachers of the Gospel and elevates them above the sufferings of their calling.”

These sufferings with which the servants of the Lord are obliged to contend are now pictured by the apostle in his usual, effective manner: On all sides hard-pressed, but not hemmed in; bewildered, but not altogether despairing: pursued, but not outstripped; thrown down, but not destroyed. Paul, in these figures probably has the Isthmian games in mind once more, as in 1Co 9:24-27. He and his fellow workers, and all Christians, for that matter, are like wrestlers. Their opponents may press in upon them from all sides and threaten to obtain a death-grip, but they never fully succeed in obtaining the fatal hold; they may sometimes become puzzled by the skill exhibited by the adversaries, but they do not give up the struggle, they are not overcome. They are like runners in a race, with the goal almost before their eyes, whom their opponents try to outdistance and leave behind; but they manage, after all, to come in first. They are like boxers whom the adversaries might occasionally strike down, but who nevertheless rise with undaunted courage to resume the struggle and to become victors. All this the ministers of the Gospel experience in rich measure, and all faithful Christians are likewise partakers of like difficulties. In tribulations, in perplexities, in persecutions, in losses and trials of every kind the conflict goes on; defeat seems impending in a thousand circumstances, but the end is always a victory for the Gospel and its adherents.

And now the apostle reaches the climax of this burst of eloquence: Always bearing about the dying of Jesus in the body, in order that the life of Christ may also be manifested in our bodies; for always we that are living are delivered into death for the sake of Jesus, in order that the life of Jesus also might be manifested in our mortal flesh. Because they preached the Gospel, because they distributed the treasure of the Gospel, the messengers of the Lord were always subject to the sufferings which Christ also endured, for the disciple is not above his Master. To be delivered to death daily, hourly, for His sake, 1Co 15:31, to be killed all the day long, Rom 8:36, that is the privilege of the men that have devoted their life to the Lord and His work. For only by such absolute denial of self in His service does it become possible for the true life of Christ, with the fullness of His strength, to show itself in the ministers of Christ, Php_3:10 ; Col 1:24. Their flesh may be mortal, subject to death and decay, but in their spirit lives the undying, almighty power of the Ruler of the Kingdom of Power, of the King of Grace, and therefore they go forward from strength to strength, preaching the Gospel, building up the Kingdom, seeking God’s glory only, without thought of self. And the result, so far as their hearers are concerned, is: So that death is operative, active, in us, but life in you. Death was working in the apostle, because he was always exposed to death and desired nothing more; that was a necessary concomitant of his work for the Lord, he expected nothing more. This satisfied him, moreover, because, incidentally, life, true, spiritual life, was active in them through his ministry, as the effect of his preaching. It was the life of the risen Christ, which had its beginning here on earth, and would be fully accomplished in the realm of glory. Such is the example of Paul’s sacrifice for his Lord.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

2Co 4:7. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, Vessels of clay which have been baked, and are brittle. The word rendered earthen, , sometimes signifies shells, which are often made use of to preserve things of value in the cabinets of the curious; and these beinglikewise brittle, convey the same idea as the former,that of the frailty of the human body, and the value of the treasure deposited in them.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

2Co 4:7 ff. The apostle now (on to 2Co 4:10 ) turns to the relation which the outward position, seemingly quite incongruous, bears to so glorious a calling. This pertained to the completeness of his Apologia , and to him even without special attacks of opponents on this side it thus most naturally suggested itself! We must put aside the supposition that his opponents had reproached him with his bodily weakness and persecutions (see, especially, Calvin, Estius, Mosheim, Flatt, Emmerling) as testimonies against genuine apostleship, since such a reproach, which must have affected not him only, but the apostolic teachers in general, is in itself quite improbable, and no trace of it is found in the whole of the following section. Still this section also is certainly not without indirect polemic bearing; for Paul, owing to the peculiarity of his apostolic character, had borne and suffered far more than the rival Judaistic teachers; and hence there was in the relation of his afflictions to his working quite a peculiar holy triumph for him over his foes. Compare the noble effusion in 2Co 12:21 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

2Co 4:7 . ] merely carrying on the train of thought: Now to compare our outward position with this high vocation, we have, et.

] is referred either, in accordance with 2Co 4:6 , to the light kindled by God in the heart (Grotius, Flatt, Rckert, and others), or to the ministerium evangelii (Calvin, Estius, Bengel, Emmerling, and others). According to 2Co 4:6 , the inward divine enlightening ( . . .) is meant, and this definition of aim ( .) embraces in itself the ministerium evang .

] in vessels of clay . Contrast with , because, for such a treasure, some more costly and lasting vessel seems suitable. Comp. the opposite in Arrian, Epict. iii. 9 : , . We may add that Paul, who, in fact, speaks here not of himself alone (observe the plur. , and 2Co 4:6 , ), wishes not to affirm some special weakness of himself, but to say generally: Though we have so glorious a trust, yet is our body, the outward organ of our working, subject to the lot of being easily destructible . Following Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Theodoret, most commentators have rightly found in a figurative designation of the body ; while Billroth and Rckert, following Estius, Calovius, Wolf, and others, understand the whole personality . Against the latter view we may urge as well the characteristic , which can refer only to the corporeal part (comp. Gen 2:7 ; 1Co 15:47 ), as also 2Co 4:16 ; 2Co 5:1 ff. For examples of the use of [196] for the easily destructible corporeality (as Artemidorus, vi 25: ), see Wetstei.

. . .] The design of God in this, namely, in order that the abundant fulness of power , which comes to be applied, namely, in our ministry working . . ., 2Co 4:6 , in spite of all sufferings and persecutions (see what follows), may appear as the property of God, and not as proceeding from us . The context furnishes that special reference of the . The opposite of the conception of is (Plato, Protag. 356 A, Def . p. 415 A, al. ).

] , , Theophylact.

The is to be taken logice of the being, which presents itself to cognition ; as often with Paul (Rom 3:26 ; Rom 3:4 ; Rom 3:19 ; Rom 7:13 ). Rckert denies this, but comes back himself to the same view by giving the meaning thus: God wishes to be the One, and to be recognised as such , who alone, etc. The explanation of Tertullian, the Vulgate, Estius, according to which . is connected with , is against the order of the word.

[196] To this category does not belong Plato, Phaedr . p. 250 C, which passage is compared by Osiander, but there the body is figuratively presented as mussel ( ).

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

IX.THE WORTHLESS AND FEEBLE APPEARANCE OF MINISTERS. CONFIDENCE IN VIEW OF THE GLORIOUS RESULT OF THEIR AFFLICTIONS

2Co 4:7 to 2Co 5:10

7But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency [exceeding greatness] 8of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side [In every way we are hard pressed], yet not distressed [inextricably straitened]; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord [om. the Lord]8 Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be 12made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then [that]9 death worketh in us, but life in you. 13We [But] having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe, and 14[om. and]10 therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that he which raised up the Lord11 Jesus shall raise up us also by [with]12 Jesus, and shall present us with you. 15For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound [that the grace, becoming more abundant in consequence of the greater number, might multiply () the thanksgiving] to the glory of God. 16For which cause we faint not13; but though our outward man perish [is wasting away, ], yet the [our] inward14 man is renewed day by day. 17For our light affliction, which is but for a moment15, worketh for us a far more exceeding and [om. and] eternal weight of glory; 18while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal [temporary, ], but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2Co 5:1. For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle [tent-dwelling] were dissolved, we have [in the heavens] a building of [from, ] God, a house not made with hands, eternal [,] in the heavens [om. in the heavens]. 2For in this [also] we groan, earnestly 3desiringto be clothed upon with [to put on over this] our house which is from 4heaven: if so be that [since indeed, ]16 being clothed17 we shall not be found naked. For [even] we that are in this [the]18 tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, [because we are not willing to be unclothed], but clothed upon, 5that mortality [our mortal part] might be swallowed up of [by] life. Now [But] he that hath wrought us [out] for the self-same thing is God, who also [om. also]19 hath6given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are [Being] always confident, 7knowing that, whilst we are at [in our] home in the body, we are absent from [our home in] the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight [appearance]: 8we are confident, 9I say, and willing [well pleased] rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore [also] we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of [acceptable to] him. 10For we must all appear [be made manifest] before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in [through] his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be [were] good or bad.20

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

2Co 4:7. [This glorious ministry was intrusted to weak and decaying vessels. As the Apostle had spoken many and great things of the indescribable glory, there was danger that some would say, How can those who have such glory continue in these mortal bodies? He, therefore, says that this is indeed a matter of chief surprise, and a remarkable instance of Divine power, that an earthen vessel should be able to endure such extreme splendor, and to hold in custody so great a treasure. Chrysostom. He insensibly passes to the Divine supports which he experienced under the weaknesses of his body and the difficulties of his work].But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.The leads us on to the exhibition of the contrast between the glory of which he had just been speaking, and the infirmity and afflicted state of those who were its possessors. We can hardly suppose that he is here directly defending himself against objections which had been formally arrayed against him (see Meyer); and yet he doubtless had his eye on those opponents who had endured much less for Christs cause. (comp. 2Co 11:23 ff.).The word treasure indicates the great value of the Divine illumination (2Co 4:6), and of course implies the importance of the office which is directed to the diffusion of the light of the knowledge, etc. In contrast with this is the , clayey vessel, which is of a cheap and fragile nature. We naturally expect that a valuable possession will be deposited in precious and valuable vessels. In this he has no reference to some special insignificance or weakness of his person, or to some peculiar sickliness of his bodily frame, nor indeed to himself exclusively (, , 2Co 4:6), but according to his usage, to the general state of the human body, perishable as it always is, and destined to dissolution. (comp. 2Co 4:16; 2Co 5:1 ff.).[The word , as applied to the human body, had almost lost its metaphorical character among the Greeks. (comp. Rom 9:22-23; 1Pe 3:7; 2Ti 2:21). The Platonists spoke of two bodies; one ( ) was the external chariot or vehicle of the soul, and the other ( ) was the frail body which the soul inhabits as the testacea do their shell. The substantive signifies either burnt clay, with any thing made of it, a piece of tile, and especially the tablet used in voting (hence ostracise), or the hard shell of the testacea. The latter seems to have been the most ancient meaning, and the two significations are connected, perhaps because shells were at first used as vessels, or were the material from which vessels were made. Chrysostom: Our mortal nature is nothing better constituted than earthen ware; for it is soon damaged, and by death and disease, and variations of temperature and ten thousand other things, easily dissolved. Dr. Hodge, Neander and Billroth think that earthen vessels here signify not the frail bodies merely, but the whole human nature of ministers since it is not solely on account of their corporeal frailty that they are incompetent to produce the effects which flow from their ministrations. But though the fact here assumed is true, the mind of the Apostle was evidently here fixed upon the body alone; as is clear from the usage of , and from the equivalent phrases (our outward man, and our earthly tent in which we dwell) in 2Co 4:16 and 2Co 5:1.]. In the apparent unsuitableness of such an arrangement, he discovered a Divine purpose of an exalted character.That the exceeding greatness of the power may be seen to be Gods and not ours.[On the telic and not ecbatic signification of consult Winer 57, p. 355]. The exceeding greatness of the power ( (found also in 2Co 12:7) ) signifies the power which was so triumphant in the whole sphere of the Apostolic ministry to convert and enlighten men, notwithstanding the afflictions, persecutions, difficulties and conflicts which had to be endured. (comp. 2Co 4:8 ff.). It was in these very circumstances that its superiority to every other agency had been shown ( 1Co 4:20).The like in Rom 7:13, and in Rom 3:26, has the logical import of or [i. e., may appear to be.]. The genitive has the force of, belonging to God; and it is contrasted with : going out from us.

2Co 4:8-10. [All the sentences in this passage are participial, and yet they are not inappropriately rendered in our A. V. in the first person of the present Indicative. In each of these pairs of antitheses the signification of the second is cognate to that of the first; in those in 2Co 6:9-10, contrary: each second is also here the extreme of the first. Webster & Wilkinson]. They are connected in signification with the preceding verse, in which had been announced the design or end God had in view. He thus asserts that the superabundant power which was exhibited in his Apostolical work belonged entirely to that God who helped him and carried him through all his distresses and infirmities.We are pressed in every way but not straitened. signifies here, not in all places, but in every way and on every occasion, as in 2Co 7:5. [Dr. Hodge also suggests that the words belong to all the following clauses, and not merely to the first]. signifies to be hemmed in a narrow space from which there is no exit. [Stanley: pressed for room, but still having room]. The noun occurs in 2Co 6:4; 2Co 12:10. As , in which Gods power is displayed, is related to , so is to :perplexed but not despairing.The word signifies, to come into perplexities and . to come into such extreme despair, that one knows not what to do or where to look for help. [Stanley: losing our way, but not entirely; bewildered, but not benighted]. There is probably in this antithesis an allusion, not merely to his external, but to his internal state; for under distressing and straitened circumstances, under fatigue and hostile assaults, the mind becomes oppressed, and hence perplexed and in despair. In such a condition Gods power had been revealed, so that in the midst of his human infirmities, he had not been reduced to extremity, nor been without counsel or hope.Persecuted, but not forsaken (2Co 4:9).He here begins to speak of outward circumstances. In and the metaphor is not that of a foot-race [pursued, but not left behind, (Olshausen, Stanley,) for the Apostle is speaking, not of rivalry from those who as runners had the same end in view, but of troubles and persecutions Alford]; for , as in 1Co 4:12, signifies to be persecuted (so in 2Co 12:10), and , to be left under persecutions, to be abandoned without help (see Meyer). The word occurs also in 2Ti 4:16. The figure of a conflict runs through both clauses of the verse:cast down, but not destroyed; is an advance beyond the meaning of , for it asserts that he was not only chased, but pulled or stricken down to the ground. Neander: We have here the comparison of a combatant who is indeed thrown down by his antagonist in the conflict, and is awaiting his death blow, but who, after all, succeeds in rising again. The Catholic interpretation is: one who is seized in his flight, and is prostrated, but not slain. Not being destroyed was the consequence of not being forsaken. In 2Co 4:10 the apostolic sufferings are set forth in their highest degree of intensity, as an extreme peril of life itself, a perpetual hanging in suspense:always bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus.(comp. 1Co 15:31; Rom 8:36). is a killing, or putting to death, but it has also an intransitive signification, a dying; here in a physical and not an ethical sense. (comp. 2Co 4:11). The dying of Jesus is represented as permanently connected with his body in such a way that he was never without it, and always carried it with him. [It was a perpetual , a dying, but never a , death]. It was something which attached to him in consequence of his common fellowship with Jesus in his mode of life and his office, and accompanied him wherever he was. [Chrysostom: we are shown every day dying, that we may also be seen every day rising again]. Those explanations miss the true sense of the Apostle, which describe it as a violent death from wounds (Gal 6:17), or a sickness which contained the seeds of death (Rckert). The antithesis is introduced in the following final sentencethat the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our bodywhere we are told the purpose or design which God had in view when He permitted such sufferings (comp. 2Co 4:7). The life of Jesus. the , contrasted with the , signifies that life which is the triumphant result of the death of Jesus, viz: the life which He had in His resurrection. Its manifestation in the body of the Apostle was probably nothing but the fact that although he was always in danger of death, he always came forth alive out of his deadly perils. The idea is that of unity with Christ or resemblance to Christ in His life, as before in His dying. The context and the contrast suggest this. Though Jesus or the life of Jesus may have been the source of this life, such is not the assertion of the text, and such an assertion would not be suitable to the context. If we attempt to unite the two ideas in one explanation, we only mingle together two distinct representations (life in its unity and resemblance, and life in its energy). In a subsequent part of the Apostles discourse (2Co 4:14 ff.) the glorification of the body in the resurrection is perhaps a topic of consideration, but no allusion is made to it here. Still less is there any reference to a spiritual or moral influence, as though the Apostle would assert that the same living power through which Christ was raised and now lives, might be seen in the invincible energy of soul which he exhibited in the midst of all his adversities (de Wette). It is inconsistent with such a view that he uses the phrase, in our body ( ), and the corresponding expression, in our mortal flesh ( , 2Co 4:11, comp. also 2Co 6:9); and it is not a sufficient explanation of this idea to say, that his official influence is conceived of in its outward manifestation, in connection with and acting through the feeble members of his body (Osiander). [It is, however, against this wholly natural view of the life of Jesus acting in Pauls body that, in 2Co 4:12, he speaks of it as acting through him upon the Corinthians, and in them producing spiritual effects (comp. Alford. But see notes on that ver.). Perhaps Paul does not refer to any single thing in the life of the Lord Jesus, but means that he did this in order that in all things the same life, the same kind of living which characterized the Lord Jesus might be manifested in him; so that he resembled Him in his sufferings and trials, in order that in all things he might have the same life in his body.Barnes].

2Co 4:11. For we which live are ever delivered unto death.This is an explanation and a confirmation of what had been said in 2Co 4:10. Corresponding with the bearing about the dying of Jesus in the body, we have here a being delivered unto death for Jesus sake. And yet it does not follow that the dying of Jesus was precisely the same as the dying for Jesus sake. The thought (2Co 4:10) of the identity of the dying (in behalf of the same cause) is modified in 2Co 4:11 by becoming a deliverance unto death for Jesus sake. Both ideas, however, are fundamentally the same, so far as the cause of Gods kingdom, for which both Jesus and His Apostle endured such deadly sufferings, and the person and name of Jesus himself, were essentially connected. In , here rendered, for Jesus sake, indicates the true reason but not the object had in view (to glorify Jesus), although the cause and the design are closely united. Much less does this preposition mean the same thing as: auctoritate Jesu, for it cannot have reference to the motive of the action, inasmuch as the deliverance () is passive, and can have no allusion to the voluntariness of the subject of the action. The being delivered to death ( . .) is intensified by the contrast implied in, we who are alive ( .), as if they were delivered up to death in full life. Neander: Now we seem in the midst of life and a moment afterwards we are given up to death. This is neither an anticipation of what is said in the succeeding final sentence (as if the Apostle had intended to say: we who are kept alive), nor is it the same as to say: as long as we live; nor is it a feeble expression by which he would inform us: we who are still alive while so many of our fellow-Christians are dead; nor, moreover, is it to be taken as an emphatic description of the spiritual life (Osiander, Bisping); those in whom Jesus life acts to make them His organs of communication with men must have life through the spirit and power of faith (Joh 3:36; Joh 11:25; Gal 2:20). Such a view as is contained in this last mode of interpretation could derive support only from the final sentence in 2Co 4:10, as it is explained by de Wette. The deliverance to death was accomplished through the agency of men, but it must be referred ultimately to God ( ), inasmuch as the final sentence indicates that there was a Divine purpose in the case.that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.In the inference which is drawn in this final sentence, the words, in our mortal flesh ( ), are emphatic, and are an augmentation of the thought expressed in 2Co 4:10 respecting the manifestation in our body ( ); or perhaps they are a stronger expression to bring into more striking contrast the revelation of Jesus life, inasmuch as this life must become more manifest in the midst of this weakness and frailty of the body.

2Co 4:12. So then death worketh in as but life in you.We have here the result of what he had just described, and its relation to the Corinthian Church. We should naturally have expected in such an expression (lect. rec.), but the particle was probably left out by the Apostle intentionally, that the contrast might be the more striking. Death and life were both active powers (as in every other part of the New Testament must be taken in an active and not in a passive signification.) Death was working in the Apostle, inasmuch as he was always exposed to death (2Co 4:10-11), but life was working in the Corinthians. But in what sense was this true of the Corinthians? Not directly but mediately, in the degree in which Jesus life was revealed in the Apostles body. The connection with 2Co 4:10-11 seems to demand this. It was by the Apostles dangers that he came into just the position to exert his apostolic powers for their good. While, therefore, he felt the continual influence of death, they were receiving a perpetual stream of quickening energies from his death. We are neither compelled to understand (with de Wette and Osiander) the life () here spoken of as meaning the higher spiritual life, the Divine power which was glorified in the Apostles sufferings and its working (), as expressing the beneficial influence of his ministry in implanting and strengthening their faith, nor would we be justified in giving such a turn to the thought. [On the other hand Alford contends that the idea of Christs natural life acting upon the Corinthians through Paul, is much forced. In Rom 8:10 f., the vivifying influence of His Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead is spoken of as extending to the body also; here the upholding influence of Him who delivers and preserves the body is spoken of as vivifying the whole man: life, in both places, being the higher and spiritual life, including the lower and natural. And in our relative positionsye are examples of this life since ye are a church of believers, alive to God through Christ in your various vocations, and not called upon to be as we are, who are (not indeed excluded from that lifenay, it flows from us to youbut are) more especially examples of conformity to the death of our common Lord, in whom death works. Death and life are personified, and the one is operative in Paul and the other in the Corinthians.Hodge]. Entirely unsuitable to the whole tenor of the Epistle and of this particular section would be the supposition of an irony in which the Apostle contrasts his own extreme perils with the peace and prosperity of the Corinthians. Comp. 1Co 4:8 (Chrysostom, Calvin).

2Co 4:13-14.But having the same spirit of faith (as it is written, I believed, therefore I spoke).The Apostle now passes on to the spiritual side of the description he was giving of the Divine power in him (2Co 4:7). [But though you might think this working of death discouraging to us, it is not so in fact; for we are animated by two great principles: first, an assured faith that we shall participate with you in the benefits of the Gospel (2Co 4:13-16), and secondly, a confident hope of a glorious renovation (2Co 4:16-18). Our version omits the connecting particle which expresses the contrast between what follows and what precedes: death worketh indeed in us, but] the same spirit of faith impels us to speak to our fellow-men and to make known the Gospel, which had been expressed in that passage of Scripture, in which it is said: I believed, therefore I spoke. The also introduces an additional point in the discourse. The Spirit of faith denotes, not the spirit or disposition of faith, but the Spirit of God, which produced faith in the heart, the Spirit which he had received, which dwelt in him, and whose organ he was in the ministration of the Spirit. 2Co 3:8; comp. the spirit of meekness in 1Co 4:21; Gal 6:1, et al. Neander: the Apostle is here speaking of that peculiar influence of the Holy Spirit by which he acquired a confirmed confidence in God that he would come forth triumphant over all death, and that every thing would promote the welfare of himself and of the whole Church. refers not to the faith of the Corinthians (the same which ye have), for the context suggests nothing of this kind, and the Apostle is speaking of the Corinthians only as the receivers or objects of his beneficial agency, but to the with its contents: the same spirit of confidence in God which is expressed in the following passage of the Scriptures. The passage is found in Psa 116:10, though it is taken from the LXX., and does not give us the precise translation of the original Heb. , believed, for I spoke. [Comp. Hengstenberg on the Psalms.]. This, however, conducts us essentially to the same idea, for the speech, the discourse of the psalmist, expressive of prayerful submission, thankfulness and hope (2Co 4:1-9), is something in which faith is shown, and must have proceeded from faith. Bengel says: No sooner does faith exist than she begins to speak to others, and while speaking recognizes herself and grows in power.Like the Psalmist, we also believe and therefore speak.The believing of the Apostle, like that of the Psalmist, was a firm assurance that the quickening power of the Lord would help him through, and deliver him out of all his distresses. From this proceeds a spirit of praise for the deliverance given him; for in his preaching and in his testimony before the Church, his great object was to glorify God.But the faith which moved him to speak involved also a confident hope that the power of God would ever afterwards be manifested in him, 2Co 4:14 :Knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus.We have in like manner in 1Co 15:58. The basis of this hope was the Divine fact on which all his faith and his salvation rested, 1Co 15:13 ff.; Rom 8:11, et al. The substance of this confidence was, that he who had raised up the Lord Jesus, will raise up us also with Jesus.The most natural and probably the correct view of this passage leads our thoughts to the general resurrection. The fact that in other passages Paul holds before himself and his fellow-believers of that period the possibility that they might be changed without dying (1Co 15:52; 1Th 4:15 f.), does not militate against such a view, for he also intimates (2Co 5:8) that they miht possibly be called to die, and we may include under the general idea of being raised up, the more special one of a simple change (comp. on 1Co 6:14). Instead of one would more naturally have expected or , 1Co 15:21-22. But just as in 1Th 4:14, the fellowship with him into which they were to be introduced, was pointed out, so the resurrection with Jesus in this place is a pattern which, in like manner, is founded upon a fellowship with Him, and is its highest realization and glorification, Eph 2:6; Col 2:12; Col 3:1. Of a resurrection with Jesus, in some other sense than that of a bodily resurrection, the Apostle never speaks, except in the past tense. No intimation is given of a deliverance from the peril of death (Meyer), and the words, with Jesus, are at least no more fitted to such an idea than they are to in the sense of a literal resurrection of the dead. If the former is a common fellowship in the lot of the risen Jesus, the latter is still more so. It is for this reason that he immediately adds:and will present us with you.This must refer to a presentation before the judgment seat of Christ for the reception of the great prize (2Co 1:14; 2Co 5:10; comp. 2Ti 4:8; 2 Thess. 2:19), or, which comes to the same result, a presentation of them as the companions of Christ in His kingdom. [This presentation by Christ is not the same with standing before His bar for judgment. The Apostle has here no allusion to the more awful scenes of the last judgment (2Co 5:10) but only to the more animating presentation with Christ and by Christ for final acceptance by the Father].

2Co 4:15. For all things are for your sakes.This is immediately connected with the preceding phrase, in which he had declared that he would have fellowship with them in the future glory. The all things has reference to what he had said of his afflictions and his deliverances, of his faith and its fruits, and of his speaking and witnessing for the truth in the power of faith. In 2Co 4:12 he had said that life was energizing in them, and he now declares that all things he had mentioned ( ), would turn out for their good. (comp. 2Co 1:6; Php 1:25; 2Ti 2:10). He will present us with you, for all these things take place for your sakes. In the final sentence he tells them of the ultimate result to which all things would be conducted:in order that the grace which abounds through many, might multiply thanksgivings to the glory of God.The grace () is here not the whole salvation sealed by the resurrection of Christ, for such an idea would not be expressed by a phrase like , but the gracious assistance of which he had just spoken. (2Co 4:10 ff.). signifies that the grace was increased or enlarged by the greater number of those who participate in it, or to whom it is extended. The persons here spoken of are not those who would become interested in the blessing in consequence of the Corinthians intercessions in his behalf, for his subject did not call for such an allusion (as in 2Co 1:11). The same general sense of the passage would be gained if we should connect with the following ):that the abounding grace might multiply the thanksgivings by means of many.In this case the increased number, who participated in the blessing, were those through whom the grace, extended or enlarged by their participation, would be the means of a more abundant thanksgiving. This is certainly better than passing over the intervening , to govern by (in which case the genitive would have been more grammatical; comp. 2Co 9:12), and to take in an intransitive sense. The word, however, is frequently used in either a transitive or an intransitive signification; comp. 2Co 9:8; 2Co 9:12. On the phrase, to the glory of God, comp. 1Co 10:31. [Alford presents us with four ways of translating this clause: 1.that grace having abounded by means of the greater number (who have received it), may multiply the thanksgiving to the glory of God; 2. that grace having abounded, may, on account of the thanksgiving of the greater number, be multiplied to the glory of God. (Luther, Bengel, etc.); 3. that grace having abounded, may, by means of the greater number, multiply the thanksgiving to the glory of God. (De Wette); 4. that grace having multiplied by means of the greater number, the thanksgiving may abound to the glory of God. (Proposed as possible, but not adopted by himself). He prefers the first as most agreeable to the position of the words and to the emphasis.]

2Co 4:16-18. For which cause we faint not. refers back to 2Co 4:14. (2Co 4:15 was only an explanation of 2Co 4:14). We faint not ( ) occurs here in the same sense as in 2Co 4:1. In positive contrast with this, he says:but even if our outward man is wasted away, our inward (man) is nevertheless renewed day by day.The outward man ( ), is an expression found only in this place, and it denotes the whole personal existence, so far as it is embodied in nature and the laws of the external common life. On the other hand, denotes the same personal existence, so far as it is determined by the Divine law, and participates in the fulness of the Divine life. Comp. Rom 7:22; comp. 23 (where is an equivalent word): Eph 3:16 comp. 19. (Beck, Seelenl., 68 f. comp. 42, 37). Meyer thinks the former expression denotes that which is visible in us, i.e., our corporeal nature, and the latter, our intellectual, rational and moral selves. Osiander understands by the latter term, the essential nature of man, kindred with God and capable of regeneration. [Hodge: mans higher naturehis soul as the subject of the Divine life.] Comp. Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychol., pp. 145 f. 331, 333. [Alford, Stanley, Barnes and Bloomfield understand by it simply the soul in distinction from the body]. The doctrine of Collenbusch and Menken, that the inner man is an invisible body, existing in some concealed form within us, cannot be sustained by any natural exegesis, or by the plain meaning of these words. The attempt which Osiander has made to devise an intermediate doctrine according to which the inner man is the sphere of the higher spiritual life, which, however, communicates itself to the whole man by perpetually acting in an outward direction, and which, therefore, contains the germ of a higher bodily life and of a corporeal resurrection, is certainly problematical. The wasting away () of our outer man, i. e., the destruction of the outer man by the consuming, fretting, and disintegrating conflicts which his sufferings involved, is here alluded to as an actual process in the (which cannot mean: even supposing that. Rckert), and was an actual fact of the Apostles experience, notwithstanding the salvation asserted in 2Co 4:10 f. In contrast with this perishing of the outer, he now places the renewal () of the inner man. Neander: the presupposes an original image of God in man. Both processes are represented as perpetually going on, but the inward man is said to be continually endued with new power, i. e., to be renewed, and sustained by the quickening Spirit ( ) which came to him from Christ. (2Co 3:17 f. and 2Co 4:6). is like the Hebr. , Psa 68:20; Gen 39:10; Est 3:4). The second is equivalent to: yet, nevertheless, as is frequently the case in hypothetical conclusions in which the apodosis contains a contrast to the protasis. (comp. 2Co 5:16; 2Co 9:6; 2Co 13:4; 1Co 4:15; 1Co 9:2).For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us exceeding abundantly, an eternal weight of glory. (2Co 4:17).He here notices what it was which gave such continual refreshment to his inward man, under the exhausting influence of his sufferings. It was the hope of glory with which the Spirit of Christ had inspired him, and which showed him that these suffering were only the momentary and slight inconveniences of a transition state, and the necessary means of attaining a state of glory. (Comp. 2Co 4:14; Rom 5:6; Rom 8:17 ff.). Inasmuch as this view of his sufferings contained the reason for the renewal of which he had spoken (), he introduces it with a The verse contains a sharp antithesis. There is on the one hand ,the momentary21 (coming and going in a moment) lightness (in respect to weight and therefore easily to be borne) of the affliction (an oxymoron, since , oppression, implies something heavy), and on the other, the eternal weight of glory ( ). signifies weight, and therefore pressure, and would seem more appropriately connected with the affliction (), but is here applied to the glory () on account of the great extent or high degree of the glory. The meaning is: the affliction is soon over and light, while the glory is everlasting and weighty. Possibly the affliction was called momentary on account of the nearness of Christs second coming, i. e. the Parousia (Meyer). Certainly the everlasting duration and the magnitude of the glory, when contemplated by a steady eye of faith, would make afflictions seem but momentary and light.But we must understand the Apostle as implying that the afflictions are the actual cause of the glory. The is the means of producing and bringing to pass the , i. e. the glory of the heavenly kingdom. This is a consequence of that. What is represented in other passages as a reward (com. Mat 5:10; Luk 16:25; Rom 8:27; 2Ti 2:12; Rom 5:2-5), is here represented as a natural result. The affliction so exercises and purifies the believer, that he is qualified to enjoy the glory, or, it promotes the sanctification of both soul and body. Nothing is said, however, to imply that the sufferings have any merit in themselves, or have any intrinsic value in the matter of our justification.The qualification does not seem applicable to , and it must therefore be connected with ; they work in a superabundant manner, even to a superfluity. Meyer explains it as: the measureless energy and the measureless results of the working (, comp. 2Co 1:8; 2Co 10:15; 1Co 12:31; Gal 1:13; Rom 7:13, et al.). It may then be indirectly connected with the (Osiander). A separation of the words so as to make the first , have reference to (the exceedingly intense affliction), and the second . to the (Bengel) is not sustained by grammatical usage.Such an accumulation of epithets indicates the highest possible degree, but not a development of the glory from one super-eminent position of glory to another still higher. In 2Co 4:18 he notices still further the subjective reason for such a result: while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. To take this in the sense of something which must be presupposed is a condition to what had just been said, is not called for, since the Apostle in the context is not exhorting his readers, but is simply describing a fact, and can be taken only by way of application to a more extensive class (to believers generally). is: to take in sight, particularly to look upon the object of our exertion, as in Php 2:4. The things which are seen ( ) are the blessings of the , the things we perceive by our senses; the things not seen ( ) are those of the , things which are beyond the perception of our senses, and yet not precisely the same as the (invisible things). Bengel says: many things which are at present unseen, will be visible when faiths journey is accomplished. The in connection with describes the subjective position in which believers are supposed to be (Winer 22).For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2Co 4:18).He here gives the reason for the not looking at, etc., (temporary), is applicable to a definite period of time, that which continues only for a limited season, and hence means not so much temporal as transitory. It occurs also in Mat 13:21; Mar 4:17; Heb 9:25.

5

2Co 5:1. For we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved.We have here the reasons assigned for what had been said in 2Co 4:17 : We have said that our temporal afflictions worked for us an eternal weight of glory, and the reason is, we know, etc. Or, it will come to the same end, if we take the idea thus: Our afflictions accomplish the result we have mentioned; for we have, as we know, etc. , we, i. e., the Apostle and his companions know, for there is no appeal here to the general consciousness of men, as in some other places. expresses the possible occurrence of an event, the actual occurrence of which he leaves to the future to determine. This event is his not living until the Parousia, the second coming of Christ. It was the death of his present body, here figuratively called the destruction of his earthly tabernacle. is here the genitive of apposition, for the house was the same as the (well-known) tabernacle. The body is thus described as a dwelling of the spirit which is easily broken up. There is no allusion, however, to the tent habitations of the Israelites in the wilderness, or the tabernacle of witness there. In the same way we have in 2Pe 1:13 f. The word (tent) was frequently used among the Greeks for the earthly habitation or covering of the soul, but invariably with reference to the earthly body, and always with some allusion to the fundamental notion of a temporary tent. (Meyer).1 , as in 1Co 15:40, means that which is on earth. [Stanley: not of but upon the earth (comp. 1Co 15:40), opposed to and ]. In case this earthly habitation, which was given him only for a time, should be destroyed, he expresses his certain assurance that we have a building (which is) from Goda dwelling not made by hands, eternal, in the heavens.The words are not to be joined with , as if we received it from God, and yet the dwelling was said to be of a directly Divine origin. This is said in the highest sense, as if it were the result of an immediate Divine agency ( 1Co 15:38); and was not like the present body, merely of a general Divine origin (1Co 12:18-24). In this respect it was like the heavenly city of which it is said that its builder and maker is God. Heb 11:10. But this building () is not the city of God nor the house of the Father, Joh 14:3 (in which case the phrase: our earthly dwelling of this tabernacle, would imply that the earth itself is a transient place of residence), but the resurrection body, the result of a new Divine creation. This is still further defined as an house not made by hands (). In this expression, the lower human origin is denied, but in a way corresponding to the figure and not to the thing spoken of. It is not needful here to recur to the original formation of the body in Gen 2:7-21. Neander: He is here speaking of a higher heavenly organ to contain the soul, instead of the earthly body. [The use of (comp. 2Co 4:1 ff.) forbids us to understand by the , a temporary lodgment of the soul, to be succeeded by the glorified body at the resurrection. It must mean a permanent spiritual corporeity (so to speak) capable of coexisting with the body of the resurrection. It is something which is not the soul, but essential to its perfect consciousness of personality and identity. The human being, it is probable, cannot exist as pure spirit. A vehicle or form, perhaps an organization, may be necessary to its action. (See Taylors Physical Theory of Another Life, chap. 1.). Hence the use of the varied terms , , , also the expressions . . and the deprecatory language of 2Co 5:3, and . 2Co 5:4.Webster and Wilkinson]. But this dwelling is said to be eternal in contrast with the dwelling of this tabernacle. [In our English version a comma should separate eternal and in the heavens. Fausset]. The last qualification, (opp. ) should be joined with so as to say that we have this dwelling in the heavens. But how is this to be understood? The present tense would seem to refer to some period immediately after death. But if the soul is to have a body corresponding to its condition at that time (of which, to say the least, the Scriptures distinctly say nothing), then the dwelling here mentioned cannot be eternal. Nor would what is said in 2Co 5:2 of our house which is from heaven, agree very well with such an assertion. Comp. Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 374 ff. It is possible indeed that refers to a mere reversion or expectancy, i. e., to an ideal possession like that which is spoken of when it is said: Thou shalt have treasure in heaven (Luk 18:22). In such a case the dwelling would merely be secured for believers, just as the life mentioned in Col 3:3 (comp. 2Co 1:5, and the crown of righteousness in 2Ti 4:8) is said to be. Or it may be alleged that the intermediate state between death and the resurrection is entirely lost sight of in the Apostles mind, inasmuch as we know that he looked upon it as altogether temporary, and hence that the perfection to be attained after the resurrection was the absorbing object of his attention in this passage (Osiander). It is hardly probable that such a man would have changed his mind so soon after writing the fifteenth chapter of his former Epistle to the Corinthians, and so should now have believed that he was to pass immediately at death into the blessedness of the resurrection body. And yet how can we reconcile what is here said with what is said in that chapter respecting the development of the resurrection body out of the earthly? It was doubtless his deliberate conviction that in the Parousia, when our Lord shall return, the heavenly bodies prepared for all who belong to Christ, shall be brought down to this earth, and a power shall be imparted to those then alive of changing, and to those then deceased of uniting with, the essential germs of their bodies, and that these shall thus attain their proper fulness and form. Neander: There is certainly a marked distinction between what Paul here says and what he had taught in his earlier Epistles. During that earlier period his most ardent thoughts had been directed to the second coming of Christ. Now, however, when he was oppressed by apprehensions of death (2Co 4:10-12), his mind was more impressed with the feeling that he might not live to see this second coming of Christ. In this state of mind he had new and additional discoveries of Divine truth on this subject, either by means of his own reflections under the direction of the Holy Ghost, or by means of direct revelations from heaven. from the promises of Christ, and from the very nature of fellowship with Christ, he was now satisfied that death would be only a progress toward a higher state of existence, and this thought had been developed into a conviction that the soul must come into possession of an organ adapted to the active conscious life immediately after death.2

2Co 5:2-4.For in this also we groanearnestly desiring to put on over it our house which is from heaven:We have here one proof or sign that what he had asserted in 2Co 5:1 was a reality. This proof was the fact that even while we remain in our earthly bodies we have an intense longing for a house from heaven. has here not the sense of therefore, on this account, as in Joh 16:30, as if the succeeding participial sentence were merely an exposition of the previous verse; nor is its object simply to explain what was meant in 2Co 5:1 by the dissolution of the earthly habitation. It rather refers (comp. 2Co 5:4, we who are in this tabernacle) to the tabernacle () of 2Co 5:1, and presents a contrast to the supposition there made that it might be dissolved. The accent, therefore, should be placed upon ; and should be looked upon as belonging to it. The sense would then be: we know this to be so, and the proof of it is in the fact, that even now in these bodies also we show our longings after the object of that confidence by our sighs.A similar style of argument may be found in Rom 8:22 f. The earnest desire here spoken of gives us the true reason for the sighing. That which he had called in 2Co 5:1 a building from God, a house which we have in heaven, he here calls a habitation from heaven ( ) not merely on account of its origin, but because it was actually to come down from heaven to earth. is somewhat more absolute, whereas , a domicile, expresses its proper relation to the inhabitant (Bengel). (to superimpose, to put on over, in which he passes to the figure of a garment) is not a putting on of one garment after another has been laid aside, but a putting on of one garment over another, comp. 2Co 5:4. The longing is for a transformation in which the earthly body will not be laid aside (in death), but the heavenly will be thrown over it. The idea is that of a new embodiment without a destruction of the corporeal system which had been possessed on earth. [ The expression . compared with and . sufficiently distinguishes the spoken of from the resuscitated body. Web. and Wilk.]Since, in fact being clothed, we shall not be found naked. (2Co 5:3). We have here a crux interpretum. If we adopt the two readings, , we shall have a natural meaning by giving to the sense of: although, albeit; in which case the idea would be: although we may be unclothed, (dead), we shall not be found naked, i. e., without a body; for we shall be clothed with a resurrection body. With the reading we obtain the same general idea, if we contrast that word with , and regard it as the putting on of the resurrection body: If indeed we shall be found clothed and not naked (Flatt). Such a method, however, would be of very doubtful propriety. But it would be quite unallowable to interpret as a concessive particle, or to concede no force to the , as if the word were equivalent to . Fritzsche regards as having the same force as ., and the sense of quandoquidem, and he then looks upon this verse as giving a reason for the longing mentioned in 2Co 5:2 : since we shall attain the possession of our imperishable bodies just as well by putting on our immortal bodies when we shall be alive, as by putting them on after we have laid aside our earthly bodies (i. e., in consequence of death and the resurrection, 1Co 15:52). Such an announcement would be grammatically appropriate, but 1, such a use of in connection with before and after it, 2Co 5:2; 2Co 5:4, is not very probable; and 2, the remark itself seems so self-evident and trivial, that it would be unworthy of the Apostle. But Rckerts interpretation. as it is certain that we shall not be without a body () after death, breaks up the logical train of thought, and with many the assertion thus made would not be looked upon as quite certain from the Scriptures. Meyer (who adopts the readings of the Rec. .) thinks that the Apostle has reference occasionally in this argument to those who denied a future resurrection (1 Corinthians 15.), for otherwise he cannot account for the insertion of 2Co 5:3. He thinks the Apostle intends to assert here his belief, his absolute certainty () that not only those Christians who shall finally be changed, but those who shall then be raised from the dead, shall meet the Lord at His second coming not destitute of bodies (), but provided with corporeal coverings: we have these longings (i. e., for the , 2Co 5:2) on the presumption that, being clothed, we shall not be found naked ( has the sense of: if indeed, or if so be, implying a certainty, not by the force of the particle itself, but in consequence of the connection of the idea and the tenor of Pauls discourse). would also have in this case the sense of: truly.3 would denote an act which had taken place before the and it is therefore an aorist participle. Such an interpretation has nothing grammatically against it. But a reference to the deniers of the doctrine of the resurrection cannot be presupposed without a high degree of improbability, and as the whole interpretation becomes feeble and forced without such a reference, it must therefore be considered very doubtful. It is still more difficult to agree with de Wette, who thinks the idea of the passage is: as we confidently expect that our heavenly house will also be a body. For it is evident from the words themselves that those who are are not ; but if the idea of the body had been prominent, would have been followed by . Neander: We take these words in connection with those which precede them as merely an incidental expression: we are passing on with believing confidence to a higher state of being, for we shall in no event be destitute of a higher organ when we lay aside our earthly body; and it is only to this necessity of laying aside our earthly body that our natures now feel such a repugnance.As the participle is really in the aorist and yet must in such a case have the sense of the perfect there are strong reasons against referring and exclusively to those who shall be alive and clothed in earthly bodies when Christ shall appear in the Parousia (Grotius: if we shall be found among the changed, and not among the dead). Finding all these interpretations unsatisfactory, Osiander gives in his adherence to the figurative meaning which had been proposed by many ancient and some modern commentators. Thus Chrysostom et al. have : Usteri: under the presumption that we are clothed, we shall not be found naked in a different sense, i. e., without the crown for which we have struggled. Ewald: criminally naked, as Adam and Eve were (Gen 3:11). Others make out a similar meaning by taking as explanatory or epexegetical of and referring both words to Christ or the garment of his righteousnessan idea which Hoffmann (Schriftbeweis), following Anselm, understands of an ethical application of Christ. But neither the authorities which have been adduced for this, nor the arguments by which it has been supported (as e.g. that it is an allusion to the secret Divine reasons or conditions in 2Co 4:14 ff., and an introduction to the mysteries of faith in 2Co 5:14 ff.) are sufficient to warrant such an explanation of and in this connection (where the figure of a garment is used in application to a new heavenly body), without the express addition of some such word as or . We would prefer either to accede to Meyers interpretation, or to adopt the very well sustained and ancient reading , giving the sense of: although [ i.e.., we earnestly desire to be clothed with our house from heaven, even if (or although) being unclothed we shall not be found naked], (comp. 1Co 8:5). Here, if anywhere in the explanation of the Scriptures, we may be allowed to say: Non liquet.In 2Co 5:4 the assertion in 2Co 5:2 is again taken up, and is more particularly defined, and confirmed by reasons:For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened.The words , being put at the head of the sentence for the sake of emphasis, have the meaning of: we who are in earthly bodies, i. e., while we are yet in them. The word , oppressed, feeling ourselves burdened, gives a reason for the groaning. Bengel: a burden forces out sighs and groans. This is to be referred partly to the oppressions caused by our earthly bodies (comp. Sir 9:15), and probably also partly to the sufferings which we have to endure while we are in them (but of which no mention is made in the context). would then have to bear the meaning of: wherefore (quare), and perhaps be equivalent to we sigh over that which, etc. This, however, could hardly be allowed, inasmuch as the earthly body would not then be the object which was to be clothed upon ().Since we do not desire to be unclothed, but (we desire) to be clothed upon.We may find a partial interpretation of this expression in what follows, which would incline us to make equivalent to because that (propterea quod), as in Rom 5:12 (not: in which, or although), and to refer it to the oppression which produces sighs on account of the dread of death. And yet this natural horror which all men feel in prospect of being unclothed, must be carefully distinguished from an unmanly fear of death, which would be unbecoming to the Apostle. The phrase in the sense of: not wishing to die, is the more intelligible, since the Apostle, perhaps, supposed that he might live till the time of Christs coming, and hence he might easily think of being spared the pains of death. (The word occurs in profane authors as a figurative expression for death. Comp. Wetstein on the passage). The reason why the Apostle wished to be clothed upon, is given in the final sentence:that what is mortal might be swallowed up by life.That which in 1Co 15:54 is expressed by a putting on of immortality and a swallowing up of death, is here called a swallowing up of all that is mortal in us in the life, i. e., in the new imperishable life which becomes manifest when the body is changed, and its mortality is forever abolished. The earnest desire expressed in 2Co 5:2 is again alluded to when it is said that they did not desire to be unclothed; but when it is said that they were burdened (), the Apostle shows that a feeling of oppression is connected with it, inasmuch as they might be called to encounter the dreaded process of being unclothed (). And yet another way of construing it in which is taken in the sense of since, deserves the preference, inasmuch as it is not easy to see how the oppression caused by our present bodies, so much disturbed by sin and the many evils of our present lot, should make us long not to die, but to be changed. If it be said that it is precisely in death that the oppression of the tabernacle is the greatest, inasmuch as it is then as it were breaking down over the head of the inhabitant (Osiander), we reply that the expression: we that are in this tabernacle, seems to refer rather to troubles to be encountered in the midst of our present earthly life.

2Co 5:5. Now he who has completely wrought us out for this self same thing is God.[The here is transitional. The exalted expressions he had used were not made because of any thing in himself, or without a deep foundation being laid in his renewed nature]. He traces all those things of which he had been speaking to a Divine origin. The self same thing ( ) of which he speaks, was not the groaning of the previous verse (comp. Rom 8:23), as Bengel and Hoffmann contend it was, for this would compel us to distort the signification of so as to make it mean to impair by severe labor (to wear down), to break down the spirits and so to make one sigh over his bodily state and its troubles; the words rather refer to what he had just said about being clothed upon, that our mortal part might be swallowed up by the life. The meaning of the Apostle is: this longing to be clothed upon is not exclusively from an internal source, for it has a profound Divine origin. means to work out, to finish, and so to make ready. [The preposition in composition often introduces the idea of completeness, as in in 1Pe 5:10. Our word also implies a powerful effort as if against opposition]. In no other place in the New Testament is it used with a personal object. It has reference not to the first or natural creation, but as the further qualifying expression (who hath given us the Spirit) teaches us, to the Divine agency in mans redemption; and it comprehends that whole process of renovation and sanctification through which we attain and enjoy everlasting glory. But the actual entrance into this everlasting glory, the glorification itself, is accomplished, as the context informs us, by means of a transformation.Who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.If we adopt the reading of in the following clause, the will introduce another qualification, i. e. the warrant on which we expect a state of glorious perfection in the future world. But if we accept the reading merely, the sentence becomes an additional point, in the description of Him who had wrought them; i. e. who has given us the Spirit as an earnest. The condition for which God had wrought them out, had already been described as one which was not in fact permanent. This temporary character is more distinctly brought forward in the word earnest ( comp. on 2Co 1:22). But the Spirit itself is the Divine principle by which they were thus wrought and preparedthe Divine Spirit who by the word and all means of grace enables us to attain everlasting glory (comp. 2Co 4:6; 2Co 4:17-18; Eph 1:13-14; Eph 4:30-31).

2Co 5:6-8. Therefore being always confident, and knowing whilst in our home in the body we are absent from our home in the Lord.We have here an inference () from what has been said in 2Co 5:5, in reference especially to his disposition or frame of mind. He was always confident (2Co 5:6), and he was willing to be absent from the body (2Co 5:8). In consequence of this well-founded expectation that we shall be so gloriously perfected, we are willing, in spite of our reluctance to be unclothed, to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord (2Co 5:8). This desire or willingness, however, is founded not merely upon the cheerful confidence in such a prospect, but also upon the knowledge which is expressed in 2Co 5:6, viz., that while we are in our home, etc.). But as this knowledge was itself founded upon a peculiar faith, the Apostle leaves the construction which he had commenced, that he might give the reason for this knowledge in an independent sentence (2Co 5:7). The assertion of his confidence () is. repeated in a new sentence, but not in a participial form, but in the first person of the Indicative. Originally he was ready to write: being therefore confident and knowing, etc., we are willing to be absent from the body, etc., but he was diverted from his train of thought by his desire to give a reason for this knowledge (2Co 5:7), so that the original sentence was left unfinished. The passage is therefore anacoluthic; and 2Co 5:7 is not a parenthesis (still less are 2Co 5:7-8), but indispensable to the argument. [Being therefore (in consequence of having the earnest of the Spirit) always confident, and knowing by our walk of faith and not of sight, that while we are here in the body we must be absent from the Lord, we are well content to be absent from the body that we may be present with the Lord]. The word in its various forms occurs frequently in our Epistle, and is used also in Heb 13:6; but the older form which predominates in the Gospels and the Acts is . It has the sense of, to be full of confidence and courage, to be cheerful and undismayed under disheartening circumstances (comp. 2Co 4:8 ff; 2Co 6:9-10; 2Co 12:10). [Tyndale translates it: we are always of good cheere]. The word always () does not exclude a variety of feelings in the frame of our minds, but only signifies that confidence is always predominant in our hearts (comp. Osiander). The phrase is not of the same signification as [even if, or although we know, etc.], nor should the sentence it introduces be understood as assigning a reason for the courage just expressed, but simply as introducing an additional thought. The substance of this knowledge was that their being at home in the body was the same thing as an absence from the Lord. He returns to the metaphor of a habitation. The first expression (, etc.) was the same as to say: we are at home in our native place; the other was the same as, to tarry in a strange land, to be in a foreign country. To be at home in the body is to be abroad, or away from home with respect to the Lord. The words are a pregnant expression for being away from the Lord. Or, as long as we have our home in the body, we cannot be with the Lord. The same general idea is brought out in Php 1:23; Php 3:20, and 1Th 4:17 (comp. Heb 9:13; Heb 13:14). He explains himself more fully [with respect to the nature of this ] in 2Co 5:7.for we walk by faith and not by appearance.The spheres in which we move are, that of faith () on the one hand, and that of sight () on the other. In that faith we have fellowship with the Lord (comp. Gal 3:27; Eph 3:17), but it is a veiled fellowship, in which Christ is beheld not immediately, but concealed in His heavenly glory. In another state of existence our Lord will permit His people to behold Him without obstruction, they shall be at home with Him, and they will participate in His glory (Rom 8:17; 1Th 4:17; Joh 17:24; Col 3:3-4). The preposition directs to the means: we walk by means of faith, Neander. [It generally denotes any attending circumstance or quality, particularly in a state of transition (Webster). Here the states themselves are named those of faith and appearance, because these are the prevailing guides, and we are passing through them]. The life on earth is a walk , inasmuch as Christ having entered into His heavenly glory, is invisible to His people, their corporeal natures prevent them from beholding directly His heavenly form, and they know the fact that he is glorified only by means of His word and their spiritual enjoyment of His power in their hearts (comp. Col 3:3; 1Pe 1:8; Rom 10:14). does not signify either in classical or sacred writers (Luk 3:22; Luk 9:29; Joh 5:27; and often in the Old Testament) the act of seeing or looking, but the form or prospect beheld (Hebr. ,,)the meaning is: we are moving in the sphere of visible objects, where our senses have no perception of the form, or the actual appearance of Christs person. The general sense, however, of Luthers translation, ein schauen, [and of the authorized English version, by sight,] is correct. With reference to the contrast here, comp. 1Co 13:12 f. (where it is implied that the faith will, in a certain sense, continue even after the seeing has commenced). The interpretation which represents 2Co 5:7 as intended to give a reason for the confidence (), and which regards faith here as the certainty itself which we have with regard to the future and the supernatural world, and sight as the phenomenal world, i. e. those things which are present to our senses and are empirically perceived, is certainly in opposition to grammatical usage and to the spirit of the context (comp. on the other hand Meyer and Osiander). Inasmuch as this concealment of our Lord within His glory, and His consequent withdrawal from their immediate possession and enjoyment, might produce despondency on the part of His people, the Apostle proceeds in 2Co 5:8 to say:But ( is adversative) we are confident and are willing rather to leave our home in the body and to come to our home in the Lord.The reason for this cheerful confidence is the same as that which had been assigned in 2Co 5:6. But then from this confidence also, and from the consciousness of the insufficiency of the present life to afford us what we consider our supreme good, there springs up what he here connects with viz., the willingness rather to be from home, etc. occurs also in 1Co 1:21, and here means, to be satisfied that something should take place, and hence to wish, to long for it. The (rather) should be connected with his absence, etc., so as to mean that he was willing rather to be absent, etc. The desire which he had expressed in 2Co 5:4, had implied that he would prefer to remain in the body (until the Parousia) rather than to be separated from it. In view of the confidence just expressed, and the consciousness that if he were present in the body he must be absent from the Lord, he now changes this desire into a longing (no longer a groaning and being burdened) rather to depart from the body, and hence to die (, 2Co 5:4), and to be present with the Lord. is the opposite of (2Co 5:6), and hence is not merely a change of the body (2Co 5:4), but death. The words to be present with the Lord, have the same meaning as to be with Christ in Php 1:23, for there also it was necessary to die () before he could be with Christ. is, in relation to the Lord, a pregnant expression, and it signifies: to depart, to go to another country, in order to be with Christ. He entertained the hope that immediately after death he would be in heaven with Christ. Such was the happy state which he expected in its perfection at the approaching Parousia.

2Co 5:9-10.Wherefore we make it our ambition that whether at home or absent from home we may be acceptable to Him.The particle (wherefore) should be connected back with 2Co 5:8 (). Wherefore, since we have such a desire, and in order that we may realize such a desire, we, etc. The verb signifies properly to love and seek for honor, to be ambitious; and with an infinitive, to strive after what one regards as his honor or reputation, and to give ones self much trouble about it. It is used in the same way in Rom 15:20 and 1Th 4:11. If in the phrases , , any thing is to be supplied, the two participles should be made to refer to the same noun; and of course this should be either the body (), or the Lord (). The latter seems the most natural from the connection, but the former is probably allowable. As he had last spoken of an absence from the body, it is rather easiest to refer the absence here mentioned to the same object, and such a reference would control also the object of . The reason that is mentioned first is most naturally explained by the fact that being acceptable to the Lord would of course be first thought of when speaking of one who was alive on earth, and would therefore be first sought after by such a one (provided the participles are connected with the finite verb ., i. e., we strive, whether in or out of the body, etc.). But it must be remembered that . from its peculiar signification (to leave a country, to set out on a journey) must refer not to the state after death, but to the very process of dying. And we may very well conceive that the Apostle might speak of a laboring to be acceptable to Christ, even in this act of dying, since the mind of a believer is supposed then to be active and to be striving to maintain its hold on Christ and to avoid whatever might displease Him. The idea is furthermore an important and an appropriate one; and we shall find it essentially the same, whether the participles are connected with (see above), or with the infinitive sentence (i. e., we strive to be acceptable, whether we are in or out of the body.) [The sense of the passage is in fact virtually the same, whether these participles be joined with the body or with the Lord; for the Apostle assumes that an absence from the one involves a presence with the other. Alfords objection that we cannot be supposed to labor to be acceptable to Christ after or in death, since we are then saved, is of no great force, inasmuch as the labor is present in this life, that we may be acceptable after this life is closed]. In this way we are not obliged to depart from the meaning which and has borne throughout this connection (together signifying the same as or : wherever we may be, without regard to place), and with Meyer to take these words in their original meaning (analogous to that which they bear in 1Co 5:10; comp. 2Co 5:6-7), without supplying any thing as understood. In 2Co 5:10 the Apostle sets forth also the objective side of what he had said in 2Co 5:9 :for we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ:i. e., the reason why he so earnestly endeavored to please the Lord, was because he regarded this as his highest honor; or, (if we prefer to go further back), he shows how the effort to please the Lord would spring from his desire to be present with the Lord (2Co 5:8). In other words, he here shows that such a desire could only be fulfilled by his being found approved at that tribunal where he and his fellow believers were shortly to appear. The whole connection shows that by he means not all mankind, but only all Christians. He enlarges upon this point, probably to excite his readers to diligence and to impress upon their minds the importance of laboring to be acceptable to Christ (2Co 5:9). makes the subject apply to the whole body of Christians. Neander: This is said with special emphasis in relation to the Corinthians, who were disposed to give judgment arrogantly against their fellow men, without remembering how bad their own case was. To be manifested () is not precisely equivalent to (to be presented, Rom 14:10), for it looks to a complete manifestation of all that transpired within us or in the external life (comp. 1Co 4:5). Our Lord will show that He looks through every individual part as well as the whole body of His people. The words (as in Rom 14:10), are a solemn expression, and have a real significance; for if we ought not to make the tribunal of Christ merely a cloud, it certainly implies something more than a judicial inquiry with respect to each man immediately after death (Flatt), respecting which we have no intimation elsewhere in Pauls writings. [In classical Greek, always signified, not a judgment seat, but the raised place or step from which public speakers addressed the people at the great or other popular assemblies and courts of law. In the Sept. it still retained this signification (Neh 8:4; 2Ma 13:26). In Roman usage it passed from the tribune of the orator to the tribunal of the judge, which was an elevated seat on a lofty platform at one end of the Basilica in the forum. In the New Testament it always means (except in Act 8:5, where Luke gives it a meaning something like that of the classic Greek), a judgment seat where a formal trial is held. See Stanleys note]. In 1Co 4:5 also, it is said that Christ will be our Judge, and in Rom 14:10 [where the true reading is ] nothing inconsistent with this is necessarily implied, inasmuch as Christ is described as the representative or the organ of the Father (comp. 5:22, 27; Act 10:42; Act 17:31; Rom 2:16). But the judicial office of Christ is perfectly consistent with His being the absolute revelation of God and the Redeemer of men.The necessity of this judgment on the part of God is expressed by the only way to secure such a righteous retribution as would be honorable to God, is to have such a revelation of the hearts and conduct of us all. The object of this general manifestation was that all who were thus judged might be properly rewarded, and now in accordance with such a view he points each individual to his own particular interest in such a judgment (comp. Rom 14:12):that each one may receive the things done in his body.The meaning of is, to bear away, to receive; also, to bring back (for himself), to receive again; and thus it signifies a reward or recompense. The moral actions of a man are something laid up with God in heaven, and must be received again in a corresponding retribution. Comp. Eph 6:8; Col 3:25. A similar idea is expressed by the figure of the sowing and reaping in Gal 6:7, and of the in Mat 6:20 and 1Ti 6:19. A fuller expression may be found in 1Pe 1:9; 1Pe 5:4; 2Pe 2:13.The things given in this recompense are said to be to . The body to be received in the resurrection cannot be the one here intended [as if the Apostle would say: that each one may receive back through or by means of his (resurrection) body according to the things which he did. This view was much favored by some ancient expositors (the Syrian, Tertullian, Theodoret, Chrysostom and Oecumenius). It must be conceded that such a construction avoids some harshness, and Osiander seems inclined to favor it. He, however, concedes that it is difficult to believe that the new body should be designated by the simple word ] for that word is throughout our passage used for the earthly body. The word to be supplied is not exactly although this would be consistent with the proper sense of the passage, but : that which took place by means of the body as an organ (comp. Plato: , ). Neander: while in this body. The reading of the Italic, the Vulgate and some other versions [: , propria etc.] may have originated in a mistake, or . . may have seemed difficult of construction. Certainly is critically well authenticatedaccording to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.In this sentence has reference to the rule or standard according to which the reward is given. The ellipsis in must be supplied by a word from the relative sentence, viz., .If the Apostle had his eye on some mongrel kind of Christianity, might imply that those who adhered to it would be excluded from the kingdom of God. But on the supposition that he was speaking of real Christians in the restricted sense, he must have been distinguishing between different degrees in their rewards according to the different degrees of fidelity on earth. Such distinctions are not inconsistent with the idea of a justification and salvation by grace; for in the economy of grace the law of righteousness prevails. Even if the atonement by Christ extends to the whole life of those who believe in Him, its influence upon individuals must be exerted by means of a progressive repentance (); and though they may be secured against condemnation, and though they may actually be saved, they may yet have their gracious reward diminished in proportion to their want of faithfulness. Such a humiliation will be as nothing in comparison with the gratitude they will feel for a salvation which will be greater in proportion as they recognize it as a free gift of grace (comp. Meyer and Osiander on 2Co 5:10).

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. It is a fundamental law of the Divine kingdom and the leading aim of the faith by which it is implanted in the heart, that man the creature should be seen and known as the feeble and powerless, and God as the only mighty one. Hence it is that those whom God makes use of for the advancement of His kingdom and His cause must sometimes experience much infirmity of body and of spirit, that all may see that God alone is strong, faithful and wise, and that He will help through every trial, and never will forsake his people. He brings salvation and deliverance when all hope has failed; He manifests the power of a divine life when nothing but death is anticipated, because while death with its distresses and infirmities is seen working in them, that life exhibits all its energies in those who receive it. Thus while the work of grace is witnessed in many and is accomplished in many by such means, abundant thanksgivings redound to that God who achieves such results. In this way they are never left without courage under the greatest difficulties, for though the outward man may waste away, the inward spirit is endowed with ever freshening energies. Then while their eye is directed steadily to the things which are unseen and eternal, and to those heavenly glories which God has promised His people, they are taught by the spirit of humble faith to speak and to confess Christ before men with cheerfulness, and to regard their trials in a very different light from that in which the eye of sense perceives them. Those trials seem exceedingly light and transitory compared with the eternal weight of glory, for which God is preparing them even by such means, and for which no suffering can be properly endured here without fruit there, (comp. Heb 12:11).

2. The sure hope of eternal life and the expectation of a perfect bodily nature, must make the Christian breathe forth many a longing sigh while he remains in this mortal body; and the horror which nature feels in prospect of the violent dissolution of its corporeal life, must awaken in him a desire to escape the dying process and to be clothed with a glorious life by an immediate transformation; but such a hope will teach him also to be of good courage under all his trials. Yet this courage arising from the hope of future glory on the one hand, and the consciousness that he must be, during his present pilgrimage, without a complete and an immediate fellowship with his Lord on the other, will finally change all such longings (after such a superimposed body) into a single great desire to leave this state of alienation in a foreign land, and to be at home with the Lord. Though in this life we have many animating experiences of Christs gracious nearness, and have access by faith to His throne of grace, we have nevertheless to encounter many hinderances in consequence of our life in the flesh (Gal 2:20) and we cannot behold our Lord in His essential glory. But when a desire for a higher life has been awakened, we shall make the most earnest efforts, in every possible way, to please the Lord. Indeed every thing which is an essential condition to the enjoyment of our future glory will give intensity to such efforts, for every one, without distinction, must expect a full revelation before the judgment seat of Christ. Every action, even of Gods children, during their bodily life, must there be judged according to the law of strict righteousness, and each believer must be rewarded according to his good or evil conduct.

3. Though our passage does not say that holy obedience is our only title to eternal life (Emmons), it does distinctly assert that believers are to be fully manifested at the judgment seat of Christ, and that the reward of grace will be proportioned exactly to that which they did in () the earthly body. These things done in the body are neither expressly nor impliedly confined to any period of life after justification, whether this be placed in conversion or baptism].

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Starke, 2Co 2Co 4:7 :If God had set angels or glorified men to preach the Gospel, we should easily have been astonished at such instruments, and have ascribed the power to such glorious personages. But now when so much is accomplished by poor and feeble men, the honor must be the Lords alone, (comp. 1Co 2:5).

2Co 4:8. Enlightened souls are full of courage, and know how to accommodate themselves to crosses, Psa 3:7 f. Psa 27:1. If afflictions arise, they suffer not themselves to be overcome nor to cast away their confidence. If they become involved in dangerous circumstances, so that they know not how to extricate themselves, their courage will not fail, for they know that when all human aid is farthest, Gods hand is nearest

2Co 4:9. God often protects his servants and his children in a wonderful manner, and helps them by means of other men. This is especially accomplished by means of those believers who pray for them (Act 12:5), minister to their temporal necessities (Php 4:14-20), and afford them the means of safety (2Co 11:33), but it is not unfrequently accomplished also even by means of unbelievers (Act 21:31 f.).Observe the blessed fellowship of the members with their head! Christs life was nothing but a series of sufferings, a perpetual dying, for he was poor, despised and pained both in body and soul. His followers meet with the same trials, and they get no release but with their lives. Yet he preserves them, makes them joyful, often plucks them from danger as if by miracle, and thus proves that he is indeed alive.

2Co 4:12. Hedinger:Faith seeks not concealment, for it speaks, teaches and warns. The nearer we are to death, the more diligent we should be in our callings and our work. Hearers are strengthened and confirmed in their spiritual life by witnessing the sufferings and death of those preachers who steadfastly hold to the Gospel in all their trials.

2Co 4:13. Faith gives us the right discourse, and therefore the best liberty in speaking. Many speak much, but they will endure nothing in behalf of what they say, for they speak not as they should, and never speak from faith. (Gal 6:12).

2Co 4:14. Since Jesus is the head of all true believers, they can no more remain dead than a member can remain separate from the head.What a joy, when we shall all be presented before Christ and be forever in his society!

2Co 4:15. Where much suffering, and much consolation and help are experienced, thanksgivings will also abound to the praise of God.

2Co 4:17. In thy distress thou sayest, Ah! Lord, how long! But it is not long. It is only in thine infirmity that it seems long. What is time to eternity?Hedinger:Light, light indeed, is the cross! Thou sayest No, it is heavy. Lift up thine eyes to the glory. What sayest thou now!The more suffering on earth, the more joy in heaven; and yet all this is of grace and not of works, Rom 6:23. We deserve as little for our sufferings as for our works. God makes use of them as of a file to rasp away all that is useless in us. They are His blessing to make the good seed germinate within us and grow up into glory. Our earth has many beautiful things to the praise of its Creator, but in heaven are things a thousand times more beautiful. Let the believer see and admire the earthly beauty, but let him believe and rejoice in the heavenly far more, for he will possess and refresh himself with them forever and ever. Are all visible things only temporal? then give thy heart to no creature. So use everything you have that it shall fix your heart more on God; and be able and willing to let it go when He shall see fit to remove it. The children of this world seek satisfaction, only in what is visible, in money and property, and reputation and worldly pleasures, but our spiritual natures can never be satisfied with such things. If the Divine light of faith has risen within us, we shall turn our thoughts to our spiritual welfare; we shall be more concerned that we may be sanctified and properly adorned in Gods sight, and that we may have the heavenly joy and glory he has promised; and hence we shall choose a higher and better portion.

2Co 5:1. We have here a salutary lesson for those who have health, that they may not calculate with confidence upon their health, but frequently think of their perishable tabernacles, and may be always ready for a blessed departure. Equally salutary is it for the sick, that as their tabernacle begins to break up, they may by faith lay hold upon the dwelling God has built for them in heaven, and joyfully be invested with it.

2Co 5:4. A man must be a great hero who feels no terror at death; and although the saints have overcome it, they are not altogether free from apprehensions.

2Co 5:5. All do not die happy, because they are not all prepared, and some have not the earnest of the Spirit.Hedinger:Heaven will be glorious! Have we the seal and the letter for it? This is the Holy Spirit who convinces us of the truth, and so sweetens the bitterness of death.

2Co 5:6. Although Christ is every day with his people (Mat 28:20), and they live in communion with the Father, Son and Spirit (2Co 13:14), they are not yet where they can behold his glory, and are only aliens so far as relates to such a revelation of God.Hedinger:Wilt thou not go home, my child? Away, for the danger is pressing! Go home to God and get out of trouble! Array thyself in such garments as will please the Lord! Get ready, O Pilgrim, for thine eternal home! Heb 13:14.

2Co 5:7. To walk by faith is not a perfect life, but it is essentially a great and glorious thing; for whoever desires it must be born of God and be united with him. In the future life of spiritual vision, the brightest object will be the Son of God, in whose glorified humanity we shall behold not only the majesty of his eternal Godhead, but also the Father and the Holy Spirit.

2Co 5:8. Our home is where the place of blessedness is, where all believers have their home, where our Father, (Jam 1:18) our mother (Gal 4:26), our brethren, Christ, and those who have entered into glory are (Col 3:1; Heb 12:22 f.); and there is our habitation, for we shall remain in it forever (Heb 11:14), and it is our inheritance (1Pe 1:4).Rightly to wish for death is a mark of one who belongs to God and is ready for his departure to a blessed eternity (Php 1:23). Try thyself by this! Whoever gives all his time and attention to the body, and so thinks nothing of his soul, how can he have pleasure in the thought that he is to journey forth from the body (Rom 13:14)?

2Co 5:9. Only when we are by faith in Christ, and all our works are from Him, can our walk be pleasing to God. The best evidence that we are entirely acceptable to God is, that we are striving in all things to please Him; and that we are displeased with our own imperfections, and so are always humble.

2Co 5:10. We are even now perfectly manifest at all times before the Lord, but we need to become manifest hereafter, that the whole world may see what we have been, whether we were good or bad. Many can now play the rogue under their disguises, but in due time every thing shall be revealed before the eyes of angels and the whole world. Without fault of thine own thou mayest suffer, but God sees it, and he will surely bring thine innocence to light. Ye unjust judges who turn aside the righteous cause, and ye Epicurean worldlings who live without shame, and sport yourselves in sin, how will it be when you stand before Christs judgment seat? Turn or tremble (2Ch 19:6 f.; 1Pe 4:5)! In this world it is often with the godly as if they were ungodly, and with the ungodly as if they were godly (Ecc 9:2 f.). Should not the leaf some day be turned? God is righteous; and He must have a judgment day to give each one his due reward (Rom 2:6-9).

Berlenb. Bible, 2Co 4:7 :We need to be convinced of our inability, that grace may shine the brighter, and that we may not confound the creature with the Creator and nature with grace. God is not a God for seasons of prosperity or court favor merely, but a God of patience. We should bless Him for such methods with us as are indicated in Mat 12:20.

2Co 4:8. A genuine triumphal song. Let no one ever despair; only be faithful. Though God never overburdens His children, they must expect sometimes to be in perplexity. But when our passions cease to boil, the impurities which might otherwise become sedentary, are driven off. Anxiety and doubt will retire before the spirit of faith.

2Co 4:9. We must often be thrown like a ball hither and thither, but we need fear no evil for we have a Lord who delivers from death.

2Co 4:10. We must not be ashamed of a sanctified cross-bearing. But first we must take up the cross, have fellowship in the death of Christ daily, and never shake off from our necks what God lays upon them.Death before life! such is Gods inviolable law.Our fallen nature cannot receive the blessed life of God in Christ, until we have given up our own mind and will to God.Reason Says: What to me is a life which can be gained only by death? and it praises the scorner who merrily enjoys the world. Others despise the idea as a vain fancy. But the believer knows better whom he has believed, and by what power it is that he must live.Unless thou holdest before the eye of thy heart every day, hour and moment, as thy only true glass, the despised cross of Jesus, and His perpetual renunciation of Himself, no permanent rest canst thou know, and the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ and not of the world, can never dwell with thee.

2Co 4:11. Thou art no longer in the state in which God made thee, but thou must be cured of disease before thou canst be blessed. Blame not God then and call Him cruel when He is carrying thee through this process. He never makes us experience the power of this death, until He bestows upon us a power to live a spiritual life. Christ therefore gains over our wills that He may subdue them in spite of the opposition of the flesh. But a Christian always soars in spirit to the eternal and heavenly world, and thence derives strength for a new and secret life.

2Co 4:12. God allows the Christian, on his first conversion, to enjoy much spiritual delight, that he may perceive the advantages he has gained, and may be encouraged to go forward in face of death.It often seems a great mystery when the watchman suffers for those committed to his trust (Col 1:24). And yet a good shepherd is willing to give his life for the sheep (Joh 10:12), not indeed to redeem them, for Christ alone can do that, but because He is stronger and must go before them that are weak.

2Co 4:13. Faith in Christ gives the believer a new life, for it draws down living and active energies from God; and while it allows Him no rest but in God, it gives him true rest there, with life and strength, victory and complete salvation. No one must attempt to live without this Spirit, for nothing else can give us the beams of Divine light and cheer our souls, with the radiancy of a heavenly life. Where this exists deeply in the heart, it will find expression in the lips. It will take away all our timidity, and make us willing not only to confess Christ for ourselves, but to carry the Gospel to our fellow-men.

2Co 4:14. He who raised up Jesus from the dead, imparts to all who put faith in Him, the confident assurance and lively feeling that they too shall not be left in the grave.Christ has acquired the right to represent and introduce His members wherever He is Himself. He will hereafter bestow upon us blessings, far surpassing what the Gospel now gives us, for as yet we have had to endure very much of the shame of the cross.

2Co 4:15. Ministers should strive to make all their sufferings as well as their labors a means of edification to all around them.In no way is God more glorified than when man gives up himself in his utmost glory as nothing, that he may be made what infinite wisdom and love may think best.

2Co 4:16. A Christian should not voluntarily bring troubles upon himself, for a false nature may of its own choice involve itself in difficulties, and then make a martyrdom out of it. If our heavenly Father is pleased to let our outward man, in connection with which God has in His wisdom decreed that all our spiritual and corporeal troubles shall take place, fall into decay and perish, His will be done. The renewal of the inner, the hidden man of the heart (1Pe 3:4), is usually in connection with the decay of the outward man. In proportion as we are daily melted in the fire of affliction, we grow in the kingdom of God. According to the crucifixion of our flesh will be the activity of the spirit and the life of the man in Christ.Nothing more promotes the daily renovation of even the converted man, than the cross.Every pain, sorrow and trouble is a needful birth pang, for the production of a new life and for its healthful growth.

2Co 4:17. The fear of the cross, which young converts and many who are patiently pressing on in the Divine life, are accustomed to feel, outweighs all they can endure in this world, and is not worthy of mention if they think of making a merit or a matter of importance of their afflictions. However long or severe any trial may be, it sinks to nothing, the moment we catch a reflection of the future glory. Our choleric tempers cannot long bear the fire of affliction. The suffering will seem intolerable because our sense and reason cannot get beyond the eternal and temporal.You who complain so much of the weight of our sufferings, can yet bear very well the weight of glory which is to be found under the crossRejoice rather, for death, pain, sickness, and loss of honor, of property, of friends and of comforts, if for consciences sake, are nothing but gain. The moment we begin to enjoy the fruits of our sufferings, we see the cross in a new light and are ashamed that we were not always faithful. Indeed, it ought to have been glory enough to bear reproach with the Son of God. But who can tell the glory which in another life follow these brief sufferings? Even a foretaste of these has often been sufficient to carry Gods people altogether beyond themselves, and to cause them to break out into the highest strains of exultation.

2Co 4:18. We must get accustomed to raise our thoughts above our outward state and seek in God, where our treasure and best portion are, the motives of our daily life, our consolation, our counsel and our peace. Our troubles will then seem very insignificant. As when a man is on a high tower or mountain, objects far below him seem very small and even invisible, so to a mind in communion with God, all temporal things and all sufferings of course will seem small indeed. We very soon find, when our carnal minds try to make something interesting of the things that are seen, that they are indeed fleeting and vain. How easy then to use such things as a test whether we have true faith or not (Heb 11:1).

2Co 5:1. How will it be with us when our present mortal bodies are dissolved ? We say indeed, we hope for the best. But what reason for hope have we ? Those who in this life have been dead to sin, have put off the old man with its affections and lusts, when they come to die, give honor to Him who in His death gave them life; they have put on a new man, which after this life shall be invested with another body, a habitation in the Jerusalem which is above, an angelic body, formed indeed from this earthly one, but endowed with such heavenly attributes that it shall never be destroyed. He who is unwilling to have his old house demolished may well tremble when his Lord shall come, and after all shall break it up against his will.

2Co 5:2. Our sighs, which seem now so painful, are nevertheless longings which spring from a sight of something better and can be satisfied with nothing here. They are a kind of necessity for man; for after all, a great treasure, something supernatural, is concealed under them. Eternity is thus at work in our souls, for its eternal longings have taken possession of them. These may be faint and confused at first, and hence they must be directed and brought to distinctness. The longings have reference to the great end of our existence, but the sighs to our present condition along the way.

2Co 5:3. The spirit of man appears to be by itself naked, as it were unclothed. It is therefore incomplete before God until it is invested with a new body of spiritual powers and light. Those who desire to enter the New Jerusalem must have within themselves that spiritual building which belongs to the new creation, viz: the character and image of God, by which this mother can recognize her child.

2Co 5:4. Our mortality is now a burden, but God so changes its nature that when it is assailed we think of something very different. It is natural for us to wish we could avoid the separation of our souls from our bodies, and by an instantaneous change (1Co 15:51 f.) be with Christ in the resurrection state. But ere this can be we must be unclothed. The mortal must be dried up, but life must enter its remains. It is right to love life, but we may hasten too, fast, or go in the wrong direction in pursuit of it. Here it is that sense is likely to intermeddle and do mischief. But Christ took upon Himself even this fleshly nature, though without sin. It is no evil in itself, but only a token that a man has life in himself. Christ assumed it not that He might retain it forever, but that he might in due time lay it aside. Not my will, He said, as far as it is a human will, but Thy Divine will. In that great conflict He maintained His ground, and His success should be our encouragement. We may, indeed, see in Him what it costs to bring the will into its proper state. But just as He overcame, by subjecting the lower to the higher nature, so must we.

2Co 5:5. God does not abandon His work, and His spirit puts His seal upon our hearts that we may have, what we very much need, a certainty for the future.

2Co 5:6. Just as far as we succeed in making the present world our home, we shall be absent from the Lord, and without the complete enjoyment of Him.

2Co 5:7. Faith unites us with God and gives us as high a knowledge of Him as is possible in the present life. But clear as this faith is in itself, it is in fact dark to us. We do not behold the face of God with an unobstructed vision. And yet this obscure faith gives us a far brighter light than can ever be attained by seeking to find out God by the highest exercise of merely human reason.

2Co 5:8. Though we are yet far from our native land, we are full of cheerful confidence. We are citizens of it still (Eph 2:19; Php 3:20), and in some respects are already there (Heb 12:22).

2Co 5:9. Wherever we may be, our only honors are in another world; let us, then, for the present be satisfied with Gods allotments, and give ourselves completely up to be led as He pleases.

2Co 5:10. This is a stimulus which the believer always needs, for he has always some remnants of an evil nature.Everything which is now concealed must one day come to light, and be either condemned or approved. It is surely a righteous thing that God should recompense to every man what he has thought, spoken, or done, according to all that he has done by means of the body. Everything which men have doneall the evil which the redeemed as well as the good, which the lost have done, will be investigated and scrutinized with the strictest justice.Blessed, indeed, will they be whose works shall be found right. And yet those in whom Christ Jesus lives, reigns and works will own Him as the source of all their goodness. Such a blessedness and dignity will be of the most exalted nature. No works will then be recognized or accepted before God except those which belong to believers justified by faith, and saved by grace; for all others will be traced to some false principle.

Rieger:

2Co 4:7. God conceals His choicest instruments under the lowliness of the Crossnot that they may be undervalued, but that they may show their unshaken dependence upon the Lord Jesus.The ability and disposition to undertake the work of the ministry, the knowledge of Christ by means of a Divine enlightenment, the honesty not to seek our own selves, the willingness to spend and be spent in the service of another, the courage never to be ashamed of any of Christs words, the good conscience which nevertheless avoids all private dishonor, the sincerity which never corrupts Gods word, and the untiring patience which never gives outall this treasure Christs servants have in a frail outward man (2Co 4:16) in an earthly tabernacle which is liable to be broken up at any moment (2Co 5:1). Such an earthly vessel may have a special fragility of its own (comp. 2Co 10:10) in addition to the general weakness of its kind. If we are never weary, if our spirit and power is demonstrated in the consciences of other men, and if we are sufficient for all our duties, it is because we continually receive from God a stream of influences which keeps us in dependence upon Him and sustains our inward life. Thus our weakness and the Divine support are always seen in mutual relations.

2Co 4:8 ff. As the Apostle repeats his not, not, we not only see the encouragement which faith supplies and the victory he gained over his own natural feelings, but the happy issue of each trial tends to bring to light and to refute those secret objections which other men are apt to feel with respect to the humiliations of the Cross.

2Co 4:10 f. The infirmities which our Lord Jesus took upon Himself, and which continued with Him until death, the purpose never to use His Divine powers for His personal relief, whatever contempt might be heaped upon Him on this account by carnal-minded men, are now the proper medium through which we have fellowship with Him in His life, and we must now bear them about with us, and never intentionally conceal them.

2Co 4:12. It is in Christs ministers that we may most impressively see the fellowship of Christs sufferings and the likeness of His death; but in the conversion of souls, in the powerful effects of the Gospel, in the awakening life and flourishing condition of the Church, we have a proportionate proof of His life.

2Co 4:13. Those who openly confess the truth and cheerfully suffer for it, must have a believing spirit and a firm hold upon invisible realities.

2Co 4:14. Faith always finds access to God only through Christ. The resurrection and glorification of Jesus is the true ground for hoping that God will raise up and present us also. Only in this light shall we be able to estimate what each one gains or loses under the sufferings or unclothings of our present state.

2Co 4:15. Every thing we ministers acquire by our spiritual treasures is intended to win, to confirm, and to relieve, as much as possible, you the people. The more, then, you observe how this abounding grace of God sustains us under our trials, the more you have reason to give God thanks.

2Co 4:16. Our bodies, lives, health, strength, comforts, prospects and all that we have on earth, may be gradually wasted in consequence of our fellowship with Christs sufferings; but the heart, the spirit which animates us in it, and the willingness to spend every thing in the service of God, will never be changed, because it is always enlivened by hope.

2Co 4:17. According to the great principle of the Divine kingdom: Through suffering to glory, every trouble we have gives us a pledge of the glory, a salutary foretaste of the powers of the world to come, such as we could never obtain without the decay of our outward man.

2Co 4:18. Every moment, in all our public discourses, testimonies, ministerial work, and intercourse with our people, we are making our choice and laying hold upon and aiming at either the temporal or the eternal.

2Co 5:1. The word of God and the spirit of faith which it produces tends uniformly to humility, but never to feebleness of spirit; and it teaches men to think but little, but not contemptuously, of the body. Inasmuch as houses, tents, clothing, are very necessary and very convenient, we should learn that our bodies are not to be hated. But as such things can be laid aside and be changed without tearing away any portion of our hearts, we should learn that our bodies ought not to be over-valued.The house which is from heaven, that portion of the heavenly glory which every believer will have for an ornament and a covering, and the residence in which the inward life of his spirit manifests itself to others and receives from them its highest enjoyments, is not given him until the earthly tabernacle falls off; for it has been prepared, designed and promised only for that occasion. As this is of heavenly origin, it will never be dissolved, and can perceive heavenly things.

2Co 5:2-4. Our heavenly calling gives us the hope of a house above, while we are enduring the oppression of our earthly tabernacle, that we may under both influences sigh to be clothed upon by the higher house.Our spiritual nature has always abundant reason to long for a deliverance from our present bodies. Great as our enjoyments may be on earth, we cannot but sigh for something better. Our reluctance to be unclothed may therefore be beneficial in moderating and purifying our longings for deliverance.

2Co 5:5. By faith and the dealings of His providence, God is always preparing us for this glory, always cherishing our hopes and longings for it, and always chastening and purifying the expression of our desires. Oh, how wisely has God combined together in our worldly and spiritual experience these after throes of our troublesome life and these longings for future glory!

2Co 5:6-8. True faith prepares us for either alternative; whether to remain in the flesh, or to lay aside our present tabernacles.We walk by faith, and we are therefore cheerful during our pilgrimage; but the feeling that our Lord is not in sight often makes us forlorn and desolate when we are in trouble.Nothing that we can do or enjoy on earth can be compared with being absent from the body and at home with the Lord.

2Co 5:9 f. The effort to be, and the consciousness that we are, accepted of the Lord, is our strength along the way, and will be our satisfaction when we reach our home.This Divine approbation will be publicly awarded when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ.Great power of faith, which makes us joyful even in the day of judgment!

Heubner:2Co 4:7. In these dying bodies great and glorious treasures are hidden. We are never perfectly pure and true, except when we ascribe every thing good to God.

2Co 4:8. The Christians superiority to the world and his peculiar skill are owing to his watchfulness, steadfastness of purpose, cheerfulness and calmness of mind.

2Co 4:9. The more persecution and ill-will we receive from our fellow-men, the more cheering is Gods favor, and the nearer is His aid. When the danger is most imminent, His servants may feel sure of a speedy deliverance.

2Co 4:10 f. The death and the life of Christ should be revealed in every Christian by a continual self-sacrifice for others, and by a power to overcome all temporal sufferings.

2Co 4:12. The more a man sacrifices himself, the more power he has over others. In this case life comes from death.

2Co 4:13. When faith urges thee on, let not thy mouth keep thee back. But without faith, thy speech will displease God and have no blessing. Without faith no one can give a true testimony for God; but with faith no one can refrain from it.

2Co 4:14. The hope of an eternal life makes us strong to give up a temporal.

2Co 4:15. The reason that pious men are kept in the world is that they may bring the wandering to the path of safety. Gods grace should be celebrated by well-filled choirs. It is sad to hear His praises from such feeble choirs on earth. Thank God, it will not be so in heaven!

2Co 4:16. The more our life of sense is renounced, the purer, the stronger and the more triumphant will be the life of the spirit. Piety always rejuvenates the inner man (Isa 40:30 f.).

2Co 4:17-18. Troubles are light when they come from men, and affect only the outward man. All that earth can do is as nothing to him who has Gods grace; but Gods wrath is terrible indeed! Our indemnification for all sufferings and sacrifices is infinitely greater than our pains, our reproaches, and the loss of all earthly things could be; for God gives us everlasting joy and honor. The only condition is a heavenly mind, directed to the eternal world as the needle to the pole. We should see no reality any where else.

2Co 5:1. The hope of a glorified body comforts the sick and holds the spirit as if it were a foreigner in the (earthly) body.

2Co 5:2. The worldly man is terrified at the thought of losing his body, and he wishes it might be his home forever; but the Christian sighs for its dissolution. A truly pious longing to die is the Christians home-sickness, but the desire which many have to die is only a desire to be free from trouble.

2Co 5:3. A body is necessary to the soul, and the resurrection of the body will bring an inconceivable augmentation to our bliss. 2Co 5:4. Nearly all the troubles and oppressions which we experience during our earthly life spring from the body. 2Co 5:5. God has reserved to man a better portion than this world can give. The Holy Spirit, by a celestial birth, makes us children of God, and, of course, immortal. Whoever knows by experience this Divine life, can never think of its interruption or cessation. A Divine life must be an eternal life.

2Co 5:6. Our earthly life of care is only a brief pilgrimage.

2Co 5:7. Our only fellowship with the Lord must be by faith; On earth we cannot behold Him immediately, nor hold direct intercourse with Him through any of our senses. None but a fanatic will think of a visible intuitive enjoyment of Him here.

2Co 5:8. The Christians home-sickness never paralyzes, enfeebles or effeminates him, as a natural home-sickness frequently does the worldly man; but it rather sanctifies and strengthens him.

2Co 5:9. The assurance of being united to Christ makes the believer long more earnestly to please the Lord. This will not leave him even in the future world, for even there shall he remain in the service of the Lord.

2Co 5:10. 1. We must all stand before Him, for none can escape Him. Whoever is inclined to call this right of Christ in question will surely experience its terror in his own heart. 2. The thought that thy heart will be revealed is either joyful and comforting or terrible (Joh 5:24. We read elsewhere of a condemning, but here of a revealing judgment. The latter is rather a Christian glorification).

W. F. Besser:

2Co 4:7. The transcendent power which triumphs over all earthly things, which makes the ministers of Christ superior to all suffering, and which sometimes is communicated from him to others, is owing not to the excellence of the vessel, but to the preciousness of the treasure it contains; not to the person of the preacher, but to the name he proclaims; not to the natural ability of man, but to Gods grace and word of power. The saying the Apostle uses respecting the treasure in earthern vessels is true in general of all Christians who possess the precious pearl, Christ Jesus, in the shell of this natural life.

2Co 4:8-10. I shall never die, says the Church, as she bears forth the treasures of Christs kingdom, but live to make the Lords work known to all men (Psa 118:17).

2Co 4:13-14. Though much distress may follow her confession, faith can never withhold the confession itself (Rom 10:10), and in making it she becomes conscious of herself and grows.

2Co 4:15. The more thanksgiving, the more grace (Psa 50:23).

2Co 4:16. At no time do the energies of a new life stream forth so freshly and with such quickening power upon the heart of the Christian as when he is in the vale of adversity. Day by day! Paul was not already perfect.

2Co 4:17. In Gods hand is a pair of balances; one scale of which is called Time and the other Eternity. In the former are weighed earthly afflictions, and in the other future glory.

2Co 5:1. Christ gives Himself to His people, even in this life, in such a way that they may be one spirit and one body with Him spiritually, and also sacramentally by faith; but when we behold Him in our spiritual bodies, He will prove Himself to be that perfect Love which communicates its whole self to its loved ones!

2Co 5:3. We need to be clothed and covered in this life, or we can never be clothed upon with our house from heaven in the day of the Lord. We must put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as He gives Himself now for a spriritual clothing to all who receive Him by faith through the word and sacraments (Gal 3:27; Rom 13:14). Only thus shall we be able, in the day of final visitation, to put on the same Christ in His glory (Rom 8:30), over our present mortal nature, whose original nakedness will be covered by grace and so will be capable of the further investiture of a glorious immortality (Rom 3:18).

2Co 5:4. As in Spring the green branches and leaves are thrown over the trees and transform the rigid mourning habiliments of Winter into the fresh garments of Spring, so will the Lord Jesus Christ, our life from heaven (Col 3:4), triumphantly lay hold upon all that is mortal in us and abolish it in an immortal nature (1Co 15:54 f.).

2Co 5:6-8. The native citizens of heaven are foreigners on earth, just as the heirs of the promised land were wanderers without a home in the wilderness (Heb 11:13-16). Our residence in earthly bodies necessarily implies that we should have possession of and perceive our Saviour in no other way than by faith. Sense and reason cannot apprehend Him; only faith, the new sense which God gives to the new man, and which is conversant with things unseen, can discover or receive Him as He is presented in the Gospel.

2Co 5:10. Just as in this life our body is the vessel and instrument for all that we have and do by faith, so in another life will the body be the vessel and instrument for possessing and enjoying by means of direct vision. Gloriously will the blessedness of these bodies be manifested, when those features of sorrow which have been imprinted upon our mortal bodies, so as to make us like Christ here, shall be brightened up in our risen bodies with the reflected radiance of our Lords glorified body (Rom 8:29).

Footnotes:

[1][Stanley suggests that the mingling of the metaphors of a tent and a garment may have been caused by Pauls familiarity with the Cilician materials used in tent making. Sometimes these were of skins, which Wetstein thinks were suggestive also of the human body, often called by the Greeks a tent; and sometimes they were of hair cloth, which was almost equally suggestive of a habitation and of a vesture. When such tents were separated into their parts (), if they were not strictly dissolved (Stanley), they were at least taken down and made away with (Alford). Chrysostom says that by these means Paul shows how superior future things were to the present. For to the he opposes the . and to the , which was easy to be dissolved and was made for the present occasion, he opposes the ; for the name of tent often indicated something only for a special emergency; hence Joh 14:2.]

[2][Dr. Hodge has recently very elaborately defended the interpretation which makes the house not made with hands to be heaven itself. In this he agrees substantially with Anselm, Aquinas and Rosenmueller. His arguments are (1), the frequent Scriptural comparison of heaven to a house in which are many mansions (Joh 14:2), a city in which are many houses (Heb 11:10; Heb 11:14; Heb 13:14; Rev 21:10), or more generally a habitation (Luk 16:9); (2), the appropriateness of the metaphor; (3). the agreement of the description here given with other descriptions of heaven. Heb 11:10 (comp. Heb 9:11), et. al.; (4), any body after death or in the resurrection could not be spoken of as at present in the heavens, or as to be received from heaven: whereas Christ expressly authorizes such language respecting the mansions He is preparing; (5), the building here spoken of is evidently to be entered upon at death. When Paul died this was to save him from being found naked, and this could not be at the final resurrection; (6), believers are said to pass immediately into glory at death (Mat 22:32; Luk 16:22; Luk 23:43; Php 1:22 f.; Heb 12:23). In favor of the common view, which makes the house not made by hands the same as the body to be received at the general resurrection, it is alleged (1), that as the earthly house of this tabernacle is a body, the heavenly house must be a body also. Pauls object was not to inform his readers that he expected a new place of residence or to be in heaven, but that he looked for something in the place of his present corporeal tenement; (2), the building was not to be heaven, but it was then in the heavens, and was to be received from heaven; (3), the reason why the Apostle did not especially refer to the intermediate state between death and the Parousia, was that he had yet received no revelation on the point whether he and his fellow-Christians of that age would live until the Parousia, and so whether there should be any such state to those of whom he was speaking; (4), in contrast with in this conection must have a special meaning which it need not have in 1Co 15:53 f. for it seems to have the idea of an investiture over the whole person and state of the individual, and not that of a general inhabitation of a people. In spite of the obvious difficulty that Paul seems to speak of receiving the investiture at death, or at least to regard it as ideally at hand when he should die, we cannot but regard these arguments as conclusive in favor of the common interpretation. Neither Calvin nor Olshausen advocated the idea (sometimes imputed to them and here avowed by Neander.) of a body prepared for the soul at death and to be inhabited until the Parousia. The spiritual interpretation that the building to be received from heaven is the glory of Christs righteousness, needs no refutation. It cannot be denied that Paul was familiar with the Rabbinic fancy, that Adam lost the image of God by his fall, and so became naked. In the Synop. Sohar, it is said that when the time draws near in which man is to depart from this world, the angel of death takes off this mortal garment and clothes him with one from Paradise. We cannot, however suppose that Paul was much influenced by such prevalent opinions.]

[3][Hermann (ad Viger. p. 834) expounds the difference between the two particles thus: corresponds to the Germ. wenn anders (provided that) and to the Germ. wenn denn (since). The former is used of a thing which is assumed to be, but the writer leaves it in uncertainty whether it is so or not, while the latter, on the other hand, is used of that which is correctly assumed to be. Neander says that in the later Greek this distinction was not always observed, since the words were not unfrequently used in each others place. For Pauls disregard of the distinction, Dr. Hodge appeals to 1Co 8:5; Gal 3:4; Col 1:23; 2Th 1:6. The Apostle had no doubt about his ) and we therefore incline to think he must have used . This suits the general tone of confidence which runs through the passage. If the other word was used, it must have been because he conceded something either ironically or for the arguments sake at the time. connects with the previous clause, and may be rendered with either of the particles, if in fact, or since in fact, as in 2Co 3:6, and in 2Co 5:5. A specimen of the same half doubt on a matter really certain to his own mind may be seen in Php 3:11.]

[8]2Co 4:10.Rec. has in opposition to the best authorities [viz.: A. B. C. D. E. F. G. Sin. et al. It is sustained only by K. L. and some versions and three of the best Greek fathers. Sin. has instead of the second .]

[9]2Co 4:12.Rec. has , but it is feebly sustained. [Alford thinks it was inserted to correspond to below.]

[10]2Co 4:13.Sin. alone has after the first . After . of 2Co 4:13, the Cod. Alex. (A.) is entirely lost until 2Co 12:7.]

[11]2Co 4:14.Without sufficient authority, Lachm. has thrown out .

[12]2Co 4:14.The of the Rec. is not as well sustained as before . It was intended probably for a correction [Alford: on account of the difficulty found in being joined to a future verb, his resurrection being past. is given in B. C. D. F. Sin. (1st cor.).]

[13]2Co 4:16.As in 2Co 4:1, is preferable to , and for reasons similar to those there given.

[14]2Co 4:16.Lachm. has good authorities for his reading: , and yet his reading is probably not genuine, but arose from an attempt to make it correspond with [The same reason probably produced the reading instead of , i. e., to make it correspond with after the latter had been accepted as the true reading. But even is not satisfactorily sustained. is also inserted by high authority (B. C. D. E. F. Sin.) after . Tisch. and Rec. omit it after . Alford (but with a doubt) and Stanley insert it with . Meyer suggests that it was inserted for uniformity.]

[15]2Co 4:17.Before D. (1st cor.) E. F. G., the Vulg. Syr. and Goth, versions, and some of the Latin fathers read , but it was probably a gloss upon . Comp. in Theodt.]

[16]2Co 5:3.Lach. has , Rec. has . The latter is sustained by the testimony only of C. K. L., but by the strong authority of nearly all the cursives and all the Greek fathers. Meyer, however, thinks it an arbitrary change by some transcriber. [Sinaiticus has since given its testimony for . The great majority of the recent critical editions now adopt .]

[17]2Co 5:3.Rec. and Lach. have instead of . Both readings are well supported. See Exeget. Notes.

[18]2Co 5:4.After Lachmann inserts ; the evidence is not decisive. Meyer thinks it was added more clearly to define .

[19]2Co 5:5.Excellent authorities are in favor of .Rec. and Tisch. have with equally good authority.

[20]2Co 5:10.Rec. and Lachm. have . Tisch. has , but without sufficient authority.[B. D. E. F. G. K. L. favor , and C. and Sin. favor . The Greek and cursives are divided nearly equally.

[21][Bloomfield notices that the natural meaning of ( at, and present) is at present, and that the Syriac translators and most recent commentators therefore assign to the passage the sense of: our present light affliction. But the ancients generally, and almost all the earlier moderns took to mean momentary. The idea, for the present, readily suggests the notion of what is temporary, and such a version seems required by the antithetical . Chrysostoms observations on this passage are admirable: The Apostle opposes things present to things future: a moment to eternity; lightness to weight; affliction to glory. Nor is he satisfied with this, but he adds another word and doubles it, saying, . . This is a magnitude excessively exceeding. The repetition is intensive, after the Heb. exceedingly. Dr. A. Clarke says: it is every where visible what influence St. Pauls Hebrew had on his Greek: signifies to be heavy and to be glorious: the Apostle in his Greek unites these two significations, and says, weight of glory. Comp. Hodge. Barrow has two passages finely illustrating this favorite text of his, in Sermm. 4th and 40th (Works by Hamilton Vol. I. pp. 38 and 384). Also Bp. J. Taylor, Contemp. on the State of Man, Lib. 2.Chap. 1.].

[22][What the author alludes to here is expressed in Winer (Gram. 59, Andover ed. p. 366): Of the negative particles stands when the intention is to represent something exactly and directly (as a reality), stands where something is only conceived of (according to the idea) in the mind; the former is the objective, the latter the subjective negation. This usage, he thinks, is uniform, especially in the New Testament. Thus he points out that in our passage . signifies the mere idea of what cannot be seen, while in Heb 11:1, . signifies what actually is not seen. (Idd. p. 370), Stanley, on the other hand, thinks that the only reason why is used in this passage and in Heb 11:1, is merely from the Greek usage, which requires after the article, and where the article is not used. Alford thinks that is used here only to express what is hypothetical: on the supposition that, etc. There can be no question that in these two passages Winers view throws light and beauty over the thought. Faith (in Heb 11:1) looks to that which is beyond the reach of bodily sight and (in 2Co 4:18) turns away so as not to look upon what might be seen.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 2014
MINISTERS, THE BEARERS OF A RICH TREASURE

2Co 4:7. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

ST. PAUL was occasionally constrained to vindicate his own character against the accusations of his enemies. He was averse to it; and, when so doing, accounted himself speaking as a fool. But, when-soever he boasted, his endeavour was to magnify, not himself but his office. As for himself, no terms were too humiliating for him to use, whether he spake of his former life, or of his present exertions in the cause of his divine Master. The passage before us well illustrates his views in both respects. The Gospel which he ministered was, in his estimation, a treasure: but he himself, and all his colleagues, were no better than earthen vessels; worthless in themselves, and only useful as imparting unto men the riches which they contained.

The passage before us will lead me to notice,

I.

The true character of the Gospel

It is here called a treasure: and well it deserves the name.
In itself, it is utterly invaluable
[If considered as the product of Divine wisdom, it infinitely surpasses all that could have been conceived by the brightest intelligences in heaven: and, as an effort of Divine love, it is so stupendous as to be absolutely incomprehensible. In it, all the glory of the Godhead shines, with a splendour never before seen even by the angels around the throne. There is not a perfection of the Deity which is not honoured by it, and magnified far beyond what it could ever have been by any other device, or any other dispensation.]
As dispensed, it marvellously enriches all who receive it
[To every soul of man that embraces it, is imparted a forgiveness of all sin, a peace that passeth all understanding, a strength that shall triumph over every adversary, and, at the close of this present life, all the glory and felicity of heaven. In comparison of this, the riches of ten thousand worlds were nothing. Possessed of this, a Lazarus were rich; and in the want of it, the greatest monarch in the universe were poor.]
Most unsuited to this, however, appears to be,

II.

The character of those to whom it is committed

We should naturally expect, that those who are appointed to dispense this treasure should be taken from the highest order of creation, and from the very first rank amongst them. We should imagine that none but angels and archangels should be counted worthy of so high an honour. But God has judged otherwise; and has committed this treasure to earthen vessels.
The Apostles are justly so denominated
[They were men of low origin, a few poor fishermen. They were exceeding frail in their nature, not one amongst them without some great blemish: for in the hour of their Lords extremity, they all forsook him, and fled. They were all worthless in themselves, made of the earth, and earthly: nor had they any thing in themselves, either to recommend the treasure, or to augment its efficiency. If Paul be thought an exception, on account of his learning and eloquence, he purposely laid aside his eloquence, from a persuasion that the wisdom of words had no other tendency than to make void the cross of Christ.]
And this is the character of Gods most faithful servants at this day
[It is not from amongst the wise and learned that God, for the most part, selects his most active and efficient instruments. Not that he proscribes learning; but because he is jealous of his own honour, and would have our faith to stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God [Note: 1Co 2:5.]. He chooses the weak things of the world to confound the mighty [Note: 1Co 1:26-29]. Not that any, however eminent, can claim any higher title than that assigned them in the text: for all are guilty, and need the same mercy which they preach to others; all are weak, and must be upheld by God every moment, lest they fall and perish. And not one amongst them can convert or edify one single soul by any power of his own. However useful any be, they are only like the pitchers which contained the lamps of Gideon [Note: Jdg 7:19-21. God would not suffer Gideon to employ any thing like an effective army, lest they should ascribe the victory to themselves. It was by three hundred only, with their pitchers and lamps, that God wrought this great deliverance. And so it was by the ministry of a few poor fishermen, that he triumphed over all the powers both of earth and hell.] it was not the pitchers that in any respect contributed to his success; no, nor yet the light which they contained: it was the power of God accompanying that light, which obtained the victory; and which alone prevails at this day for the subduing of men to the obedience of faith ]

Let us now proceed to contemplate,

III.

The peculiar advantage arising from this dispensation

There is an excellency of power in the Gospel
[There is nothing under heaven that accomplishes such wonders as this. It comes to men who are dead in trespasses and sins, and by a divine energy brings them forth to life. The prophets vision of the dry bones gives a just representation of its effects [Note: Eze 37:1-10.] We see how it wrought on the day of Pentecost, and afterwards throughout all the Roman Empire And the same effects does it produce at this day, wherever it is preached in simplicity, and accompanied with power from on high. There are many living witnesses (not a few, I would hope, in this place) who can attest, that, by means of it, their eyes have been opened, and their souls been turned from the power of Satan unto God.]

By the weakness of those who dispense it, the power of God that accompanies it is the more displayed
[If it were ministered by angels, men would be ready to ascribe its efficacy to the instruments by whom it was dispensed. But, when it was preached by poor fishermen, without learning, without any earthly power to support them, and in direct opposition to all the prejudices and passions of mankind, to what could its wonderful power be ascribed? To nothing, surely, but the mighty operation of the Spirit of God. So, if at this day God made use of none but the great and learned, we should give the honour unto those by whom he wrought, rather than to Him alone. But when he ordains strength, as it were, in the mouths of babes and sucklings, we are constrained to say, that He who works either in us, or by us, is God [Note: 2Co 1:21; 2Co 5:5.]. By this it is clearly shewn, that neither he that planteth is any thing, nor he that watereth; but God, that giveth the increase [Note: 1Co 3:7.]: it is He that is all in all [Note: Col 3:11.].]

We may see, then, from hence,
1.

How we are to preach the Gospel

[The Gospel was never intended to give to men an opportunity of displaying their own talents, and of getting glory to themselves; no: we are not to preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord [Note: ver. 5.]. It is a treasure committed to us, that, as Gods almoners, we should dispense it to an ungodly world. We are to think of nothing, but of enriching immortal souls. If we see not this effect, we should account nothing done to any good purpose, even though our names were celebrated over the face of the whole earth. And if we see this seal to our ministry, we should account ourselves truly blessed, though we were considered in no other light than as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things. In preparing for our public addresses, we should keep this end in view: in delivering them, too, we should labour with all our might to attain it: and we should consider the enriching of one single soul with the unsearchable riches of Christ, a far more glorious recompence than all the dignities and wealth that could be heaped upon us.]

2.

How you should hear the Gospel

[You should lose sight of man altogether, and look only unto God. To be of Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, is a proof of sad carnality; and is the sure way to rob yourselves of Gods blessing. You should consider the public ordinances as Gods appointed means of dispensing wealth to your souls. You should go up to them poor, that you may be enriched; and empty, that you may be filled. As for the particular talents of the preacher, or the peculiarities which attend his ministrations, you should, as far as possible, overlook them; and fix your attention only on the treasure which he unfolds to your view, and presents for your acceptance. You would act thus in reference to a casket of jewels which was set before you: you would not despise them because the casket was plain; nor regard them because it was elegant. The enjoying of the possession is that which would be uppermost in your mind: and so it should be when the treasures of the Gospel are tendered to you. You should not consider the vessel in which they are brought: if it be of gold, your regards should not be fixed on that; nor, if it be earthen, should you undervalue the treasure it contains. To be enriched with all spiritual and eternal blessings should be the one object of your pursuit; and for that your mouth should be opened in prayer to God in secret; and your, soul be expanded under the ministration of his word. Above all, be sure to look to God, and not to man; lest you provoke your God to jealousy, and he withhold from your souls his saving benefits.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Ver. 7. In earthen vessels ] Gr. , in oyster shells, as the ill-favoured oyster hath in it a bright pearl. Vilis saepe cadus nobile nectar habet. In a leather purse may be a precious pearl.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

7 18. ] This glorious ministry is fulfilled by weak, afflicted, persecuted, and decaying vessels, which are moreover worn out in the work (7 12). Yet the spirit of faith, the hope of the resurrection, and of being presented with them, for whom he has laboured, bears him up against the decay of the outer man, and all present tribulation (13 18). We are not justified in assuming with Calvin, Estius, al., that a definite reproach of personal meanness had induced the Apostle to speak thus. For he does not deal with any such reproach here, but with matters common to all human ministers of the word.

All this is a following out in detail of the of 2Co 4:1 , already enlarged on in one of its departments , that of not shrinking from openness of speech , and now to be put forth in another , viz. bearing up against outward and inward difficulties . If any polemical purpose is to be sought, it is the setting forth of the abundance of sufferings, the glorying in weakness (ch. 2Co 11:23 ; 2Co 11:30 ), which substantiated his apostolic mission: but even such purpose is only in the background; he is pouring out, in the fulness of his heart, the manifold discouragements and the far more exceeding encouragements of his office.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

7. ] . ., viz. ‘ the light of the knowledge of the glory of God , 2Co 4:6 . ; , , , . Chrys. p. 496. Some (Calv., al.) think the . to be the whole : but it seems simpler to refer it to that which has immediately preceded, in a style like that of Paul, in which each successive idea so commonly evolves itself out of the last. The is the body , not the whole personality; the of 2Co 4:16 ; see 2Co 4:10 . And in the troubles of the body the personality shares, as long as it is bound up with it here.

The similitude and form of expression is illustrated by Wetst. from Artemidorus vi. 25, , Arrian, Epict. iii. 9, , , , and Herod. iii. 96, . , , , , .

. . not = , but, the contemplated on the side of its , the power consisting in the effects of the apostolic ministry ( 1Co 2:4 ), as well as in the upholding under trials and difficulties. The passage commonly referred to (even by Stanley) to prove the hendiadys, may serve entirely to disprove it: Jos. Antt. i. 13. 4, . : “the readiness and surpassingness of his obedience.”

] may belong to (i.e. be seen to belong to) God . Tertull., Vulg., and Estius, render it ‘ut sublimitas sit virtutis Dei, non ex nobis,’ which is hardly allowable, and disturbs the sense by confusing the antithesis between and .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

2Co 4:7-15 . HIS BODILY WEAKNESS DOES NOT ANNUL THE EFFECTS OF HIS MINISTRY.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

2Co 4:7 . . . .: but, sc. , in contrast to the glowing and exultant phrases of 2Co 4:6 , we have this treasure, sc. , of “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God,” in earthen vessels . The comparison of man, in respect of his powerlessness and littleness in God’s eyes, to an earthen jar made by a potter for his own purposes and of any shape that he wills is common in the O.T. (Job 10:9 , Isa 30:14 , Jer 19:11 ; see 2EEst 4:11 ), and St. Paul works out the idea in Rom 9:20 ff. He also distinguishes here and at 2Ti 2:20 between different kinds of , illustrating thereby the difference between men; while he himself is elsewhere called , and St. Peter calls woman (see reff.). In the present passage seems to be used specially for the human body ( cf. 2 Esdras 7 [88], vas corruptibile ), as the thought in the Apostle’s mind is (mainly) of his own physical infirmities; the figure being derived from the ancient custom of storing gold and silver in earthenware pots. The treasure of the Gospel light is contained in an “earthen vessel,” a frail body which may (seemingly) at any moment succumb ( cf. Job 4:19 and see 2Co 5:1 below). This may appear surprising, that so great a treasure should seem to be exposed to the mishaps which may befall the perishable jar in which it is contained; but yet (though St. Paul does not pursue this line of thought here) it is the very principle of the Incarnation that the heavenly is revealed and received through the earthly, for “the Word became flesh” (St. Joh 1:14 ). . . .: that the exceeding greatness of the power, sc. , which triumphs over all obstacles, may be God’s and not from ourselves . The weakness of the instrument is to demonstrate the Divinity of the power which directs it ( cf. chap. 2Co 12:9 and 1Co 2:5 ).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 2Co 4:7-12

7But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; 8we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12So death works in us, but life in you.

2Co 4:7 “But we have this treasure” This refers to God’s indwelling Spirit that magnifies, reveals, and forms the person of Christ in our lives (cf. Joh 16:8-14; Rom 8:9; Col 1:27; 2Pe 1:3-4).

“in earthen vessels” This is an emphasis on the human body (cf. 2Co 4:10; 2Co 4:16; 2Co 5:1 ff; Gen 2:7; Gen 3:19; Gen 18:27). This entire context is a dialectic between Paul’s physical earthly condition and the tremendous spiritual power of the gospel and the indwelling Holy Spirit in his life.

“the surpassing greatness” Huperbol, see Special Topic: Paul’s Use of Huper Compounds at 1Co 2:1.

2Co 4:8-11 “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed” 2Co 4:8-10 contain a series of nine present (mostly passive) participles which are word plays on Koine Greek words describing Paul’s difficult ministry. The first eight participles are in contrasting pairs. The first describes Paul’s ministry experience and the second limits the consequences. Examples of this word play are: (1) “at loss but not utter loss” and (2) “knocked down but not knocked out.” This section can be compared to 2Co 1:6; 2Co 6:4-10; 2Co 11:23-28.

2Co 4:9 “destroyed” For the concept of “destroyed” see Special Topic at 1Co 8:11 and the discussion at 1Co 1:18.

2Co 4:10 “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus” This refers to the paradox of our being rightly related to God, but exposed to physical problems because of a fallen world. We have eternal life, but we are physically dying (cf. 2Co 1:8). As Jesus was rejected and persecuted (cf. Joh 15:20), so too, are believers (cf. 1Co 15:31; Gal 2:20; Php 3:10; Col 1:24; 1Pe 4:12-19).

“so that the life of Jesus” This refers to (1) the resurrected Christ, which was Paul’s hope or (2) the faithfulness of Jesus under persecution. Paul wanted to exhibit Jesus’ faithfulness (cf. 2Co 4:11) and participate in the resurrection of His followers (cf. 2Co 4:14; 1 Corinthians 15).

“may be manifested in our body” This is an aorist passive subjunctive. Read Gal 6:17, which obviously refers to Paul’s physical scars in Jesus’ service. As our earthly vessel is broken, the treasure inside is more visible (cf. 2Co 12:9-10).

Paul uses the Greek term sarx (i.e., flesh) in several senses.

1. the human body (“body” of 2Co 4:10 parallel to “flesh” of 2Co 4:11; also 2Co 7:5; 2Co 10:3; 2Co 12:7)

2. human person (cf. 2Co 5:16; 2Co 11:18)

3. human descent (i.e., father – son, cf. Rom 1:3; Rom 4:1)

4. humanity as a whole (cf. 1Co 1:26; 1Co 1:29)

5. human sinfulness (cf. Rom 7:5; Rom 7:18; Rom 8:3-5; Rom 8:8-9; Rom 8:12-13; 2Co 7:1; 2Co 10:2)

2Co 4:11 “we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake” Theological insight into this verse can be seen in 1Co 4:9, where the Apostles are on exhibition both to angels and men. Believers also are on exhibition to a lost world and the angelic world (cf. Eph 2:7; Eph 3:10).

The term “constantly” (cf. 2Co 6:10) is parallel to “always” of 2Co 4:10. The call to ministry is a call to intentional daily death to self (cf. 2Co 5:14-15; Rom 6:7; 1Co 15:31; Gal 2:20; Php 3:8; Php 3:10; 1Jn 3:16). This attitude is the reversal of the fall of mankind in Genesis 3. It is evidence of Christlikeness, which is the restoration of the image of God in humanity.

The term “been delivered over” (paranididmi) was used of Judas handing over Jesus to the authorities (cf. Mat 20:18-19; Mar 10:33). It is used by Jesus in a prophetic sense describing His followers in Mat 10:17; Mat 24:9; Mar 13:11-12.

The phrase “for Jesus’ sake” is to be understood as causality. Our ministry burdens do not benefit Christ, but they are ours because we follow Him. As they persecuted Him, they will persecute us. However, it is also true that the things we suffer as Christ’s followers are the very things that can help us grow more and more like Him.

Paul’s identification with Jesus’ death functions theologically on several levels.

1. sacramental theology (cf. Rom 6:3-5; Col 2:12; Col 3:1; Col 3:3-5)

2. church doctrine (cf. 1Th 4:14-15)

3. personal experience (cf. 2Co 4:10-11; Gal 2:20; Php 3:10)

“mortal flesh” See Special Topic at 1Co 1:26.

2Co 4:12 “So death works in us, but life in you” This is a present middle (deponent) indicative which personifies death. This refers to physical persecution for Paul and his mission team (cf. 2Co 4:16) and spiritual life in them to whom he preaches the gospel.

In The Anchor Bible series on 2 Corinthians Victor Furnish believes it is passive voice (p. 257) because that voice dominates 2Co 4:10-11, where the understood subject is the power of God (cf. 2Co 4:7). This would imply that God uses trials and persecutions as a means of producing Christlikeness in His followers. Leaders’ lives give power to their messages (cf. 2Co 1:3-11; 2Ti 2:9-10).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

earthen. Greek. ostrakinos Only here and 2Ti 2:20. From ostrakon, a potsherd. Compare App-94. Treasure in the East is often hidden in the earth and in a potter’s vessel to protect from damp, &c. Compare Jer 32:14.

that = Go order that. Greek. hina,

excellency. Greek. huperbole. Compare 2Co 12:7 (abundance).

power. Greek. dunamis. App-172.

of = out of. Greek. eh. App-104. It does not emanate from us. “of God” is the possessive case. The power net only emanates from God, but belongs to Him. Heoes not part with it.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

7-18.] This glorious ministry is fulfilled by weak, afflicted, persecuted, and decaying vessels, which are moreover worn out in the work (7-12). Yet the spirit of faith, the hope of the resurrection, and of being presented with them, for whom he has laboured, bears him up against the decay of the outer man, and all present tribulation (13-18). We are not justified in assuming with Calvin, Estius, al., that a definite reproach of personal meanness had induced the Apostle to speak thus. For he does not deal with any such reproach here, but with matters common to all human ministers of the word.

All this is a following out in detail of the of 2Co 4:1, already enlarged on in one of its departments,-that of not shrinking from openness of speech,-and now to be put forth in another, viz. bearing up against outward and inward difficulties. If any polemical purpose is to be sought, it is the setting forth of the abundance of sufferings, the glorying in weakness (ch. 2Co 11:23; 2Co 11:30), which substantiated his apostolic mission: but even such purpose is only in the background; he is pouring out, in the fulness of his heart, the manifold discouragements and the far more exceeding encouragements of his office.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

2Co 4:7. , this treasure) described from [beginning with] 2Co 2:14. He now shows, that affliction and death itself, so far from obstructing the ministry of the Spirit, even aid it, and sharpen ministers and increase their fruit.-, earthen) The ancients kept their treasure in jars, or vessels. There are earthen vessels, which yet may be clean; on the contrary a golden vessel may be filthy.-, vessels) It is thus he calls the body, or the flesh, which is subject to affliction and death; see the following verses.- , the excellency of the power) which, consisting as it does in the treasure, exerts itself in us, while we are being saved, and in you, while you are being enriched; 2Co 4:10-11.-, may be) may be acknowledged to be, with thanksgiving, 2Co 4:15.- , of God) not merely from God. God not only bestows power once for all, but He is always maintaining it [making it good, ensuring it to His people].

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

2Co 4:7

2Co 4:7

But we have this treasure-[By treasure is meant his ministry, but it is his ministry as pictured in the preceding paragraph, a ministry of illumination-a turning on the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It was a ministration of life, of power, and glory. It produced the most astonishing effects. It freed men from the condemnation and power of sin, delivered them from the power of the god of this world, and made them heirs of eternal life.]

in earthen vessels,-He possessed this knowledge in an earthen vessel-earthly, perishing body. [Any human body is an unworthy receptacle for so glorious a ministry. And Pauls body, racked and wrecked by all he had suffered (2Co 11:23-27), seemed to him especially unworthy. His outward appearance seems physically not to have been very prepossessing (2Co 10:1; 2Co 10:10), and its many hardships had not made it more so.]

that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;-All must know that the spiritual light and power he displayed did not pertain to his natural body; that it was given him of God, so that God would receive the honor and glory for all he did. [The frailty of his body made it all the more evident that the source of the power was not in himself, but in God.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

the Inward Life Triumphant over Affliction

2Co 4:7-18

Few men have been more conscious of their weakness than was the Apostle. The earthen vessel had become very cracked and scratched, but the heavenly treasure was unimpaired, as in the case of Gideon, when the pitcher was broken the lantern shone out. Paul here confesses that he was troubled, perplexed, persecuted, and cast down, always bearing the scars of Jesus, and being perpetually delivered over to death. But he gratefully accepted all these disabilities because he knew that they gave greater opportunities to Jesus to show forth, through him, His resurrection power. With the daily decay of the outward, there came the renewal of the unseen and spiritual. It is only in proportion as we are conformed to the sufferings and death of Christ that we begin to realize the fullness of what He is, and what He can be or do through us. Our one thought must always be the glory of Christ in the salvation of others.

Note the contrasts of 2Co 4:17. The affliction is light, but the glory of the future is fraught with radiant and satisfying blessedness. The one is transient, the other eternal. The one is the price of the other, though each is the gift of God. The comet which has gone farthest into the outer darkness returns closest to the central sun.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

this: 2Co 4:1, 2Co 6:10, Mat 13:44, Mat 13:52, Eph 3:8, Col 1:27, Col 2:3

in: 2Co 5:1, 2Co 10:10, Jdg 7:13, Jdg 7:14, Jdg 7:16-20, Lam 4:2, 1Co 1:28, 1Co 4:9-13, Gal 4:13, Gal 4:14, 2Ti 2:20

that: 2Co 3:5, 2Co 3:6, 2Co 12:7-9, 2Co 13:4, 1Co 2:3-5, Eph 1:19, Eph 1:20, Eph 2:5, Eph 2:8, Eph 2:9, Col 2:12, 1Th 1:5

Reciprocal: Gen 2:7 – dust Gen 27:35 – General Lev 14:5 – earthen vessel Jos 6:3 – ye shall Jdg 7:2 – too many Jdg 7:20 – brake Jdg 7:22 – blew 1Sa 13:22 – there was neither 1Ki 17:9 – widow woman Job 4:19 – dwell Psa 34:19 – Many Psa 44:3 – For Pro 10:14 – lay Pro 13:7 – that maketh himself poor Jer 19:1 – Go Zec 12:7 – save Luk 6:45 – treasure Act 20:19 – temptations 1Co 1:27 – General 1Co 2:5 – but 1Co 3:5 – ministers 1Co 15:30 – General 2Co 1:8 – of our 2Co 1:9 – that 2Co 10:4 – mighty Col 1:11 – his Heb 1:3 – the word 1Pe 1:6 – manifold

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

2Co 4:7

This metaphor of the Divine treasure in earthen vessels sums up in a picturesque and easily remembered form much of the Apostles teaching in this the least systematic of his epistles. It hints at truths which have often been verified, and as often forgotten, in the history of the Christian Church. Let us look at one or two of the lessons which may be learnt from an application of the principle contained in this metaphor. Let us briefly apply it (1) to the Bible, (2) to the Church, (3) to the individual minister of the Gospel.

I. The Bible.The application of these words to the written records of Revelation is no new thing. In recent times it has been made by Dr. Sanday, one of the most learned and reverent of living critics, in a most helpful book. If few of us can be critics, all of us must be aware of the great change of view which has come about during the last fifty years; and those who are called upon to strengthen the faith of others will soon discover how many shipwrecks of faith, partial or total, have been caused by difficulties about the Bibleits historical accuracy, the apparent conflict between its statements and the discoveries of science, the morality of some of the teaching of the Old Testament. Who has not known instances in which men have found it honestly impossible to retain the theory of inspiration in which they were brought up, and then, in abandoning that theory, have also abandoned wellnigh all belief in the reality of Revelation? Our forefathers saw that in the Bible there was a glorious treasure, and assumed that the vessels which contained it could have no admixture of so common a thing as earth. Our own generation sees that the vessels are of earth, and therefore some men rush to the conclusion that they can contain no Divine treasure. Must we not remember Bishop Butlers memorable warning against framing our ideas of Revelation by what we should have expected God to do, instead of observing the method which, in point of fact and experience, we see that He has adopted? There are hundreds of difficulties in Biblical criticism which will not be solved in the lifetime of the youngest person here present; on numberless points we must be content to suspend our judgment. But there is no principle that can help us more than that which is contained in this metaphor of St. Paul, more especially because it brings the explanation of the Divine method with regard to Revelation into line with the explanation of the working of the Holy Spirit upon mankind in general.

II. From the Bible we turn to the Church.Here again history tells us the same tale. Just as men constructed false theories of mechanical inspiration because they did not understand that the Divine treasure could be contained in earthen vessels, so, for the same reason, they have sometimes contructed false or exaggerated theories about the Church, which is the witness and keeper of Holy Writ, the Spirit-bearing body. Men have thought it a dishonour to God to suppose that His Church could ever be polluted by sin or deceived by erroneous doctrine. More than once in the history of the Church, from the Montanists of the second century to the Puritans of modern times, there have been zealots who would fain have uprooted the tares without delay, and have purged the Church of all unworthy members. And just as men have often sought an impossible perfection in the Church on earth, so also have they looked for an unattainable freedom from error. Sometimes, as by the Church of Rome at the present day, this infallibility has been attributed to an individual; sometimes, and with much better reason, it has been supposed to reside in the general voice of the Church as expressed in its assemblies. But a patient study of the Divine method seems to show that God does not work after this fashion. Do not misunderstand me. It is not that I would belittle the Churchs mission or disparage her authority, or cast doubt upon the reality of the guidance of the Holy Spirit from age to age. God forbid! What I urge is that, as in the written Revelation, so here also, this guidance does not supersede the human channel or overpower the human instrument. Doubtless our Lord might have committed to the Church, or to its chief ruler, the power of deciding every doubt with infallible certainty, just as He might have invoked legions of angels to deliver Him from death. But we know that He did not choose that method of deliverance for Himself; and the Church, which is His Body, shares in the humiliation to which His human Body was made subject. The Church, indeed, is indestructiblethe gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Yet it has its dark hours, its agonies, its periods of corruption, as well as its times of illumination and refreshment. It has been stained by the cruelties of persecution; by the profligacies of its spiritual rulersits teaching has at times been largely overlaid with travesties of the Gospel. Even now we see it rent asunder, and weakened by disunion. Few of us can read Church history without a sense of melancholy, almost of despair; and yet we have been told on excellent authority that the study of Church history is the best cordial for drooping spirits. What is the explanation of the paradox? Surely this. If we look at the human element only, at the earthen vessels, our spirits sink when we see their frailty and unworthiness. If we look at the Divine elementthe unfailing treasure of the knowledge of the glory of God in Jesus Christwe take courage again, for we perceive that even through human shortcomings God is fulfilling Himself in many waysin many fragments and after divers fashionsand that the exceeding greatness of the power is of Him and not of man.

III. As with the Bible and the Church, so it is with the individual minister of the Gospel.There are few, perhaps, among those who have been set apart for Gods service who have not felt what Isaiah and Jeremiah felt. I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. It is well that we should feel this, and remember our own unworthiness; and yet we must not let the feeling paralyse us. We must remember also the live coal from off the altar, the touching of the mouth by the hand of God. God chooses us poor earthen vessels; and even when He has committed to us the Divine treasure, earthen we still remain. The great contrast must not unfit us for our task. It must not make us reject the call when first it comes, or despair when in after-years we have to acknowledge mistake after mistake, failure upon failure. God, we believe, has chosen us as His instruments. He has made our poor humanity the medium of the Divine message to mankind; and we know that wherever in this life the human element meets the Divine there must be this contrast, this overpowering sense of imperfection and incongruity. But here again a study of the past may help us. Christ chose twelve Apostles, and amongst them there was a Thomas who doubted, a Peter who denied, a Judas who betrayed. And from that day to this the work of the Church has been carried on by men who, if in some cases they have been canonised after death, certainly had their faults very freely recognised when they were alive. Martyrs, confessors, saints, and doctors of the Churcha noble army truly, but still an army composed of men of like passions with ourselves; and in proportion as each deserved the name of saint, he was most conscious, probably, of his own inadequacy for his mighty task.

Rev. Chancellor Hobhouse.

Illustration

There was a crisis in the Church of Corinth; we see it both in the First Epistle and in the Second. There were scandals in the Church of Corinth. The First Epistle tells us what they werefaction and partisanship, spiritual pride, doubts and false doctrines about the Resurrection, profligacy, drunkenness, apparent relapse into the notorious wickednesses of the pagan community which surrounded the new-born Church. We know how St. Paul dealt with these matters in the First Epistle. Yet the troubles were not at an end. St. Pauls opponents were still active. During his absence they undermined his position by assailing his Apostolic authority, by slandering his personal character, by ridiculing his physical infirmities, by trying to emphasise the differences between Jewish and Gentile converts, by appealing to the superior claims of those who, like St. Peter, had been the companions of Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh. And what was St. Pauls line of defence against these attacks? He traces back his authority to our Lord Himself, he speaks of the visions which had been vouchsafed to him, as well as to the more abundant labours which were the best evidence of Apostolic mission. As he confesses repeatedly in a half-ironical tone, he has recourse to boasting, his critics have forced him into it. He is possessed with a sense of the dignity of his office, the truth of his Gospel, the importance of his mission, the real value of the results already achieved; and yet, in the midst of this same confident boasting, he never loses sight of his own infirmity, nor forgets the disproportion between the worker and the work. For himself, he is content that it should be so, provided only that the message of the Gospel is not discredited thereby, provided that men learn to distinguish between the precious treasure of the Revelation of God through Jesus Christ and the earthen vessels in which that treasure is contained.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

2Co 4:7. The treasure means the light of the Gospel, and the earthen vessel is a human being. When the effects of the great truth concerning Christ are observed by the world, and knowing that man in his natural ability is unable to accomplish such results, it will be concluded that the power has come from God.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

In the foregoing verses we find the apostle magnifying his office, extolling his ministry, and vindicating his fidelity in the discharge of his duty.

In this verse observe, 1. He compares the gospel he preached to a treasure: We have this treasure; a treasure for the enriching and edifying of the church. The gospel is a treasure, for its worth and dignity, for its abundance and variety, for its closeness and secrecy. This treasure Christ keeps under lock and key, only intrusting those with it whom he calls to it, and furnishes for it. They are no better than thieves and sacrilegious robbers, who, without a mediate call or warrant from Christ, do assume this trust, and break open this treasure.

Observe, 2. The repository in which this treasure is laid up, in earthen vessels; so the apostles and ministers of the gospel are called.

Where note, The word of description, they are vessels; and the word of diminution, they are earthen vessels.

1. The preachers of the gospel are represented by a word of description; they are vessels: thus vessels are not natural, but artificial instruments. No man is born a Christian, much less a minister, but made such. Vessels are not of equal capacity; some are less, others greater: thus the ministers of the gospel have gifts and graces of different degrees and excellences.

Again, vessels are not for reception only, but for effusion also; as they receive and retain, so they let out what is put into them. The ministers of Christ are not only to receive and lay up, but to lay out this heavenly treasure, which is not impaired by imparting.

Finally, Vessels are not the originals of what they have; but all they contain is poured into them, and received by them. A mine has treasure in its own bowels; but it is put into the chest. Thus the preachers of the gospel are not the authors, but the receivers only, of those truths that they publish: I have received of the Lord what I also delivered unto you. 1Co 11:23

Note farther, the word of diminution; they are earthen vessels. The preachers of the gospel are divine in regard of the sublimity of their doctrine, but human and earthen in regard of the frailty of their condition. Their being called earthen vessels, may denote the meanness of their condition, which for the most part is little and low in the world: as the poor receive the gospel, so are they very often poor and low that publish the gospel, necessitous and indigent, earthen vessels.

Again, it may denote the frailty of their persons, and the contemptibleness of them. Earthen vessels are little set by, stand in open places, used by every hand, and at every turn; while plate, gold and silver vessels, are laid and locked up with great carefulness. Thus it is often with the preachers of the gospel; they are objects base and vile, contemptible and despised, in the eyes of the world, vessels wherein there is no pleasure; yea, with some, not only our persons are despicable, but our very office and function is contemptible.

In a word, as our mean condition and base estimation, so our bodily constituiton proclaims us earthen: our bodies are earthen, because formed of the dust of the earth, because subject to flaws and cracks, and to be broken in pieces; we that preach eternal life to others, are dying men ourselves; and whilst the word of life is in our mouths, many times death is in our faces.

Observe lastly, The reason assigned why this treasure of the gospel is committed to earthen vessels, men; not to heavenly vessels, angels; namely, That the excellency of the power might be of God, and not of us from the weakness of man the instrument, there redounds great honour to God the agent. This precious treasure of the gospel is lodged in such weak and worthless vessels, that as the power is from God, namely, the awakening, convincing, quickening, heart-changing power of the word, is from him; so the glory, the entire glory, and complete praise, may be attributed and ascribed to him: We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power might be of God, and not of us.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

God’s Proclaimers Will Overcome

The treasure would be the gospel. That treasure is carried to the world in earthly vessels, that is, our bodies. Because the body is weak, the greatness of the message it carries is better seen. Also, it is easy to see such a frail body is not the source of such a powerful message ( 2Co 4:7 ).

Paul also pictured gospel proclaimers as soldiers fighting for the gospel treasure. He knew the enemy might move in on all sides at close quarters. However, the apostle said God’s soldier would still have room to wield his sword and defend himself with his shield. Though he might be greatly troubled by the close fighting, he should not lose hope. In the thick of the battle, the soldier might seek safety by running. Even then, Paul said God would not leave him in a helpless state. In fact, the apostle said God would not allow His soldier to be defeated even if he was overtaken by the enemy and knocked down ( 2Co 4:8-9 ).

Paul and other proclaimers of the good news suffered persecution like Jesus and died, as it were, because of it ( 1Co 15:31 ; Rom 8:36 ; Php 3:10 ; Col 1:24 ; Gal 6:17 ). Paul’s sufferings caused the selfish man to be dead and Christ to be seen in Paul’s response to that suffering ( Gal 2:20 ). That death, brought about by suffering for Christ, also brings eternal life through the gospel, for those who hear us proclaim despite trials. Despite affliction, which might have caused Paul to give up, he took the attitude of the Psalmist who was compelled to speak because he believed in God ( 2Co 4:10-13 ; Psa 116:10 ).

The ultimate source of the proclaimers’ belief and hope rested in the resurrection. It was the knowledge that all believers, including the bearer of good news, would one day overcome the grave and be taken home to be with the Lord that kept them strong and faithful. Everything done in the service of the gospel is done for the believer. They were taught that they might receive God’s grace and, in turn, that grace received by them might glorify God ( 2Co 4:14-15 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

2Co 4:7. But we The apostles, and all other ministers of Christ, yea, and all true believers; have this treasure Of the gospel, or of the truth and grace of God; in earthen vessels In frail, feeble, perishing bodies, formed out of the dust of the earth, and, because of sin, returning to it; mean, vile, compassed about with infirmity, and liable to be broken in pieces daily. Even the whole man, the soul as well as body, is but a vessel, in which the treasure is lodged, and upon which it confers a value and dignity, but from which it receives none, but is rather disgraced and injured, by being deposited in such a mean and impure vessel. The gospel is properly termed a treasure, 1st, Because of its great excellence, manifested in the truth and importance of its doctrine; the equity, purity, goodness, and clearness of its precepts; the suitableness, value, and certainty of its promises, the awfulness and terror of its threatenings, revealed for our warning and caution. 2d, Because it is the means of enriching us, even in this world, with the truest and most valuable treasure; a treasure, of all others, the most suited to our rational and immortal nature, and which as far exceeds the riches of this world, as the soul exceeds the body, as heaven exceeds earth, or eternity time, namely, divine knowledge, rendering us wise unto eternal salvation; true holiness, conforming us to the image of him that created us; and solid happiness, giving us, in communion with God, an earnest of our future inheritance. 3d, Because it offers to us, and shows us how to attain, the greatest and most valuable treasure in the life to come, even all the joys and glories of the heavenly state. That the excellency of the power may be of God This power is three-fold: 1st, The inherent virtue of the gospel doctrine, whereby, when understood, believed, and laid to heart, it shows itself to be quick and powerful, spirit and life; becoming a seed of genuine repentance, of justifying faith, of immortal hope, of sincere love, and new obedience. 2d, Those miraculous operations, whereby God bore witness to, sealed, and confirmed the truth and importance of the doctrine of his first messengers. 3d, Those ordinary influences of his Spirit as a Spirit of truth and grace; of light, life, purity, and comfort, which fails not to accompany the faithful preaching of it in every age. By this three-fold energy, the gospel overcame of old, and still overcomes, the obstacles in the way of its progress: 1st, From within, through the corruption of nature, the prejudice of education, the love of false religion, unbelief, the love of sin, and of the world. 2d, From without, as the contradiction of philosophers, of heathen, Jewish, or Christian priests and magistrates; of sinners of all descriptions; persecutions from Jews and Gentiles, and the carnal part of mankind in every age; reproaches, spoiling of goods, imprisonments, racks, tortures, and martyrdoms. 3d, From the gospel itself, exhibiting, as an object of confidence, love, obedience, and worship, one who was crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. For, as Macknight observes, the greatness of this power can only be estimated by the greatness of the obstacles which it had to remove, and by the greatness of the effects which it then produced. No sooner was the gospel preached in any country, whether barbarous or civilized, than great numbers forsook idolatry, and devoted themselves to the worship of the true God. Moreover, instead of wallowing, as formerly, in sensuality, and practising all manner of wickedness, they became remarkably holy. But it is evident, that before such an entire change in the faith [and practice] of any heathen could take place, the prejudices of education were to be overcome; the example of parents, relations, and teachers, was to be set aside; the reproaches, calumnies, and hatred of persons most dear to the convert, were to be disregarded; the resentment of magistrates, priests, and all whose interests were any way connected with the established religion, was to be borne; in short, the ties of blood and friendship were to be broken, considerations of ease and interest were to be silenced; nay, the love of life itself was to be cast out; all which were obstacles to the heathen changing their faith and practice, next to insurmountable; and such as could not have been overcome by any natural power, which the first preachers of the gospel can be supposed to have possessed. The beautiful and strong expression here used by the apostle, , evidently contains an ellipsis, which Grotius supplies thus, That the excellency, &c., may appear to be of God. Men, it must be observed, are always inclined to ascribe to second causes effects which belong only to the first cause. Whenever we see any effects which astonish us, instead of elevating our thoughts to God, and giving him the glory, we meanly sink into creature admiration, and creature attachments, as if the events were to be ascribed to instruments. Thus the heathen beholding the sun, and the astonishing effects produced by it in the world, took it for a god; not considering that it was only a servant, and an image of God, the invisible Sun. The Lycaonians, seeing Paul and Barnabas work a miracle, would have sacrificed to them, not considering that they were only instruments of the divine power. Nay, and the Jews, although instructed in the knowledge of the true God, yet when they saw Peter and John restore a cripple, crowded about them, greatly wondering, as though the miracle was to be ascribed to their power or holiness. And even the Apostle John, illuminated as he was by the Spirit of truth, suffered himself to be surprised at two different times by this imprudent inclination, (so natural is it to all mankind!) for, being dazzled with the glory of the angel who talked with him, he fell prostrate before him, and would have adored him, had not the angel corrected his folly. Now to prevent every thing of this kind, which would have entirely frustrated the design of the gospel, (which is to draw people from the creature to the Creator,) the power intended to convert the nations is put into earthen vessels, that a sight of the meanness of the instruments might prevent men from ascribing any thing to them. And the weaker the instruments are, the more is the divine power manifested and known to be of God, because there is no proportion between the instruments and the work. How glorious was the power which triumphed over the proud and mighty Pharaoh by the simple rod of Moses; that overthrew the walls of Jericho by the sounding of rams horns! And how illustrious the power which triumphed over principalities and powers, by the doctrine of the cross preached by mortals sinners men, mean and despised by tax-gatherers, fishermen, and tent-makers; men without letters arms power intrigue; men, poor, persecuted, forsaken! Yet idols fell: temples were demolished: oracles struck dumb: the reign of the devil abolished: the strongest inclinations of nature conquered: ancient habits and customs changed: superstitions annihilated: people flocking in crowds to adore the Crucified! The great and the small, the learned and the ignorant; kings and their subjects; yea, whole provinces and kingdoms, presenting themselves at the foot of the cross! Surely this is the finger of God, or rather it is the outstretched arm of Jehovah!

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves [We, in our mortal bodies, hold the divine and heavenly truth. God has thus committed his gospel to men that it may be evident to all that it is from him. The power of the gospel so transcends that of the human agent who preaches it as to make it apparent to all that the preacher is but an agent performing duties which are beyond the compass of his own unaided faculties. Farrar sees in this a reference to the torches of Gideon’s pitchers, but the word “treasure” evidently changes the figure, so that Paul no longer speaks of the gospel as a light. Besides, the Gideon incident conveys the idea of concealment, which is not in Paul’s thoughts. The apostle is here supposing that some one will object to his high claims for the Christian ministry, asserting that the humiliations and sufferings endured by the apostle refute the idea that he can be an ambassador of God. His answer is that God put the treasure in an earthen vessel in order that the survival of the perishing vessel when subjected to all manner of vicissitudes might prove the value, in the sight of God, of the treasure within it];

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

THE HUMILIATION OF THE GOSPEL

2Co 4:7-15.

7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, in order that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. All the splendor, pomp, pageantry, gold, silver and adornment appertaining t6 the priesthood, tabernacle and temple of the former dispensation has been entirely eliminated, not a vestige surviving. Hence the folly and impertinency of filling the world with it during the gospel ages. It was all symbolic in its day and passed away with all the types and shadows superseded by the glorious Antitype. Hence the gospel ministry is all in the valley of humiliation. Human power, pomp and splendor all totally eclipsed by the supernatural glory of the Christ we represent. Whenever we bring in human power, learning, wealth and influence we thereby put a veil over the popular mind, disqualifying them to see the Invisible One. Therefore our Savior selected the most humble, impotent and uninfluential to preach the gospel, even unlearned and ignorant men. In every subsequent age, when human power, wealth and culture come to the front we see the Holy Spirit retreat away, leaving them to run their own machinery, and, pursuant to first principles, picking up others, poor, weak and uninfluential, from the low places of the earth, and sending them out, the custodians of this invaluable Heavenly treasure. God is not going to change His gospel economy to suit any of us, giving His glory to another. The humiliation of the gospel is here exemplified by the apostles themselves, down at the very bottom of society, the contempt of the worlds elite.

8. In everything troubled but not inextricably crushed, in perplexity but not in despair.

9. Persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed,

10. Always bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus, in order that truly the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our body. They were constantly exposed to martyrdom; not many years after this writing till Paul laid down his neck at Neros block, and the universal tempest of imperial persecution broke out against them, deluging Christendom in blood. Most of the apostles lived like the poorest sanctified pilgrims you ever saw, homeless, money-less and friendless so far as the world was concerned. Nowadays they would universally be recognized, enunciated, calumniated and despised as the poorest tramps. The brightest lights and the grandest examples of Christian purity and heroism in every age have lived and died down in the bottom of the valley of humiliation. It is dangerous to climb, lest we fall and break our necks. Whenever we get to where the people will account for our efficiency by our own resources, we are on dangerous ground and fearfully liable to the abandonment of the Holy Ghost, leaving us to paddle our own canoe, because He dare not compromise the glory of Christ in human instrumentality. We must keep in such position that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

11. For we who are alive are all the time being delivered unto death for Jesus sake, i. e., in constant perils and persecutions and liable to be killed for Jesus sake. It is equally true to-day, if you are constantly loyal to God, your life hangs upon a thread and you are in constant jeopardy. So many people will hate you, that in ways you never dreamed they will seek to take your life. I have been mobbed a number of times, and repeatedly threatened with immediate death, firearms drawn on me, and on one occasion all possible effort made to shoot me, the gun refusing to go off, only snapping. Of course, current civilization is much in our favor, for which we are to be thankful to God; but still this Scripture is true. Fisher, a godly Baptist preacher, was murdered in Louisville, Ky.; Haddock, a Methodist preacher in Sioux City, IA., and others not a few, swell the martyr roll of the present day. In order that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. The grand end in view is the exemplification, both in soul and body.

12. So death worketh in us, and life in you. This is an antithetical statement meaning physical death in us and spiritual life in you.

THE OUTER AND INNER MAN

16. Therefore we faint not, but if indeed our outer man is perishing, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Paul uses the term man in quite a diversity of figurative senses; e. g., the outer man simply means your body, and has no spiritual signification whatever. The inner man, as well as the hidden man of the heart (1Pe 3:4), and the new man so frequently mentioned, are all synonymous, meaning the new creature, created in the heart by the Holy Ghost in regeneration; while the old man and the man of sin means Adam the first, human depravity, original sin. Hence we see from this verse that while the body is constantly wearing out, and really may be regarded as beginning to die when it begins to live, the spiritual man under the reign of grace is diametrically opposite, all the time growing larger and stronger. It is a significant fact that the very operations of vitality involve a series of nutrient and absorbent agencies by which the entire physical body is eliminated away and a new one given every seven years. Hence, if you have truly been saved seven years, you will not only have a new spirit, but your body has been entirely renovated, so that you have not a single atom which you had when you were a servant of the devil. This accounts for the radical revolution in the physical personalities of people all around us; evolving complete and total changes either for good or evil. If a person goes into dark and diabolical sins, the time will soon come when he will no longer resemble his former self; while the same is true in the kingdom of God, a few revolving years working out transformations, not only intrinsical, but extrinsical, completely revolutionizing the physical character, putting on you an unearthly luster, rendering you literally unlike your former self. While these physical revolutions are moving on so wonderfully, it is still infinitely more preeminently true that internal and spiritual revolutions are all the while transpiring in a most marvelous manner, the renovating powers of the Omnipotent Spirit day by day working miracles of grace in the deep interior of our immortal being. For the present light burden of our affliction worketh out for us an eternal weight of glory, according to hyperbole unto hyperbole. This beautiful verse was the last text used by our beloved Bishop Kavanaugh. When he arose in the pulpit in Mississippi announcing the first clause, in reference to the insignificance of temporal afflictions when contrasted with Heavenly glories, he dropped dead by sudden paralysis. When Bishop McTyeire preached his funeral from this same text, he said that the glorified bishop whose remains were lying in the coffin passed on up to Heaven, announcing the second clause of his text, so vividly descriptive of celestial glory, and preached from it there. This is certainly a very beautiful conception, and not at all improbable. The legitimate conclusion from this verse is that God makes all of our temporal afflictions grand sources of blessing to our immortal spirits. While all sickness originated from Satan in the Fall, you must remember that where sin did abound, there did grace much more abound (Rom 5:20). Consequently our wonderful Deliverer has made all the sickness, trouble, sorrow and persecution, which He permits us to encounter in this world, rich in spiritual blessing if we are only true to Him, receiving it gladly, not as from the devil, but from God, whose permissive Providence suffers it to come, and whose triumphant grace makes it a medium of blessings untold. There is a Divine philosophy at the bottom of this truth. When we consider the irrepressible conflict between the material and the spiritual in this life, and the fearful ability that the former may drag down and subordinate the latter, rendering us demonized brutes, we can see very clearly how the good Providence of God may sanctify our temporal afflictions to wean us from earth and ripen us for Heaven. Paul is exceedingly bold, recognizing all the temporal afflictions that can overtake us here as a light burden, while at the same time they work out for us an eternal weight of glory. Baros, translated weight in E.V., I here render burden. Hence we have Paul assuring us that these temporal afflictions will actually burden us with glory in the world to come. Oh, how unutterably delectable to be literally burdened with glory! Then, you must remember it is an eternal burden of glory! Not only is it an eternal burden of glory, but this eternal burden of glory is to be according to hyperbole unto hyperbole! This Greek word hyperbole is used in rhetoric to express the very highest figure of speech conceivable or utterable. Not only does Paul use it to describe the eternal burden of glory that shall prove the happy lot of the saint who has been the recipient of much sorrow, trouble and suffering in this life, but he intensifies the figure of speech by this wonderful combination of rhetorical superlatives, assuring us that it will be according to hyperbole unto hyperbole. This paradoxical figure of speech actually carries the mind not only to the highest and grandest and most ultimate conception, but triumphantly sweeps away, into the illimitable, the indescribable and the incommunicable realities and fruitions of glory and immortality, fledged and pinioned for grander and loftier flights through the cycles of never-ending eternity. Then, who wants to sail to Heaven on flowery beds of ease, only to squeeze through the pearly gate by the skin of his teeth, and go crownless through all eternity? Nay, verily! But give me the hottest of the battle and the thickest of the fight!

18. We are not looking at things which are seen, but at things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporary (not temporal, as E.V., but fleeting and transitory), but things which are not seen are eternal. With these facts before us, how strange to see not only all the worldly people running after the fleeting things of time and giving no attention to the things of the Spirit, which abide forever, but we see that religious people are almost as proclivitous in their grasp after the transitory baubles of this fleeting life to the depreciation of the eternal realities of the Spirit, as the outside world. Take the ministry, for example. Where can you find a preacher who does not want the appointment which stands at the head of the list in temporal affairs? The most dangerous temptations I ever incurred in my life were with Methodist preachers, godly men and my true personal friends, who loved me dearly and sought what they regarded as my chief good. The sanctification the Lord gave me thirty years ago disharmonized me with the proud, popular churches which paid the big money. Twenty-seven years ago I was hauled from off my circuit by my proud, worldly church officers, who had concluded I was a crazy man because I told them the truth. They actually gave me a free ride to the presiding elders office, rejecting me as their pastor and turning me over to the proper authority. The temptation above mentioned was when the presiding elders would tell me that they could send me to a magnificent, rich appointment, where I could get lots of money, if I would only leave off my peculiarities, which meant to let the devil slow me out of my sanctification.

I am so glad God gave me grace in that awful emergency, the most perilous temptation I can now recognize as I retrospect my whole past life. I said to the presiding elders: Go tell the bishop and his cabinet that W. B. Godbey is a candidate for the poorest, roughest and hardest work in the Kentucky Conference. The old bishop straightens up and asks a repetition of that report, which is given, the elders certifying: That is so, bishop. And he means that very thing. Tears were seen in the eyes of the good bishop, who responds: Well, brethren, it becomes our duty to take care of that man, as we see he will not take care of himself. The result was, they never did send me to an appointment that did not give me an ample support, feeding and clothing me and mine like a family of kings. It is a fond trick of the devil to keep preachers out of sanctification by the starvation scarecrow. It is all a lie, for the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof. If the preachers would lose sight of the temporal in the constant and enthusiastic appreciation of the eternal, they would have power with God to shake Heaven, earth and Hell, bring on the Millennium, and bring back the King of Glory. If all the Christians in the world would adopt this maxim, the apocalyptic angel would begin at once to get his chain ready to put round the devils neck.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

2Co 4:7-18. It is true that the splendid character of this ministry is for the present obscured by the earthly and physical conditions under which it is discharged. Paul is conscious that this disability is specially marked in his case. His opponents had probably good reason for saying his bodily presence is weak (2Co 10:10, 1Co 15:8*). 2 Corinthians 10 f. refers frequently to infirmities, and specially to the thorn in the flesh (2Co 12:7*) which was a sore trial to him. But Paul sees in it the working of Gods will, that there might be no doubt as to the true source of the power he exercised; it came not from Paul but from God. And this Divine power works not only through him but within him, sustaining under experiences that would otherwise crush. Nay, there is a still deeper interpretation of his suffering. Like all his experience since he became a Christian, it is connected with his union with Christ. And if the death of Christ, His pangs and helplessness, are re-enacted, it is only in order that the glorious risen life of Jesus also may be manifested in the apostle. But againnot for his benefit (2Co 1:6). He accepts cheerfully what is physically a living death for him, because its issue is spiritual life for those to whom he ministers.

But the contrast between the real glory of the apostolic ministry and the outward weakness of the minister is, after all, only temporal. The very confidence with which he speaks is a proof of his faithhere he recalls a like thought of the Psalmist (Psa 116:10)and with faith goes the Spirit, at once the firstfruits and the guarantee of full salvation. In the power of this Spirit he sees what is going on concurrently with the wearing out and breaking up of the physical frame, viz. the daily growth of an inner personality, one which is spiritual and eternal. In view of this the affliction of the present is seen to be temporary and felt to be light, at least by those who fix their gaze on the unseen. At 2Co 4:15 the thought crosses his mind that he may seem to be losing himself in contemplation of his own experience and hopes; and very characteristically he interpolates the reminder of what is his profound convictionthat all this, even his most individual experience, is for their sakes in the first place, and ultimately for the greater glory of God.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 7

Earthen vessels; it is committed to an obscure and unworthy instrumentality.–May be of God; may appear evidently to be of God.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

SECTION 7. PAUL PROCLAIMS THE GOSPEL AMID DEADLY PERIL, WHICH HOWEVER REVEALS THE POWER OF GOD; AND CANNOT DETER HIM, FOR IT WILL BE FOLLOWED BY ENDLESS LIFE. CH. 4:7-5:10

We have, however, this treasure in earthenware vessels, in order that the excess of the power may be Gods and not from us: in everything being afflicted, but now helpless, perplexed, but not utterly perplexed, pursued, but not deserted, thrown down, but not perishing: always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus, that also the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our body. For always we who live are being given up to death because of Jesus, in order that also the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death is at work in us, but life in you.

But having the same spirit of faith according as it is written, I have believed: for which cause I have spoken, (Psa 116:10,) also we believe: for which cause we also speak. Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sake, that grace, having multiplied, may by the greater number cause the thanksgiving to abound for the glory of God. For which cause we do not fail. For if indeed our outward man is corrupting nevertheless the inward man is being renewed day by day. For the momentary lightness of our affliction is working out for us exceedingly to excess an eternal weight of glory; while we do not look at the things seen, but at the things not seen: for the things seen are temporary; but the things not seen, eternal.

For we know that, if our earthly house of the tent be taken down, a building from God we have, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. For indeed in this tent we groan, longing to put on as overclothing our dwelling-place which is from heaven. If, at any rate, also clothed, not naked, we shall be found. For indeed we who are in the tent groan, being burdened: because we do not wish to lay aside our clothing but to put on overclothing, that the mortal may be swallowed up by life. And He who has wrought in us for this very thing is God, who has given to us the earnest of the Spirit. Being then of good courage always, and knowing that while at home in the body we are away from home from the Lord- For by faith we walk, not by appearance. But we are of good courage, and are well-pleased rather to go away from home from the body, and to go home to the Lord.

For which cause we also make it a point of honour, whether at home or away from home, to be well-pleasing to Him. For all of us must needs be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may obtain the things done through the body, in view of the things he has practised, whether good or bad.

The grandeur of the Gospel, expounded in 5, 6, Paul now reconciles with the unfavorable circumstances of those who proclaim it, by giving in 2Co 4:7-12 the purpose of their afflictions, viz. to reveal the power of God; and sets forth in 2Co 4:13 to 2Co 5:10 the motives which prompt and enable him to speak amid hardships and perils so great.

2Co 4:7. This treasure: the life-giving Gospel of the glory of God.

Earthenware vessels: human bodies, liable to be destroyed in the confusion of the world and the storm of persecution.

In order that etc.; implies that the earthenware vessels are part of a deliberate purpose of God.

The excess of the power: which preserves unbroken these fragile vessels, thus proving that it exceeds the force of the storm around.

May be Gods. God designed that the vessels should be preserved by His own power; and not by a power inherent in, and proceeding from the vessels, as would have been had they consisted of material strong enough to resist the storm. And for this end He committed the gospel treasure to men whose bodies were liable to be destroyed by the foes whose fury He foresaw the Gospel would arouse.

From us: as if we were the source of power.

2Co 4:8-9. Description of the weakness of the earthenware vessels, and of their preservation.

Helpless: confined in narrow space. Same word in 2Co 6:12; Rom 2:9. See notes. This verse proves that it denotes something worse than afflicted. At every point difficulties press upon them: but they are not without way of escape.

Perplexed: not knowing which way to go, seeing no way open to them.

Utterly-perplexed: same word as without-way-of-escape in 2Co 1:8. Although there seemed to be no way open to them, they were not absolutely without a way. This is not contradicted, but confirmed, by 2Co 1:8. From their own point of view there was then no way of escape: but God made one.

Pursued: as in Rom 12:14.

Not deserted, or not left behind in peril: not abandoned to their pursuers. Cp. Heb 13:5.

Thrown down: as if in their flight.

Not perishing: a last triumphant denial. Notice the climax. At every step they are heavily pressed: but their path is not hedged up. They do not know which way to go: but they are not altogether without a way of escape. Enemies pursue them: but they are not left alone in their flight. They fall: but even then they survive.

2Co 4:10. While apparently continuing the description of his hardships Paul now explains their relation to the sufferings of Christ, and then states their divine purpose. Thus 2Co 4:10 a is parallel to 2Co 4:7 a, which is developed in 2Co 4:8-9; and 2Co 4:10 b to 2Co 4:7 b.

Always: parallel to in everything, 2Co 4:8.

The putting to death: the whole process which ended in the death of Christ.

Carrying about etc.: explained in 2Co 4:11, given up to death because of Jesus. Pauls hardships and deadly peril arose from the same cause as those which led Christ to the cross; and were therefore in some sense a repetition and reproduction of them. Cp. 2Co 1:5, sufferings of Christ; Php 3:10; Col 1:24. Thus in his own body Paul was carrying about wherever he went, so that many could see it, a picture of the putting to death of Jesus.

In order that etc.; lays stress on the divine purpose of these perils.

Also the life: the resurrection life, placed in conspicuous contrast to the death, of Christ.

Made manifest. Pauls body, rescued by Gods power from deadly peril, was a conspicuous picture of Jesus alive after He had been put to death. For the miraculous power which raised Christ from the grave saved Paul from going down into it. Cp. 2Co 13:4. It was a picture of Christs death that it might be also a picture of His life; in order that thus the power (2Co 4:7) of God might be manifested.

2Co 4:11. Explains and justifies 2Co 4:10.

We who live: in contrast to Christ who died, and to the death into which day by day they are being given up. They were living victims of death.

Given-up: as in Rom 1:24.

Are given-up: each day death was there and then claiming them for its prey. Cp. 1Co 15:31; Rom 8:36.

Because of Jesus: because they obeyed Him by proclaiming the Gospel. Since this moved the enemies to persecute, by them probably Paul looks upon himself as given-up. By taking steps to kill him, his enemies were practically handing him over to the king of terrors. But the purpose which follows reminds us that even the purposes of bad men were used by God to work out His own purposes. Cp. Act 2:23.

That also the life etc.: emphatic repetition of 2Co 4:10 b, fixing our attention upon the divine purpose of these perils.

Mortal flesh: more vivid picture than our body in 2Co 4:10. That Pauls body was flesh and blood, and thus by its very nature exposed to death, revealed the greatness of the power which preserved it safe even in the jaws of death. Notice the name Jesus four times in 2Co 4:10-11; as though Paul loved to repeat it.

2Co 4:12. Inference from 2Co 4:7-11.

Death: the abstract principle personified. In the plots and attacks of enemies Death was active, stretching out its hand to take them. And in their spared life, preserved by Gods power and spent in proclaiming the Gospel, the abstract principle of Life was at work among their hearers. The preachers daily felt themselves sinking into the grave: and their daily deliverance was daily working eternal life among their converts.

Review of 2Co 4:7-12. Although a bearer of treasure so great, Paul was in momentary peril of destruction. His wonderful preservation day by day was evidently wrought by divine power greater than the destructive forces around, even by the power which raised Jesus from the grave. He therefore cannot doubt that it was in order to manifest this power to men around, and thus make him wherever he went a visible picture of the resurrection of Christ, that he was permitted to be exposed to perils so tremendous. Thus even the perils of the apostles advanced, and were designed to advance, the great purpose of their lives. If in themselves death was at work, consuming their life, yet the very life they lived, unconsumed in fire, was working out eternal life for those around. How terrible a picture does this give of the greatness and constancy of their perils! Their spared life was an ever recurring miracle.

Just as the death of Christ, which at first seemed to disprove His Messiahship, gave occasion for the great proof of it, viz. His resurrection; so the apostles perils, which seemed to be inconsistent-with their claim to be ambassadors of God, really supported this claim by giving occasion for display of the preserving power of God.

2Co 4:13 to 2Co 5:10. Having explained the purpose and result of the perils around, Paul now gives the motives which enable him to continue his work in spite of them. He can do this because, led by the Spirit, he believes the promises of God. By faith he knows (2Co 4:14) that God will raise him from the dead in company with his converts; that (2Co 4:1-4) if his present body die a better one awaits him; that (2Co 4:6-8) death will but remove him to the presence of Christ; and that (2Co 4:10) from Him he will receive due reward for his work.

2Co 4:13. A new branch of the subject.

Spirit of faith: the Holy Spirit moving men to believe the promises of God, especially the promise of resurrection and of life with Christ. Cp. 1Co 4:21; Eph 1:17. Although faith is the condition (Gal 3:14) on which we receive the Spirit, yet, when received, by revealing to us (Rom 5:5) the love of God, He works in us a firmer and broader confidence in God. The assurance which enabled Paul to pursue his apostolic path, he felt to be a work of the Spirit.

The same Holy Spirit: who moved the Psalmist to write.

I believed: for which cause I spoke: word for word from Psa 116:10, LXX. The original Hebrew is very difficult. It may perhaps be rendered I have believed when I say, I have been much afflicted: i.e. I tell the story of my affliction with faith in God. But the words quoted, though not an exact rendering, sum up accurately the sense of the whole Psalm. Like Paul, the writer has been in deadly peril; and has been delivered by God, in answer to his prayer. His deliverance has given him strong confidence in God, a confidence which finds expression in this Psalm.

Also we believe: as did the Psalmist.

Speak: viz. the Gospel which Paul, rescued from peril, preaches. The Psalmists faith, strengthened by peril and deliverance, moved him to song: Pauls faith moves him to proclaim the Gospel, undeterred by the prospect of future perils. But it was the same faith, wrought by the same Spirit. And in each case faith found suitable utterance. As usual, the real reference is not so much to the words quoted as to their entire context.

The rest of 7 is an exposition of the faith which moved Paul to speak even amid deadly peril.

2Co 4:14-15. Knowing that etc.: parallel with we believe, giving the assurance which moves him to speak. Cp. 1Co 15:58; Rom 5:3. By faith he knows. So 2Co 5:1. For he believes, on sufficient grounds, that which will come true. Such belief is knowledge.

Raised the Lord Jesus: the divine act on which rests Pauls assurance that he will himself be raised. Cp. 1Co 6:14; Rom 8:11.

With Jesus. Since our resurrection at the last day is a result of Christs resurrection, wrought by the same power, in consequence of our present spiritual union with Christ, and is a part of that heritage which we share with Christ, Paul overlooks the separation in time and thinks of his own resurrection and Christs as one divine act. Cp. Col 3:1; Eph 2:5 f.

Will present: before the throne amid the splendors of that day. Cp. Col 1:22.

With you] Amid perils Paul is encouraged by knowing that in glory he will be accompanied by those whom he his now laboring to save. These words keep before us the thought of at work with you in 2Co 4:12. They are also a courteous recognition of his readers true piety. 2Co 4:15 develops with you in 2Co 4:14, thus leading the way to (8.

All things, or all these things: all Pauls hardships and perils. Cp. 2Co 5:18.

That grace having etc.; expounds for your sake. All these perils Paul endures in order that the pardoning favor of God may multiply, i.e. may shine on a larger number of persons; that thereby the favor of God may increase abundantly the thanksgiving which from this larger number will go up to God, and may thus manifest the grandeur of God. Cp.2Co 1:11; Rom 3:7.

2Co 4:16. We do not fail: as in 2Co 4:1. Paul there said that because of the grandeur of the Gospel he does not turn out badly in the day of trial as he would do if through craft he concealed it. He now says that because he knows that God will raise him from the dead, and knows that in the resurrection he will be accompanied by his readers and that his hardships are increasing the praises which will for ever go up to God, for this cause he does not lose heart in face of peril and forbear to proclaim the Gospel. For which cause thus corresponds inversely to knowing that etc. in 2Co 4:14; and is practically parallel to for which cause etc. in 2Co 4:13.

But if indeed etc.: contrast to losing heart in the conflict; and the secret of not doing so.

The outward man: the body, which alone is visible.

Is corrupting: wearing out and being destroyed by hardships.

Nevertheless: conspicuous contrast.

Inward man: same words in same sense in Rom 7:22. It is the invisible and nobler part of the man.

Is renewed; denotes in Col 3:10 gradual restoration to the primeval image of God lost by sin. But here since we have no reference to sin or imperfection, it denotes probably the healing day by day of the wounds inflicted upon Pauls own spirit by personal peril and by anxiety for the churches. Of such wounds we find abundant marks on the pages of this epistle. They were gradually wearing out his body. But the daily application of healing balm kept them from injuring his real inner life. Consequently, he does not grow weary in his work.

2Co 4:17-17. Explains 2Co 4:16, by stating a truth which daily restores Pauls inner man; and which teaches him to exult in afflictions, thus saving him from the injuries these might otherwise inflict on his spirit.

Works out for us glory: viz. his reward for preaching the Gospel, (cp. Dan 12:3,) which could not have been his had he not exposed himself to the hardship and peril involved in his work. In this sense the glory was a result of the affliction, which compared with it was momentary and light. Or, in more forceful words, the momentary lightness itself works out etc.

Exceedingly, to excess: the manner and the extent of the working out of glory.

Eternal weight: in strong contrast to the momentary lightness. In a manner and to an extent passing all comparison Pauls present hardship and peril are producing for him a glory which by its greatness and endlessness make them appear both light and momentary. He thus heaps word on word to convey a truth passing all human language or thought.

While we look etc.: Pauls state of mind while writing 2Co 4:17. It explains, and nothing else can, his foregoing words. Only to those whose eyes are fixed on the unseen can hardships like his appear momentary and light.

Looking: more fully looking with a purpose, especially with a view to avoid, imitate, or obtain. Same word in Rom 16:17; Php 3:17; Php 2:4. We fix our eyes on things beyond mortal vision and make them the objects of our pursuits. For this, 2Co 4:18 b gives a good reason. 2Co 4:17 accounts for the daily inward renewing by pointing to the coming glory: 2Co 4:18 notes the subjective condition (which Paul proves to be reasonable) of the present effect of this coming glory.

2Co 5:1. Supports the reason just given and its practical influence on Paul, by declaring that in the things not seen he has a share and that he knows this. He thus supports the argument of 2Co 4:13-18 by proving that future glory is not dependent on rescue from bodily death.

For we know: words of confidence, calling attention to the effect of this knowledge on Paul.

Tent or booth: not else in the New Testament; but akin to the word used in Mat 17:4; Luk 16:9; Act 7:43-44; Heb 8:2; Heb 8:5; Heb 9:2-3; Heb 9:6; Heb 9:8; Heb 9:11; Heb 9:21; and to another in Act 7:46; 2Pe 1:13 f: used in classic Greek only as a metaphor for the body of men or animals. Same word in Wis 9:15 : A corruptible body weighs down the soul; and the earthen tent burdens the much-thinking mind.

Our earthly house of the tent: the body belonging to the present world, looked upon as fragile and easily taken down, by death. This suggests, but hardly proves, that Paul was in doubt whether he would survive the coming of Christ.

Building: a permanent abode, in contrast to the tent.

Building from God: the resurrection body. It is from God, as being an immediate outworking of His miraculous power.

Not made with hands: in contrast to other buildings. It is parallel to from God, keeping before us the supernatural origin of the resurrection body.

Eternal: in contrast to be taken down.

In the heavens: secure place in which the saved dead have, though they do not yet wear, the resurrection body. Cp. Php 4:20; 1Pe 1:4. It is practically in heaven: for the power which will raise it is there. When Christ appears from heaven we shall receive our permanent bodily abode. Hence it is also our dwelling place from heaven, 2Co 5:2. Consequently, this building is completely beyond reach of the uncertainties of earth.

2Co 5:2-4. Appeal to present yearnings in proof that there is a resurrection body.

Even in this tent: before it is taken down.

Groan: as in Rom 8:22 f; where we have the same argument. The burdens of the present life force from us a cry.

Longing to clothe ourselves: the cause and meaning of the cry.

Our dwelling-place etc.: the risen body which we shall receive when Christ returns from heaven to earth.

To clothe: new figure, viz. the risen body looked upon now as a garment.

Put-on-as-overclothing, or overclothe-ourselves: i.e. without taking off our present mortal garment, without passing through death. In other words, Paul longed to survive, in his present body, the coming of Christ. In that case there would be (1Co 15:51) change, but no disrobing. 2Co 5:3 gives a supposition necessarily implied in this yearning for a heavenly body.

We shall be found: by Christ at His coming, when we shall stand before Him.

Clothed: in bodies, not naked disembodied spirits. This conditional clause uncovers the argumentative point of 2Co 5:2 in proof of 2Co 5:1. See below. Perhaps it is also a reference to some of those who denied the resurrection, suggesting how inconsistent is such denial with the Christians aspirations. 2Co 5:4 supports 2Co 5:3, which is really a restatement of 2Co 5:1, by restating more fully the argument of 2Co 5:2.

For even we who are in the tent: parallel with for even in this tent.

Even we who are: in contrast to we shall be found. The perils and hardships of life were a burden forcing from them a cry for deliverance.

Inasmuch as we do not wish etc.; explains this cry by pointing back (2Co 5:2) to the longing, intensified by present adversity, which prompted it.

Swallowed up: caused to vanish completely out of sight, as in 1Co 15:54. Paul did not wish to lay aside his mortal raiment, i.e.

to die, but without dying to receive his immortal body. In that case the mortal body would be swallowed up by the endless resurrection life.

Argument of 2Co 5:2-4. By Christians now death is looked upon without terrible recoil, as being the only entrance into Life. We bow to the inevitable. But in the early Christians the possibility of surviving the coming of Christ woke up with new intensity mans natural love of life, and made death seem very dark. They therefore longed eagerly for Christs return, hoping thus to clothe themselves with immortal raiment without laying aside their mortal bodies. This yearning for an immortal body, Paul felt to be divinely implanted; (for it was strong just so far as he was full of the Holy Spirit,) and therefore not doomed to disappointment. But the possibility of death was to Paul too real to be ignored. Therefore, in view of it, his yearning for an immortal body assured him that if his present body be removed by death a heavenly body awaits him. For, otherwise, he will stand before Christ as a naked spirit, in utter contradiction to yearnings which he felt to be divine, and of whose realization he had a divine pledge. In other words, his instinctive clinging to his present body was to him a divine intimation that when Christ comes we shall not be naked spirits, but spirits clothed in bodies; and was, therefore, a proof that if our present body be removed by death a heavenly and eternal body awaits us. Thus a purely human instinct, not weakened but intensified by Christianity, and sanctified by the felt presence of the Holy Spirit, is seen to be a prophecy of Gods purpose concerning us. Similar argument in Rom 8:23.

2Co 5:5. A statement of what is the real force of the foregoing argument.

Wrought in us, or, wrought us out: same word in 2Co 4:17. They were material in which God had worked out results.

For this very thing: the aim of this divine working, viz. either the heavenly clothing or Pauls yearning for it. Probably the latter: for the yearning itself is the basis of the argument. If so, this very thing, viz. this yearning for an immortal body, is both a result, and the aim, of Gods working in Paul.

Wrought in us denotes a result; for this very thing, the aim. Who has given etc.: a fact which proves the foregoing statement. Earnest of the Spirit: as in 2Co 1:22. Practically the same as the firstfruit of the Spirit in the similar argument of Rom 8:23.

The Holy Spirit in Pauls heart was a pledge that the promise he had believed would be fulfilled; and was thus an earnest of the coming inheritance. Cp. Eph 1:14. Since Pauls clinging to his present body while yearning for a better is introduced merely in proof that if he die there awaits him a body from heaven, the words this very thing refer probably only to the yearning for the heavenly body, without reference to his reluctance to die. For he could not say that this reluctance was Gods work, nor that the Spirit was a pledge that he should not die. These verses warn us to distinguish carefully between a divinely breathed yearning and the purely human longing which often accompanies it. The latter is frequently disappointed, as Pauls was; the former never.

2Co 5:6-8. Practical effect upon Paul of the assurance of 2Co 4:14, which was developed and justified in 2Co 4:16 to 2Co 5:5; and therefore parallel with for which cause we do not fail in 2Co 4:16.

Always; corresponds with in everything always every in 2Co 4:8; 2Co 4:10-11.

And knowing: also a result of the foregoing argument. This knowledge prompts and justifies the courage.

Away from home; points to our other home, from which we are absent so long as our home is in the body. To justify this mention of another home, 2Co 5:7 breaks off the foregoing sentence. It is completed, in a slightly changed form, in 2Co 5:8. Cp. Rom 5:12. As we pursue our path the objects before our eyes are those seen only by faith: the keynote (cp. 2Co 4:13; 2Co 4:18) of 2Co 4:13 to 2Co 5:10.

Not by appearance] The objects which direct our steps do not yet appear. We walk amid eternal realities, now unseen, but known through the word we have believed. Chief among these is our home in the presence of Christ. Hence we speak of a home unseen by mortal eye. Same thought in same connection in Rom 8:24.

But we are of good courage: although our home is as yet seen only by faith.

Well-pleased: not only brave in presence of death, but content to die.

Rather: in preference to remaining in the body. Same thought in Php 1:23.

To go away from home from the body: to die before Christs coming, and thus to be for a time without a body. They who survive His coming will at once receive the body from heaven by undergoing instant change.

To go home; implies that dead believers go at once, even while disembodied, into the presence of Christ. Pauls own clinging to his present body, even while looking for a better, assures him that even if he die this better body awaits him. This implies, since death rends the only veil which separates the believer from Christ, viz. his mortal life that even while waiting for the resurrection body his spirit will be with Christ. And, therefore, he is willing to die; and is brave in face of deadly peril. Notice that Pauls sure confidence that death will take him at once to Christ rests upon his assurance that a glorified body awaits him at the coming of Christ. This agrees with 1 Corinthians 15, where future happiness is assumed to be conditional on resurrection of the body.

These verses shed light on a matter of which the Bible says little, the state of the unsaved between death and resurrection. For Paul evidently thinks of no alternative except to be at home in the body and at home with the Lord. Therefore departed believers are with Christ; and, if so, not unconscious: for the unconscious are practically nowhere. Their nearness to Christ is such that compared with it their present spiritual union with Him is absence. And, although they have not yet entered their eternal house and put on their heavenly clothing, yet in the presence of Christ they are at home. And their eternal intercourse with Christ (1Th 4:17) has begun. Same teaching in similar circumstances in Php 1:20 ff. Cp. Luk 23:43; Luk 16:23.

2Co 5:9. Further result of Pauls joyful confidence that there is a life beyond death.

We make-it-a-point-of-honour: same word in Rom 15:20; 1Th 4:11. This is the only ambition worthy of Christians.

Whether at home: in the body.

Away from home: from the body. That these words have the same reference, the alternative implies. That they refer to the body, is suggested by well-pleasing to Him: for our conduct on earth is our first matter of present solicitude.

Well-pleasing to Him: at the judgment day (2Co 5:10) and in reference to actions done on earth. Paul was emulous, whether the coming of Christ find him in the body or away from it, to be approved by Him. To him, life and death are, in agreement with the scope of the whole section, of secondary importance; the approval of Christ is all-important. That the former is of secondary importance, results (for which cause) from the confidence expressed in 2Co 5:8. That the latter is all-important, will be proved in 2Co 5:10.

2Co 5:10. All of us: even Christians.

Must needs: marks the inevitable.

Be-made-manifest: 1Co 4:5; 2Co 3:3; 2Co 4:10-11; 2Co 5:11; see Rom 1:19 : our inmost nature and most secret actions will be set before the eyes of all.

Judgment-seat of Christ: practically the same as of God in Rom 14:10. For the Father has given the whole judgment to the Son, Joh 5:22.

That each one etc.: definite purpose for which our lives and characters will then be brought to light.

May obtain: to be his abiding possession. It is a graphic picture of exact retribution. Each man will receive back, by seeing their true nature and results, his own past actions to be themselves his eternal glory or shame. So Eph 6:8; Col 3:25. Cp. 1Th 2:19 f.

Through the body: as the channel by which purposes pass into actions.

In view of etc.: action the measure of recompense. [Cp. Rom 8:18.]

Good or bad. To both kinds of actions this principle will be applied, in contrast to human tribunals which deal only with crime; as well as to all kinds of persons.

That both saved and lost will receive recompense proportionate to the good and bad actions of each, is quite consistent with forgiveness of sins by Gods undeserved favor. Entrance into eternal life is Gods free gift to all who believe and who abide in faith. But the degree of our glory will be measured by the faithfulness of our service; and the punishment of the lost, by their sins. Moreover, a mans good actions are Gods work in him by the Holy Spirit. And unless we yield to the Spirit, and thus bear the fruit of the Spirit, we cannot retain our faith. Consequently, without good works we cannot enter heaven. The good actions of the lost, which we need not deny, will lessen their punishment: the sins of the saved, before or after conversion, will lessen their reward. Thus, although salvation is entirely the free gift of God, each man will receive an exact recompense for his entire conduct. Cp. Rom 2:5 f; Rom 14:10; 1Co 3:8; 1Co 3:13 f. A remembrance of this exact recompense will make us comparatively indifferent about life or death, and emulous so to act as to please our Judge.

SECTION 7 accounts for the perils amid which Paul proclaims the Gospel, 2Co 4:7-12; and explains the motives which raise him above them, 2Co 4:13 to 2Co 5:10. By the design of God the gospel treasure is entrusted to fragile vessels, that the preservation of the vessels may be a manifestation of the power of God. The apostles are thus a moving picture of Him who gave up Himself to death for the worlds salvation, and who was rescued from the hand of death by the power of God. He braves these perils simply because, like the Psalmist in similar circumstances, he believes the word of God. He knows that God will raise him from the dead, and that by exposing himself to these dangers he is increasing the song of praise which will go up to God for ever. And this assurance restores his wearied spirit. His very clinging to life, while yearning for immortality, assures him that if his body perish a nobler body awaits him. And, if so, separation from the body must be immediate entrance into the presence of Christ. His one thought is, not about life or death, but to stand the approval of that Judge before whom all must soon stand, and in the light of whose appearing the inmost secrets of the present life will be made visible to all.

This section confirms the teaching of 1Co 15:51 f and 1Th 4:15 touching Pauls expectation about the second coming of Christ. That he speaks of resurrection from the dead, does not imply an expectation that His coming will be long delayed. For every day death threatened him. But fear of it was removed by joyful confidence that it would but take him to the presence of Christ. Whereas the alternative mentioned in 2Co 5:9, and perhaps the word if in 2Co 5:1, suggest that he was not sure that he would die.

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

4:7 {4} But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, {5} that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

(4) He takes away a stumbling block, which darkened among some, the bright shining of the ministry of the Gospel, that is, because the apostles were the most miserable of all men. Paul answers that he and his associates are as it were, earthen vessels, but yet there is in them a most precious treasure.

(5) He brings marvellous reasons why the Lord does so afflict his principal servants, to the end, he says, that all men may perceive that they do not stand by any man’s power, but by the singular power of God, in that they die a thousand times, but never perish.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The contrast between the message and the messenger 4:7-15

Paul presented many paradoxical contrasts involved in the sufferings and supports of the Christian to clarify for his readers the real issues involved in serving Jesus Christ.

"This passage, which is about suffering and death (2Co 4:7-12), stands in stark contrast with the theme of ’glory’ so brilliantly developed by Paul in 2Co 3:7 to 2Co 4:6, to which he also will return in 2Co 4:16-18." [Note: Barnett, p. 227.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

3. The sufferings and supports of a minister of the gospel 4:7-5:10

Paul proceeded to explain further the nature of ministry under the New Covenant so his readers would understand his ministry and theirs better. The nature of Christianity is paradoxical. Second Corinthians explains more of these paradoxes than any other New Testament book.

In writing this epistle Paul wanted his readers to realize that his ministry was not faulty, as his critics charged, but that it was solidly within the will of God. To do this he described his own ministry as a projection or extension of Jesus’ ministry. As Jesus had died and been raised, Paul was similarly dying, but he was also experiencing the benefits of resurrection. He used the death and resurrection of Jesus metaphorically to describe his own ministry. This becomes most evident in 2Co 4:7-15, but also in 2Co 5:14-21 and in chapters 8-9 where the metaphor describes the ministry of giving. [Note: See Steven J. Kraftchick, "Death in Us, Life in You," in Pauline Theology. Vol. II: 1 & 2 Corinthians, pp. 156-81.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The treasure that every Christian possesses is "the knowledge of the glory of God" (2Co 4:6, i.e., the gospel). Even though it is what dispels spiritual darkness God has deposited this precious gift in every clay Christian. This is a paradox, consequently the "but."

"A vessel’s worth comes from what it holds, not from what it is." [Note: Kraftchick, p. 172.]

God has done this so all may see that the transforming power of the gospel is supernatural and not just human (cf. Jdg 7:19-20).

"The pottery lamps which could be bought for a copper or two in the Corinthian market-place provided a sufficient analogy; it did not matter how cheap or fragile they were so long as they showed the light." [Note: Bruce, p. 197.]

Paul was not disparaging the human body by calling it an earthen vessel nor was he saying that it is only a vehicle for the soul. Paul viewed man as a unity of material and immaterial parts (monism) rather than as having higher and lower elements (dualism). [Note: See D. E. H. Whiteley, The Theology of St. Paul, pp. 31-44.] He was contrasting the relative insignificance and unattractiveness of the light-bearers with the surpassing worth and beauty of the light (i.e., God’s glory). [Note: Harris, p. 342.]

"It is precisely the Christian’s utter frailty which lays him open to the experience of the all-sufficiency of God’s grace, so that he is able even to rejoice because of his weakness (2Co 12:9 f.)-something that astonishes and baffles the world, which thinks only in terms of human ability." [Note: Hughes, p. 137.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 12

THE VICTORY OF FAITH.

2Co 4:7-18 (R.V)

IN the opening verses of this chapter Paul has magnified his office, and his equipment for it. He has risen to a great height, poetic and spiritual, in speaking of the Lord of glory, and of the light which shines from His face for the illumining and redemption of men. The disproportion between his own nature and powers, and the high calling to which he has been called, flashes across his mind. It is quite possible that this disproportion, viewed with a malignant eye, had been made matter of reproach by his adversaries. “Who,” they may have said, “is this man, who soars to such heights, and makes such extraordinary claims? The part does not suit him; he is quite unequal to it; his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” It is possible, further, though I hardly think it probable, that the very sufferings Paul endured in his apostolic work were cast in his teeth by Jewish teachers at Corinth; they were read by these spiteful interpreters as signs of Gods wrath, the judgment of the Almighty on a wanton subverter of His law. But surely it is not too much to suppose that Paul could sometimes think unchallenged. A soul as great and as sensitive as his might well be struck by the contrast which pervades this passage without requiring to have it suggested by the malice of his foes. The interpretation which he puts upon the contrast is not merely a happy artifice (so Calvin), and still less a tour de force; it is a profound truth, a favorite, if one may say so, in the New Testament, and of universal application.

“We have this treasure,” he writes-the treasure of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, including the apostolic vocation to diffuse that knowledge-“we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power [which it exercises, and which is exhibited in sustaining us in our function] may be seen to be Gods, and not from us.” Earthen vessels are fragile, and what the word immediately suggests is no doubt bodily weakness, and especially mortality; but the nature of some of the trials referred to in 2Co 4:8-9 (, ) shows that it would be a mistake to confine the meaning to the body. The earthen vessel which holds the priceless treasure of the knowledge of God-the lamp of frail ware in which the light of Christs glory shines for the illumination of the world-is human nature as it is; mans body in its weakness, and liability to death; his mind with its limitations and confusions; his moral nature with its distortions and misconceptions, and its insight not yet half restored. It was not merely in his physique that Paul felt the disparity between himself and his calling to preach the Gospel of the glory of Christ; it was in his whole being. But instead of finding in this disparity reason to doubt his vocation, he saw in it an illustration of a great law of God. It served to protect the truth that salvation is of the Lord. No one who saw the exceeding greatness of the power which the Gospel exercised-not only in sustaining its preachers under persecution, but in transforming human nature, and making bad men good-no one who saw this, and looked at a preacher like Paul, could dream that the explanation lay in him. Not in an ugly little Jew, without presence, without eloquence, without the means to bribe or to compel, could the source of such courage, the cause of such transformations, be found; it must be sought, not in him, but in God. “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things which are.” And the end of it all is that he which glorieth should glory in the Lord.

This verse is never without its application; and though the contempt of the world did not suggest it to St. Paul, it may naturally enough recall it to us. One would sometimes think, from the tone of current literature, that no person with gifts above contempt is any longer identified with the Gospel. Clever men, we are told, do not become preachers now-still less do they go to church. They find it impossible to have real or sincere intellectual intercourse with Christian ministers. Perhaps this is not so alarming as the clever people think. There always have been men in the world so clever that God could make no use of them; they could never do His work, because they were so lost in admiration of their own. But Gods work never depended on them, and it does not depend on them now. It depends on those who, when they see Jesus Christ, become unconscious, once and for ever, of all that they have been used to call their wisdom and their strength-on those who are but earthen vessels in which anothers jewel is kept, lamps of clay in which anothers light shines. The kingdom of God has not changed its administration since the first century; its supreme law is still the glory of God, and not the glory of the clever men; and we may be quite sure it will not change. God will always have his work done by instruments who are willing to have it clear that the exceeding greatness of the power is His, and not theirs.

The eighth and ninth verses {2Co 4:8-9} illustrate the contrast between Pauls weakness and Gods power. In the series of participles which the Apostle uses, the earthen vessel is represented by the first in each pair, the divine power by the second. “We are pressed on every side, but not straitened”-i.e., not brought into a narrow place from which there is no escape. “We are perplexed, but not unto despair,” or, preserving the relation, between the words of the, original “put to it, but not utterly put out.” This distinctly suggests inward rather than merely bodily trials, or at least the inward aspect of these: constantly at a loss, the Apostle nevertheless constantly finds the solution of his problems. “Pursued, but not abandoned”-i.e., not left in the enemys hands. “Smitten down, but not destroyed”: even when trouble has done its worst, when the persecuted man has been overtaken and struck to the ground, the blow is not fatal, and he rises again. All these partial contrasts of human weakness and Divine power are condensed and concentrated in the tenth verse in one great contrast, the two sides of which are presented in their divinely intended relation to each other: “always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.” And this again, with its mystical poetic aspect, especially in the first clause, is reaffirmed and rendered into prose in 2Co 4:11 : “For we, alive as we are, are ever being delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

Paul does not say that he bears about in his body and death of Jesus () but his dying (, mortificatio), the process which produces death. The sufferings which come upon him daily in his work for Jesus are gradually killing him; the pains, the perils, the spiritual pressure, the excitement of danger and the excitement of deliverance, are wearing out his strength, and soon he must die. In the very same way, Jesus Himself had spent His strength and died, and in that life of weakness and suffering which was always bringing him nearer the grave, Paul felt himself in intimate sympathetic communion with his Master: it was “the dying of Jesus” that he carried about in his body. But that was not all. In spite of the dying, he was not dead. Perpetually in peril, he had a perpetual series of escapes; perpetually at his wits end, his way perpetually opened before him. What was the explanation of that? It was the life of Jesus manifesting itself in his body. The life of Jesus can only mean the life which Jesus lives now at Gods right hand; and these repeated escapes of the Apostle, these restorations of his courage, are manifestations of that life; they are, so to speak, a series of resurrections. Pauls communion with Jesus is not only in His dying, but in His rising again; he has the evidence of the Resurrection, because he has its power, present with him, in these constant deliverances and renewals. Nay, the very purpose of his sufferings and perils is to provide occasion for the manifestation of this resurrection life. Unless he were exposed to death, God could not deliver him from it; unless he were pressed in the spirit, God could not give him relief; there could be no setting off of the exceeding greatness of His power in contrast with the exceeding frailty of the earthen vessel. The use of “body” and of “mortal flesh” in these verses has been appealed to in support of an interpretation which would limit the meaning to what is merely physical: “I am in daily danger of death, God daily delivers me from it, and thus the life of Jesus is manifested in me.” This is of course included in the interpretation given above; but I cannot suppose it is all the Apostle meant. The truth is, there is no such thing in the passage, or indeed in human life, as a merely physical experience. To be delivered to death for Jesus sake is an experience which is at once and indissolubly physical and spiritual; it could not be, unless the soul had its part, and that the chief part in it. To be delivered from such death is also an experience as much spiritual as physical. And in both aspects, and not least in the first, is the life of Jesus manifested. Nor can I see that it is in the least degree unnatural for one who feels this to speak of that life as being manifested in his “body,” or in his “mortal flesh”: it is a way which all men understand of describing the human nature, which is the scene of the manifestation, as a frail and powerless thing.

The moral of the passage is similar to that of 2Co 1:3-11. Suffering, for the Christian, is not an accident; it is a divine appointment and a divine opportunity. To wear life out in the service of Jesus is to open it to the entrance of Jesus life; it is to receive, in all its alleviations, in all its renewals, in all its deliverances, a witness to His resurrection. Perhaps it is only by accepting this service, with the daily dying it demands, that that witness can be given to us; and “the life of Jesus” on His throne may become inapprehensible and unreal in proportion as we decline to bear about in our bodies His dying. All who have commented on this passage have noticed the iteration of the name of Jesus. Singulariter sensit Paulus dulcedinem ejus. Schmiedel explains the repetition as partly accidental, and partly indicative of the fact that Christs death is here regarded as a purely human occurrence, and not as a redemptive deed of the Messiah. This points in the right direction, though it may fairly be doubted whether Paul would have drawn this distinction, or could have even been made to understand it. The analytic tendency of the modern mind often disintegrates what depends for its virtue on being kept whole and entire, and this seems to me a case in point. The use of the name Jesus rather indicates that, in recalling the actual events of his own career, Paul saw them run continually parallel to events in the career of Another; they were one in kind with that painful series of incidents which ended in the death of the historical Savior. People have often sought in the Epistles of Paul for traces of a knowledge of Christ like that which is conserved in the first three Gospels; in this expression, , and in the repetition of the historical proper name, there is an indirect but quite convincing proof that the general character of Christs life was known to the Apostle. And though he does not dwell on Christs sympathy with the fullness and power of the writer to the Hebrews, it is evident from this passage that he was in sympathetic fellowship with One who had suffered as he suffered, and that even to name His human name was consolation.

In 2Co 4:12 an abrupt conclusion is drawn from all that precedes: “So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” Ironice dictum, is Calvins comment, and the words are at least intelligible if so taken. The stinging passage beginning at 2Co 4:8 of the First Epistle is ironical in precisely this sense-“We are fools for Christs sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye have glory, but we have dishonor”: this is, as it were, a variation on the theme “death worketh in us, but life in you.” Still, the irony does not seem in place here: Paul writes in all seriousness that the sufferings which he endures as a preacher of the Gospel, and which eventually bring death to him-which are the approaches of death, or death itself at work-are the means by which life, in the most unqualified sense, comes to be at work in the Corinthians. If the death and life which are in view wherever the Gospel appears are to be distributed among them, the death is his, and the life theirs; the dying of Jesus is borne about by the Evangelist, while those who accept the message he brings at this cost are made partakers in Jesus life.

Not indeed that the contrast can be thus absolute: the thirteenth verse corrects this hasty inference. If death alone were at work in St. Paul, it would frustrate his vocation; he would not be able to preach at all. But he is able to preach. In spite of all the discouragement which his sufferings might beget, his faith remains vigorous; he is conscious of possessing that same confidence toward God which animated the ancient Psalmist to sing, “I believed, therefore I spoke.” “We also,” he says, “believe, and therefore also we speak.” What he believes, and what prompts his utterance, we read in the thirteenth verse: “We speak, knowing that He who raised Jesus shall raise us also like Jesus, and shall present us with you. With you, I say: for the whole thing is for your sakes, that the grace, having become abundant, may by means of many cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.”

What an interesting illustration this is of the communion of the saints! Paul recognizes a spiritual kinsman in the writer of the Psalm; faith in God, the power which faith confers, the obligations which faith imposes, are the same in all ages. He recognizes spiritual kinsmen in the Corinthians also. All his sufferings have their interests in view, and it is part of his joy, as he looks on to the future, that when God raises him from the dead, as He raised His own Son, He will present him along with them. Their unity will not be dissolved by death. The word here rendered “present” has often a technical sense in Pauls Epistles; it is almost appropriated to the presenting of men before the judgment-seat of Christ. Good scholars insist on that meaning here; but even with the proviso that acceptance in the judgment is taken for granted, I cannot feel that it is quite congruous. There is such a thing as presentation to a sovereign as well as to a judge-the presenting of the bride to the bridegroom on the wedding day as well as of the criminal to the justice-and it is the great and glad occasion which answers to the feeling in the Apostles mind. The communion of the saints, in virtue of which his sufferings bring blessing to the Corinthians, has its issue in the joyful union of all before the throne. As Paul thinks of that, he sees an end in the Gospel lying beyond the blessing it brings to men. That end is Gods glory. The more he toils and suffers, the more Gods grace is made known and received; and the more it is received, the more does it cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Two practical reflections present themselves here, nearly related to each other. The first is that faith naturally speaks; the second, that grace merits thanksgiving. Put the two into one, and we may say that grace received by faith merits articulate thanksgiving. Much modern faith is inarticulate, and it is far too soothing to be true if we say, Better so. Of course the utterance of faith is not prescribed to it; to be of any value it must be spontaneous. Not all the believing are to be teachers and preachers, but all are to be confessors. Every one who has faith has a witness to bear to God. Every one who has accepted Gods grace by faith has a thankful acknowledgment of it to make, and at some time or other to make in words. It is not the faculty of speech that is wanting where this is not done; it is courage and gratitude; it is the same Spirit of faith which prompted the Psalmist and St. Paul. It is true that hypocrites sometimes speak, and that testimonies and thanksgivings are apt to be discredited on their account; but bad money would never be put in circulation unless good money was indisputably valuable. It is not the dumb, but the confessing Christian, not the taciturn, but the outspokenly thankful, who glorifies God, and helps on the Gospel. Calvin is properly severe on our “pseudo-Nicodemi,” who make a merit of their silence, and boast that they have never by a syllable betrayed their faith. Faith is betrayed in another and more serious sense when it is kept secret.

But to return to the Apostle, who himself, at 2Co 4:16, returns to the beginning of the chapter, and resumes the of 2Co 4:1 : “Wherefore we faint not.” “Wherefore” means “With all that has been said in view”; not only the glorious future in which Paul and his disciples are to be raised and presented together to Christ, but his daily experience of the life of Jesus manifested in his mortal flesh. This kept him brave and strong. “We faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.” The outward man covers the same area as “our body,” or “our mortal flesh.” It is human nature as it is constituted in this world-a weak, fragile, perishable thing. Paul could not mistake, and did not hide from himself, the effect which his apostolic work had upon him. He saw it was killing him. He was old long before the time. He was a sorely broken man at an age when many are in the fullness of their strength. The earthen vessel was visibly crumbling. Still, that was not the whole of his experience. “The inward man is renewed day by day.” The meaning of these words must be fixed mainly by the opposition in which they stand to (“we faint not”). The same word () is used of the renewal of the soul in the Creators image {Col 3:10} -i.e., of the work of sanctification; but the opposition in question proves that this is not contemplated here. We must rather think of the daily supply of spiritual power for apostolic service of the new strength and joy which were given to St. Paul every morning, in spite of the toils and sufferings which every day exhausted him. Of course we can say of all people, bad as well as good, “The outward man is decaying.” Time tires the stoutest runner, crumbles the compactest wall. But we cannot say of all, “The inward man is renewed day by day.” That is not the compensation of every one; it is the compensation of those whose outward man has decayed in Jesus service, who have been worn out in labors for His sake. It is they, and they only, who have a life within which is independent of outward conditions, which sufferings and deaths cannot crush, and which never grows old. The decay of the outward man in the godless is a melancholy spectacle, for it is the decay of everything; in the Christian it does not touch that life which is hid with Christ in God, and which is in the soul itself a well of water springing up to life eternal.

But who shall speak of the two great verses in which the Apostle, leaving controversy out of sight, solemnly weighs against each other time and eternity, the seen and the unseen, and claims his inheritance beyond? “Our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” One can imagine that he was dictating quick and eagerly as he began the sentence; he “crowds and hurries and precipitates” the grand contrasts of which his mind is full. Affliction in any case is outweighed by glory, but the affliction in question is a light matter, the glory a great weight: the light affliction is but momentary-it ends with death at the latest, it may end in the coming of Jesus to anticipate death; the weight of glory is eternal; and as if this were not enough, the light affliction which is but for a moment works out for us the weight of glory which endures for ever, “in excess and to excess,” in a way above conception, to a degree above conception: it works out for us the things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor mans heart conceived, “all that God has prepared for them that love Him.” {1Co 2:9} If Paul spoke fast and with beating heart as he crowded all this into two brief lines, we can well believe that the pressure was relaxed, and that the pen moved more steadily and slowly over the contemplative words that follow: “while we look not to the things which are seen, but to the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” This sentence is sometimes translated conditionally: “provided we look,” etc. This is legitimate, but unnecessary. The Apostle is speaking, in the first instance, of himself, and the looking is taken for granted. The look is not merely equivalent to vision: it means that the unseen is the goal of him who looks. The eye is to be directed to it, not as an indifferent object, but as a mark to aim at, an end to attain. This observation goes some way to limit the application of the whole passage. The contrast of things seen and things unseen is sometimes taken in a latitude which deprives it of much of its force: psychology and metaphysics are dragged in to define and to confuse the Apostles thought. But everything here is practical. The things seen are to all intents and purposes that tempest-tossed life of which St. Paul has been speaking, that daily dying, that pressure, perplexity, persecution, and down casting, which are for the present his lot. To these he does not look: in comparison with that to which he does look, these are a light and momentary affliction which is not worth a thought. Similarly, the things unseen are not everything, indefinitely, which is invisible; to all intents and purposes they are the glory of Christ. It is on this the Apostles eye is fixed, this which is his goal. The stormy life, even when most is made of its storms, passes; but Christs glory can never pass. It is infinite, inconceivable, eternal. There is an inheritance in it for all who keep their eyes upon it, and, sustained by a hope so high, bear the daily death of a life like Pauls as a light and momentary affliction. The connection between the two is so close that the one is said to work for us the other. By Divine appointment they are united; fellowship with Jesus is fellowship all through – in the daily dying, which soon has done its worst, and then in the endless life. We may say, if we please, that the glory is the reward of the suffering; it would be truer to say that it was its compensation, truer still that it was its fruit. There is a vital connection between them, but no one can imagine he is reading Pauls thought who should find here the idea that the trivial service of man can make God his debtor for so vast a sum. The excellency of the power which raises the earthen vessel to this height of faith, hope, and inspiration is itself Gods, and Gods alone.

Distrust of the supernatural, insistence on the present and the practical, and the pride of a self-styled common sense, have done much to rob modern Christianity of this vast horizon, to blind it to this heavenly vision. But wherever the life of Jesus is being manifested in mortal flesh-wherever in His service and for His sake men and women die daily, wearing out nature, but with spirit ceaselessly renewed-there the unseen becomes real again. Such people know that what they do is not for one dead, but for One who lives; they know that the daily inspirations they receive, the hopes, the deliverances, are wrought in them, not by themselves, but by One who has all power in heaven and on earth. The things that are unseen and eternal stand out as what they are in relation to lives like these; to other lives, they have no relation at all. A worldly and selfish career does not work out an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and therefore to the worldly and selfish man heaven is forever an unpractical, incredible thing. But it not only comes out in its brightness, it comes out as a mighty inspiration and support, to every one who bears about in his body the dying of Jesus; as he fastens his eye upon it, he takes heart anew, and in spite of daily dying “faints not.”

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary