But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you.
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But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you. But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore 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 sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
Parallel Translations
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But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair;
pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed;
always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.
So then death works in us, but life in you.
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But we have this treasure in erthe vessels that the excellent power of it myght appere to be of God and not of vs.
We are troubled on every side yet are we not with out shyft. We are in povertie: but not vtterly without somwhat.
We are persecuted: but are not forsake. We are cast doune: neverthelesse we perisshe not.
And we all wayes beare in oure bodyes the dyinge of the Lorde Iesus that the lyfe of Iesu myght appere in oure bodyes.
For we which live are alwayes delyvered vnto deeth for Iesus sake that the lyfe also of Iesu myght appere in oure mortall flesshe.
So then deeth worketh in vs and lyfe in you.
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But we haue this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellencie of that power might be of God, and not of vs.
Wee are afflicted on euery side, yet are we not in distresse: we are in doubt, but yet wee despaire not.
We are persecuted, but not forsaken: cast downe, but we perish not.
Euery where we beare about in our bodie the dying of the Lord Iesus, that the life of Iesus might also be made manifest in our bodies.
For we which liue, are alwaies deliuered vnto death for Iesus sake, that the life also of Iesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
So then death worketh in vs, and life in you.
Cross-references (92)
- James 1:2-4 (v8) Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let…
- Romans 8:35-37 (v8) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…
- 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 (v7) not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us…
- 2 Corinthians 5:1 (v7) For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the…
- 1 Peter 4:12-14 (v8) Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you. But because…
Show all 90 cross-references
- Ephesians 2:8-9 (v7) for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.
- Romans 6:5 (v10) For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
- 2 Corinthians 12:10 (v8) Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am…
- 1 Corinthians 1:28 (v7) God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that don’t exist, that he might bring to nothing…
- 2 Timothy 2:11 (v10) This saying is trustworthy: “For if we died with him, we will also live with him.
- Colossians 2:3 (v7) in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
- Psalms 56:2-3 (v8) My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me. When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.
- 2 Corinthians 7:5 (v8) For even when we had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side. Fightings were outside. Fear was…
- 1 Peter 4:13 (v10) But because you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, that at the revelation of his glory you also may rejoice with exceeding joy.
- Romans 5:3-5 (v8) Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and…
- 1 Corinthians 2:3-5 (v7) I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in…
- 1 Peter 1:6-7 (v8) Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved in various trials, that the proof of your…
- Romans 6:8 (v10) But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;
- Lamentations 4:2 (v7) The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
- Ephesians 1:19-20 (v7) and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he…
- 1 Corinthians 15:49 (v11) As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.
- Colossians 1:27 (v7) to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope…
- Philippians 3:10-11 (v10) that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death, if by any…
- 2 Timothy 2:20 (v7) Now in a large house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of clay. Some are for honor, and some for…
- 2 Corinthians 13:4 (vv7, 10) For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him…
- Job 2:9-10 (v8) Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the…
- Psalms 37:33 (v8) Yahweh will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.
- Psalms 44:22 (v11) Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.
- Isaiah 43:2 (v9) When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire,…
- Romans 8:17-18 (v10) and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with…
- 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 (v11) For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable body will have become…
- 2 Corinthians 10:10 (v7) For, “His letters”, they say, “are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is despised.”
- 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 (v7) By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, a thorn in the flesh was given to me: a…
- Ephesians 3:8 (v7) To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Romans 8:36 (vv10–11) Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
- Micah 7:8 (v9) Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.
- Matthew 13:44 (v7) “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he…
- 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 (v8) For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down…
- Colossians 1:24 (v10) Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his…
- John 14:18 (v8) I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
- 1 Corinthians 10:13 (v8) No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able,…
- 2 Corinthians 1:9 (v10) Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,
- Psalms 37:24-25 (v9) Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with his hand. I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the…
- 1 Corinthians 15:31 (v11) I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
- 2 Corinthians 1:5 (v10) For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.
- 2 Corinthians 4:1 (v7) Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint.
- 2 Corinthians 13:9 (v12) For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. We also pray for this: your becoming perfect.
- Proverbs 24:16 (v9) for a righteous man falls seven times and rises up again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.
- Romans 8:11 (v11) But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life…
- 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 (v8) Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which…
- 2 Corinthians 5:4 (v11) For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened, not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed, that…
- Colossians 2:12 (v7) having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the…
- 1 Samuel 28:15 (v8) Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me, to bring me up?” Saul answered, “I am very distressed; for the Philistines make war…
- 1 Samuel 30:6 (v8) David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the souls of all the people were grieved, every man for his sons…
- 2 Corinthians 6:4 (v8) but in everything commending ourselves, as servants of God, in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
- 2 Corinthians 11:23-30 (v8) Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in…
- Galatians 6:17 (v10) From now on, let no one cause me any trouble, for I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus branded on my body.
- Job 4:19 (v7) How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!
- Psalms 42:11 (v9) Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my…
- Proverbs 14:26 (v8) In the fear of Yahweh is a secure fortress, and he will be a refuge for his children.
- Proverbs 18:10 (v8) Yahweh’s name is a strong tower: the righteous run to him, and are safe.
- Isaiah 62:4 (v9) You will not be called Forsaken any more, nor will your land be called Desolate any more; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land…
- John 14:19 (v10) Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.
- Acts 20:24 (v12) But these things don’t count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I…
- 1 Corinthians 4:10 (v12) We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:5 (v7) and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind…
- 1 John 3:16 (v12) By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
- Judges 7:13-14 (v7) When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow. He said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream; and behold, a cake of…
- 2 Corinthians 7:6 (v9) Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly, God, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
- Galatians 4:13-14 (v7) but you know that because of weakness in the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time. That which was a temptation to you in my…
- Philippians 2:17 (v12) Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.
- Hebrews 13:5 (v9) Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any…
- Judges 7:16-20 (v7) He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all them trumpets and empty pitchers, with torches…
- 2 Corinthians 12:15 (v12) I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?
- Ephesians 2:5 (v7) even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
- Judges 7:2 (v7) Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel brag against…
- Psalms 9:10 (v9) Those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you.
- Psalms 37:28 (v9) For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
- Matthew 13:52 (v7) He said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who…
- Acts 18:9-10 (v10) The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack…
- Revelation 1:17 (v10) When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last,
- Job 5:17-19 (v9) “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For he wounds and binds up. He…
- Psalms 22:1 (v9) My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
- Psalms 42:5 (v9) Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his…
- John 15:20 (v9) Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If…
- 2 Corinthians 6:10 (v7) as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
- Philippians 2:30 (v12) because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.
- Job 10:9 (v7) Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?
- 1 Corinthians 4:9-13 (v7) For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world,…
- Job 22:29 (v9) When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.
90 distinct cross-references across this passage (92 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (28 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10, 12 7. But we have this treasure. Those that heard…
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. 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; 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, 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.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7, 10, 11, 12 He taketh away a stumbling block, by which was…
He taketh away a stumbling block, by which was darkened, amongst some, the bright shining of the ministry of the Gospel, to wit, because the Apostles were the most miserable of all men, Paul answereth that he and his fellows are as it were earthen vessels, but yet there is in them a most precious treasure.
He bringeth marvelous reasons, why the Lord doth so afflict his chiefest servants, to the end saith he that all men may perceive that they stand not by any man’s virtue, but by the singular virtue of God, in that they die a thousand times, but never perish.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–12 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,…
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. εν οστρακινοις, 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.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–12 By the treasure here mentioned, the apostle meaneth either…
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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv7–8 In the foregoing verses we find the apostle magnifying…
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.
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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.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v8 In these verses the apostle gives an account of…
In these verses the apostle gives an account of their courage and patience under all their sufferings, where observe,
I. How their sufferings, and patience under them, are declared, Co2 4:8-12. The apostles were great sufferers; therein they followed their Master: Christ had told them that in the world they should have tribulation, and so they had; yet they met with wonderful support, great relief, and many allays of their sorrows. "We are," says the apostle, "troubled on every side, afflicted many ways, and we meet with almost all sorts of troubles; yet not distressed, Co2 4:8. We are not hedged in nor cooped up, because we can see help in God, and help from God, and have liberty of access to God." Again, "We are perplexed, often uncertain, and in doubt what will become of us, and not always without anxiety in our minds on this account; yet not in despair (Co2 4:8), even in our greatest perplexities, knowing that God is able to support us, and to deliver us, and in him we always place our trust and hope." Again, "We are persecuted by men, pursued with hatred and violence from place to place, as men not worthy to live; yet not forsaken of God," Co2 4:9. Good men may be sometimes forsaken of their friends, as well as persecuted by their enemies; but God will never leave them nor forsake them. Again, "We are sometimes dejected, or cast down; the enemy may in a great measure prevail, and our spirits begin to fail us; there may be fears within, as well as fightings without; yet we are not destroyed," Co2 4:9. Still they were preserved, and kept their heads above water. Note, Whatever condition the children of God may be in, in this world, they have a "but not" to comfort themselves with; their case sometimes is bad, yea very bad, but not so bad as it might be. The apostle speaks of their sufferings as constant, and as a counterpart of the sufferings of Christ, Co2 4:10. The sufferings of Christ were, after a sort, re-acted in the sufferings of Christians; thus did they bear about the dying of the Lord Jesus in their body, setting before the world the great example of a suffering Christ, that the life of Jesus might also be made manifest, that is, that people might see the power of Christ's resurrection, and the efficacy of grace in and from the living Jesus, manifested in and towards them, who did yet live, though they were always delivered to death (Co2 4:11), and though death worked in them (Co2 4:12), they being exposed to death, and ready to be swallowed up by death continually. So great were the sufferings of the apostles that, in comparison with them, other Christians were, even at this time, in prosperous circumstances: Death worketh in us; but life in you, Co2 4:12.
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II. What it was that kept them from sinking and fainting under their sufferings, Co2 4:13-18. Whatever the burdens and troubles of good men may be, they have cause enough not to faint.
1. Faith kept them from fainting: We have the same spirit of faith (Co2 4:13), that faith which is of the operation of the Spirit; the same faith by which the saints of old did and suffered such great things. Note, The grace of faith is a sovereign cordial, and an effectual antidote against fainting-fits in troublous times. The spirit of faith will go far to bear up the spirit of a man under his infirmities; and as the apostle had David's example to imitate, who said (Psa 116:10), I have believed, and therefore have I spoken, so he leaves us his example to imitate: We also believe, says he, and therefore speak. Note, As we receive help and encouragement from the good words and examples of others, so we should be careful to give a good example to others.
2. Hope of the resurrection kept them from sinking, Co2 4:14. They knew that Christ was raised, and that his resurrection was an earnest and assurance of theirs. This he had treated of largely in his former epistle to these Corinthians, Co1 15:1. And therefore their hope was firm, being well grounded, that he who raised up Christ the head will also raise up all his members. Note, The hope of the resurrection will encourage us in a suffering day, and set us above the fear of death; for what reason has a good Christian to fear death, that dies in hope of a joyful resurrection?
3. The consideration of the glory of God and the benefit of the church, by means of their sufferings, kept them from fainting, Co2 4:15. Their sufferings were for the church's advantage (Co2 1:6), and thus did redound to God's glory. For, when the church is edified, then God is glorified; and we may well afford to bear sufferings patiently and cheerfully when we see others are the better for them - if they are instructed and edified, if they are confirmed and comforted. Note, The sufferings of Christ's ministers, as well as their preaching and conversation, are intended for the good of the church and the glory of God.
4. The thoughts of the advantage their souls would reap by the sufferings of their bodies kept them from fainting: Though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day, Co2 4:16. Here note, (1.) We have every one of us an outward and an inward man, a body and a soul. (2.) If the outward man perish, there is no remedy, it must and will be so, it was made to perish. (3.) It is our happiness if the decays of the outward man do contribute to the renewing of the inward man, if afflictions outwardly are gain to us inwardly, if when the body is sick, and weak, and perishing, the soul is vigorous and prosperous. The best of men have need of further renewing of the inward man, even day by day. Where the good work is begun there is more work to be done, for carrying it forward. And as in wicked men things grow every day worse and worse, so in godly men they grow better and better.
5. The prospect of eternal life and happiness kept them from fainting, and was a mighty support and comfort. As to this observe, (1.) The apostle and his fellow-sufferers saw their afflictions working towards heaven, and that they would end at last (Co2 4:17), whereupon they weighed things aright in the balance of the sanctuary; they did as it were put the heavenly glory in one scale and their earthly sufferings in the other; and, pondering things in their thoughts, they found afflictions to be light, and the glory of heaven to be a far more exceeding weight. That which sense was ready to pronounce heavy and long, grievous and tedious, faith perceived to be light and short, and but for a moment. On the other hand, the worth and weight of the crown of glory, as they are exceedingly great in themselves, so they are esteemed to be by the believing soul - far exceeding all his expressions and thoughts; and it will be a special support in our sufferings when we can perceive them appointed as the way and preparing us for the enjoyment of the future glory. (2.) Their faith enabled them to make this right judgment of things: We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, Co2 4:18. It is by faith that we see God, who is invisible (Heb 11:27), and by this we look to an unseen heaven and hell, and faith is the evidence of things not seen. Note, [1.] There are unseen things, as well as things that are seen. [2.] There is this vast difference between them: unseen things are eternal, seen things but temporal, or temporary only. [3.] By faith we not only discern these things, and the great difference between them, but by this also we take our aim at unseen things, and chiefly regard them, and make it our end and scope, not to escape present evils, and obtain present good, both of which are temporal and transitory, but to escape future evil and obtain future good things, which though unseen, are real, and certain, and eternal; and faith is the substance of things hoped for, as well as the evidence of things not seen, Heb 11:1.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 9, 10, 12 But we have, this treasure in earthen vessels,.... This…
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 Lam 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.''
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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 Jdg 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, Co2 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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10, 11, 12 But we - Not only the apostles, but all…
But we - Not only the apostles, but all true believers. Have this treasure - Of divine light, love, glory. In earthen vessels - In frail, feeble, perishing bodies. He proceeds to show, that afflictions, yea, death itself, are so far from hindering the ministration of the Spirit, that they even further it, sharpen the ministers, and increase the fruit. That the excellence of the power, which works these in us, may undeniably appear to be of God.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Verse 7. But we have this treasure in earthen…
Verse 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels] The original, οστρακινοις σκευεσιν, 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 οξημα φυχης, the chariot of the soul; the other, that which we see and touch; and this they call οστρακινον which is the same to us as the shell is to the fish. The word οστρακον not only signifies a shell, or vessel made of shell, but also πηλος ωπτημενος, an earthen vessel which has been burnt in the kiln, and earthen vessels or pottery in general; the difference between σκευηοστρακινα, earthen ware, and σκευη κεραμεως, 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, δια την εκ τουπυρος εγγινομενην αυτοις ἁπαξ αντιτυπιαν, because of the hardness once gotten by fire; whereas the others are of clay unbaken, if they be spoiled ῥᾳδιωϚπρος το δευτερον επανελθῃ σχημα, 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.
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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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7–8 2Co 4:7. But we — The apostles, and all…
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, ινα η υπερβολη της δυναμεως η του Θεου, 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!
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7–12 But we have this treasure - The treasure of…
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” (σκεῦος 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,” (ὀστρακίνοις ostrakinois) means that which is made of shells (from ὄστρακινον 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.
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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 God’s 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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv8, 10, 12 We are straitened.[2] This, by the Greek, seems the…
We are straitened.[2] This, by the Greek, seems the sense of the Latin word, which is taken to signify, one perplexed, and in a doubt. See John xiii. 22.; Acts xxv. 20.; Galatians iv. 20.) (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Aporiamur, Greek: aporoumenoi, from Greek: a and Greek: poros, transitus. See Mr. Legh.
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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v7 2Co_4:7 to 2Co_5:10
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
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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 (περισσεύσῃ) the thanksgiving] to the glory of God. 16For which cause we faint not13; but though our outward man perish [is wasting away, διαφθείρεται], 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, πρόσκαιρα], 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, ἐκ] 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, εἵγε καὶ]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 δέ 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 Christ’s 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 ὀστράκινα σκεύη, 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 (σκεύεσιν, καρδίαις, 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 σκεῦος, 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 (ὅχημα ψυχῆς) was the external chariot or vehicle of the soul, and the other (ὅστράκινον σκεῦος) was the frail body which the soul inhabits as the testacea do their shell. The substantive ὅστρακον 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 ὀστράκινον σκεῦος, 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 God’s and not ours.—[On the telic and not ecbatic signification of ἵνα consult Winer § 57, p. 355]. The exceeding greatness of the power (ὑπερβολὴ (found also in 2Co_12:7) τῆς δυνάμεως) 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 (δύναμις 1Co_4:20).—The ῇ like γένηται in Rom_7:13, and εἷναι in Rom_3:26, has the logical import of φανῇ or εὑρηθῇ οὗσα [i. e., may appear to be.]. The genitive θεοῦ has the force of, belonging to God; and it is contrasted with ἐξ ἡμων: 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.—̓Εν παντὶ 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]. Στενοχωρεῖσθαι 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 οὐ στενοχωρούμενοι, in which God’s power is displayed, is related to θλιβόμενοι, so is οὐκ ἐξαπορούμενοι to ἀπορούμενοι:—perplexed but not despairing.—The word ἀπορούμενοι signifies, to come into perplexities and ἐξαπορ. 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 God’s 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 διωκόμενοι and ἐγκαταλειπόμενοι 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 διώκεσθαι, as in 1Co_4:12, signifies to be persecuted (so διωγμοί in 2Co_12:10), and ἐγκαταλείπεσθαι, 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; καταβαλλόμενοι is an advance beyond the meaning of διωκόμενοι, 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).—Νέκρωσις 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 νέκρωσις, a dying, but never a θάνατος, 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 (Rückert). The antithesis is introduced in the following final sentence—that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body—where 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 ζωὴ, contrasted with the νέκρωσις, 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 Apostle’s 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 (ἐν τῷ σώματι ἡμῶν), and the corresponding expression, in our mortal flesh (ἐν τῇ θνῃτῇσαρκί ἡμῶν, 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 Paul’s 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 God’s kingdom, for which both Jesus and His Apostle endured such deadly sufferings, and the person and name of Jesus himself, were essentially connected. In διὰ Ἰησοῦν, here rendered, for Jesus’ sake, διά 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 (παραδιδόμεθα) is passive, and can have no allusion to the voluntariness of the subject of the action. The being delivered to death (εἰς θάν. παδιδ.) is intensified by the contrast implied in, we who are alive (ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες.), 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 (ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ), 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 (ἐν τῆ θνητῇ σαρκῖ ἡμῶν), are emphatic, and are an augmentation of the thought expressed in 2Co_4:10 respecting the manifestation in our body (ἐν τῷ σώματι); 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 ὁ μὲν θάνατος (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 ἐνεργεῖται 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 Apostle’s body. The connection with 2Co_4:10-11 seems to demand this. It was by the Apostle’s 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 (ζωή) here spoken of as meaning the higher spiritual life, the Divine power which was glorified in the Apostle’s sufferings and its working (ἐνεργεῖται), 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 Christ’s 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 positions—ye 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 θεατριζόμενοι as we are, who are (not indeed excluded from that life—nay, it flows from us to you—but 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 δέ 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 δέ 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.” Τὸ αὐτό 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 τὸ γεγραμμένον 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. תֶאֱמַנְתִי כִי אֲדַבֵּר,” 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 εἰδότες 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 σύν one would more naturally have expected διὰ or ἐν, 1Co_15:21-22. But just as in ἅξει σὺν αὐτῷ 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 ἐγείρειν 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 (τὰ πάντα), 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 (χάρις) is here not the whole salvation sealed by the resurrection of Christ, for such an idea would not be expressed by a phrase like τὰπάντα, but the gracious assistance of which he had just spoken. (2Co_4:10 ff.). Πλεονάσασα διὰτῶν πλειόνων 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 διὰ τῶν πλειόνων with the following περισσεύσῃ):—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 τῶν πλειόνων, to govern τήν ἐυχαριστίαν by διά(in which case the genitive would have been more grammatical; comp. 2Co_9:12), and to take περισσεύσῃ 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.—Διό refers back to 2Co_4:14. (2Co_4:15 was only an explanation of 2Co_4:14). We faint not (οὐκ ἐκκακοῦμεν) 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 (‘ο ἕξω ἅνθρωπος), 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, ὁ ἕσωθεν ἅνθρ 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 νοῦς 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: “man’s higher nature—his 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 (διαφθείρεσθαι) 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 εἰ καί (which cannot mean: even supposing that. Rückert), and was an actual fact of the Apostle’s experience, notwithstanding the salvation asserted in 2Co_4:10 f. In contrast with this perishing of the outer, he now places the renewal (ἀνακαινοῦσθαι) of the inner man. Neander: “the ἀνά 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 (πνεῦμα ζωοποιοῦν) which came to him from Christ. (2Co_3:17 f. and 2Co_4:6). ̔Ημέρᾳ καὶ ἡμέρᾳ is like the Hebr. יוֹם יוֹם, Psa_68:20; Gen_39:10; Est_3:4). The second ἀλλά 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 (ἀνακαίνωσις), he introduces it with a γάρ The verse contains a sharp antithesis. There is on the one hand τὸ παραυταίκα ἐλαφρὸν τῆς θλίψεως,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 θλῖψις, oppression, implies something heavy), and on the other, the eternal weight of glory (τὸ αἰώνιον βάρος δόξης). Βάρος signifies weight, and therefore pressure, and would seem more appropriately connected with the affliction (θλῖψις), but is here applied to the glory (δόξα) 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 Christ’s 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 θλῖψις is the means of producing and bringing to pass the δόξα, 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 καθ ̓ ὐπερβολήν εἰς ὑπερβολήν does not seem applicable to αἰώνιον, and it must therefore be connected with κατεργάζεται; they work in a superabundant manner, even to a superfluity. Meyer explains it as: the measureless energy and the measureless results of the working (κατεργάζεται, 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 δόξα (Osiander). A separation of the words so as to make the first καθ ̓ ὑπερβ, have reference to τῆς θλίψεως (the exceedingly intense affliction), and the second εἰς ὑπερβ. to the δόξαν (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 ἡμῶν can be taken only by way of application to a more extensive class (to believers generally). Σκοπεῖν is: to take in sight, particularly to look upon the object of our exertion, as in Php_2:4. The things which are seen (τὰ βλεπόμενα) are the blessings of the αἰὼν ον̓͂τος, the things we perceive by our senses; the things not seen (τὰ μὴ βλεπόμενα) are those of the άιυν μέλλων, things which are beyond the perception of our senses, and yet not precisely the same as the ἀόρατα (invisible things). Bengel says: “many things which are at present unseen, will be visible when faith’s journey is accomplished.” The μὴ in connection with μὴ σκοπούντων ἡμῶν 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., πρόςκαιρα (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. Οἵδαμεν, “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. ̓Εάν 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. Τοῦ σκήνους 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 σκήνωμα in 2Pe_1:13 f. The word σκῆνος (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 ̓Επιγέιος, as in 1Co_15:40, means that which is on earth. [Stanley: “ἐπὶ not of but upon the earth (comp. 1Co_15:40), opposed to ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς and εξοὐρανοῦ”]. 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 God—a dwelling not made by hands, eternal, in the heavens.—The words ἐκ θεοῦ are not to be joined with ἔχομεν, 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 (οἰκοδομή) 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 (οἰκία ἀχειροποίητος). 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 αἰώνιος (comp. 2Co_4:1 ff.) forbids us to understand by the οἰκία, 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 Taylor’s Physical Theory of Another Life, chap. 1.). Hence the use of the varied terms οἰκοδομὴ, οἰκία, οἰκητήριον, also the expressions ἐπενδύσ. ἐνδυσάμ. and the deprecatory language of 2Co_5:3, and ἐπειδὴ—ἐπενδ. 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, ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (opp. ἐπίγειος) should be joined with ἕχομεν 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 ἕχομεν 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 Apostle’s 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 groan—earnestly 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. ̓Εν τούτῷ 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 (σκῆνος) 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 ἐν; and καὶ 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 (οἰκητήριον ἐξ οὐρανοῦ) not merely on account of its origin, but because it was actually to come down from heaven to earth. Οἰκία is somewhat more absolute, whereas οἰκητήριον, a domicile, expresses its proper relation to the inhabitant (Bengel).—̓Επενδύσασθαι (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 τὸ ἐξ οὐρ. compared with ἐκ θεοῦ ἕχομεν and ἐν τοῖς οὐρ. sufficiently distinguishes the οἰκητήριον 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, εἵπερ—ἐκδυσαμενοι, we shall have a natural meaning by giving to εἴπερ 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 ἐνδυσάμενοι we obtain the same general idea, if we contrast that word with ἐπενδύσασθαι, 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 ἔιγε as a concessive particle, or to concede no force to the γε, as if the word were equivalent to εἰ καί. Fritzsche regards ἐνδυσάμενοι as having the same force as ἐπενδυσ., and εἵγε 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 ἐνθυσάμενοι in connection with ἐπενδύσασθαι 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 Rückert’s interpretation. “as it is certain that we shall not be without a body (ἐκδυσάμενοι) 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. ἕιγε—ἐνδυς.) 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 (εἴγε) 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 (γυμνοί), but provided with corporeal coverings: “we have these longings (i. e., for the ἐπενδυσασθαι, 2Co_5:2) on the presumption that, being clothed, we shall not be found naked (ἔιγε 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 Paul’s discourse). Και would also have in this case the sense of: “truly.”3 Ἐνδυσάμενοι would denote an act which had taken place before the εὑρεθησόμεθα 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 ἐνδυσάμενοι are not γυμνοί; but if the idea of the body had been prominent, γυμνοί would have been followed by σώματος. 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 ἐνδεδυμένοι there are strong reasons against referring ἐνδυσάμενοι and οὐ γυμνοί 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 γυμνοί δόξης: 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 οὐ γυμνοί as explanatory or epexegetical of ἐνδυσάμενοι and referring both words to Christ or the garment of his righteousness—an 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 ἐνδυσάμενοι and οὐ γυμνοί 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 Χριστοῦ or δόξης. We would prefer either to accede to Meyer’s interpretation, or to adopt the very well sustained and ancient reading εἴπερ—ἐκδυσάμευοι, giving ἕιπερ 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 οἱ ὅντες, 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 βαρούμενοι, 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). ̓Εφ̓ ᾧ would then have to bear the meaning of: wherefore (quare), and perhaps be equivalent to ἐπὶ τούτῳ ὅ—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 (ἐπενδύσασθαι).—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 ἐφ̓ ᾧ 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 οὐ θέλειν ἐκδύσασθαι 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 Christ’s coming, and hence he might easily think of being spared the pains of death. (The word ἐκδύεσθαι 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 (βαρούμενοι), 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 (ἐκδύσασθαι). And yet another way of construing it in which ἐφ̓ ᾧ 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 δέ 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 (αὐτὸ τοῦτο) 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 κατεργάζεσθαι 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. Κατεργάζεσθαι means to work out, to finish, and so to make ready. [The preposition κατὰ in composition often introduces the idea of completeness, as in καταρτίζω 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 man’s 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 ὁ καὶ δόυς in the following clause, the καὶ 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 ὁ δόυς 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 (ἀῤῥαβῶνα comp. on 2Co_1:22). But the Spirit itself is the Divine principle by which they were thus wrought and prepared—the 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 (οὗν) 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 (θαῤῥεῖν) 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 θαῤῥεῖν 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 θαρσεῖν. 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 (πάντοτε) 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 καὶ κἰδότες is not of the same signification as καίπερ εἰδότες [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 (ἐνδημεῖν, 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 ἀπὸ τοῦ κυρίου 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 ἐκδημοῦμεν] in 2Co_5:7.—for we walk by faith and not by appearance.—The spheres in which we move are, that of faith (πίστις) on the one hand, and that of sight (εἷδος) 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 διὰ 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 διὰ πίστεως, 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). ̓Εἷδος 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. מַּרְאֶה ,תֹּאַר,)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 Christ’s person. The general sense, however, of Luther’s 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 (θαῤῥεῖν), 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 (δέ 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 θαῤῥοῦμεν δε viz., the willingness rather to be from home, etc. Εὐδοκεῖν 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 μᾶλλον (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 (ἐκδύεσθαι, 2Co_5:4), and to be present with the Lord. Ἐκδημεῖν is the opposite of ἐνδημεῖν (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 (ἀναλῦσαι) before he could be with Christ. Πρὸς τὸν κύριον 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 διό (wherefore) should be connected back with 2Co_5:8 (εὐδοκοῦμεν). Wherefore, since we have such a desire, and in order that we may realize such a desire, we, etc. The verb φιλοτιμεῖσθαι 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 one’s self much trouble about it. It is used in the same way in Rom_15:20 and 1Th_4:11. If in the phrases εἵτε ἐνδημοῦντες, εἵτε ἐκδημοῦντες, 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 (σῶμα), or the Lord (κύριος). 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 ἐνδημ. The reason that ἐνδημοῦντες 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 φιλοτιμ., i. e., we strive, whether in or out of the body, etc.). But it must be remembered that ἐκδημ. 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 φιλοτιμ (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. Alford’s 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 ἐνδημεῖν and ἐκδημεῖν has borne throughout this connection (together signifying the same as πάντως or διὰ πάντος: 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 τοὺς πάντας ἡμᾶς 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). Τοὺς πάντας 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 (φανερωθῆναι) is not precisely equivalent to παραστῆναι (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 ἕμπροσθεν τοῦ βήματος (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 Paul’s writings. [In classical Greek, βῆμα always signified, not a judgment seat, but the raised place or step from which public speakers addressed the people at the great πανήγυρεις 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 Stanley’s 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 τοῦ θεοῦ] 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 δεῖ 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 κομίζεσθαι 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 θησαυρίζειν 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 τὰ διὰ τοῦ σώματος. 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 σῶμα] for that word is throughout our passage used for the earthly body. The word to be supplied is not exactly πραχθέντα although this would be consistent with the proper sense of the passage, but ὅντα: that which took place by means of the body as an organ (comp. Plato: ἡδονῶν, αἱ̔ διὰ τοῦ σώματός εἰσιν). Neander: while in this body. The reading of the Italic, the Vulgate and some other versions [:τὰ ἴ δια τοῦ σώματος, propria etc.] may have originated in a mistake, or τὰ διὰ τ. σ. may have seemed difficult of construction. Certainly τὰ διὰ is critically well authenticated—according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.—In this sentence πρός has reference to the rule or standard according to which the reward is given. The ellipsis in εἴτε—κακόν must be supplied by a word from the relative sentence, viz., ἕπραξεν.—If the Apostle had his eye on some mongrel kind of Christianity, κομίσηται 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 (μετάνοια); 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 Christ’s 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 God’s 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 (διὰ) 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 Lord’s 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, God’s 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! Christ’s 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 God’s 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 Christ’s 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 God’s 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 cross—Rejoice rather, for death, pain, sickness, and loss of honor, of property, of friends and of comforts, if for conscience’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 done—all 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 Cross—not 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 Christ’s words, the good conscience which nevertheless avoids all private dishonor, the sincerity which never corrupts God’s word, and the untiring patience which never gives out—all this treasure Christ’s 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 Christ’s ministers that we may most impressively see the fellowship of Christ’s 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 Christ’s 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 Christian’s 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 God’s 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. God’s 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 God’s grace; but God’s 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 Christian’s 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 Christian’s 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 God’s 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 Christ’s kingdom, “but live to make the Lord’s 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 God’s 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 Lord’s 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 Paul’s 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 (καταλυθῇ), 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 ἐπίγειον he opposes the οὐρανίαν. and to the οἰκίαν τοῦσκηνους, which was easy to be dissolved and was made for the present occasion, he opposes the αἰώνιαν; 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. Paul’s 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 ἐνδύω in this conection ἐπενδύω 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 Christ’s 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: “Εἵπερ corresponds to the Germ. wenn anders (provided that) and εἵγε 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 other’s place.” For Paul’s 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 ἐνδυσασθαι) and we therefore incline to think he must have used εἵγε. 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 argument’s sake at the time. και 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 τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ 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 τοῖς σώμασιν instead of the second τῷ σώματι.]
[9]2Co_4:12.—Rec. has ὁ μέν θάνατος, but it is feebly sustained. [Alford thinks it was “inserted to correspond to δἐ below.”]
[10]2Co_4:13.—Sin. alone has καί after the first δὶο. After γεγραμ. 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 τὸν κύριον.
[12]2Co_4:14.—The διὰ of the Rec. is not as well sustained as σὺν before Ἰησοῦ. It was intended probably for a correction [Alford: “on account of the difficulty found in σὺν Ἰησοῦ being joined to a future verb, his resurrection being past.” Σὺν is given in B. C. D. F. Sin. (1st cor.).]
[13]2Co_4:16.—As in 2Co_4:1, ἐκκακοῦμεν is preferable to ἐγκακοῦμεν, and for reasons similar to those there given.
[14]2Co_4:16.—Lachm. has good authorities for his reading: ὸ ἕσω ἡμῶν, and yet his reading is probably not genuine, but arose from an attempt to make it correspond with ὁ ἕξω ἡμῶν [The same reason probably produced the reading ἕξωθεν instead of ἕξω, i. e., to make it correspond with ὁ ἕσωθεν after the latter had been accepted as the true reading. But even ἕσωθεν is not satisfactorily sustained. Ἡμῶν is also inserted by high authority (B. C. D. E. F. Sin.) after ἕσω. Tisch. and Rec. omit it after ἕσωθεν. Alford (but with a doubt) and Stanley insert it with ἕσω. Meyer suggests that it was inserted for uniformity.]
[15]2Co_4:17.—Before ἐλαφρὸν D. (1st cor.) E. F. G., the Vulg. Syr. and Goth, versions, and some of the Latin fathers read πρόσκαιρον καὶ, but it was probably a gloss upon παραυτίκα. Comp. διὰ τοῦ παραυτίκα ἕδειξε τὸ βραχύ τε καὶ πρόσκαιρον in Theodt.]
[16]2Co_5:3.—Lach. has εἴπερ, Rec. has εἴγε. 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 εἴγε. The great majority of the recent critical editions now adopt εἴγε.]
[17]2Co_5:3.—Rec. and Lach. have ἐνδυσάμενοι instead of ἐκδυσάμενοι. Both readings are well supported. See Exeget. Notes.
[18]2Co_5:4.—After σκήνει Lachmann inserts τούτῳ; the evidence is not decisive. Meyer thinks it was added more clearly to define σκήνει.
[19]2Co_5:5.—Excellent authorities are in favor of ὁ δούς.—Rec. and Tisch. have ὁ κὰι δούς with equally good authority.
[20]2Co_5:10.—Rec. and Lachm. have κᾶκόν. Tisch. has φαῦλον, but without sufficient authority.[B. D. E. F. G. K. L. favor κακόν, and C. and Sin. favor φαῦλον. The Greek and cursives are divided nearly equally.
[21][Bloomfield notices that the natural meaning of παραυτίκα (παρ’ at, and αὐτἰκα 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 παραυτίκα 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 αἰώνιον. Chrysostom’s 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, καθ̓ ὑπερβ. εἰς ὑπερβ. This is a magnitude excessively exceeding. The repetition is intensive, after the Heb. בִמְאֹד מְאֹד exceedingly.” Dr. A. Clarke says: “it is every where visible what influence St. Paul’s Hebrew had on his Greek: כָּבַד 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 οὐ stands when the intention is to represent something exactly and directly (as a reality), μὴ 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 τὰ μὴ βλεπ. signifies the mere idea of what cannot be seen, while in Heb_11:1, τἀ οὐ βλεπ. signifies what actually is not seen. (Idd. p. 370), Stanley, on the other hand, thinks that the only reason why μὴ is used in this passage and οἰ in Heb_11:1, is “merely from the Greek usage, which requires μὴ after the article, and οὐ where the article is not used.“ Alford thinks that μὴ is used here only to express what is hypothetical: “on the supposition that,” etc. There can be no question that in these two passages Winer’s 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.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–12 "Lest any should say, How then is it that…
"Lest any should say, How then is it that we continue to enjoy such unspeakable glory in a mortal body? Paul replies, this very fact is one of the most marvellous proofs of God's power, that an earthen vessel could bear such splendor and keep such a treasure" [CHRYSOSTOM, Homilies, 8.496, A]. The treasure or "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God." The fragile "earthen vessel" is the body, the "outward man" (Co2 4:16; compare Co2 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 kept their treasures in jars or vessels of earthenware. "There are earthen vessels which yet may be clean; whereas a golden vessel may be filthy" [BENGEL].
that the excellency of the power, &c.--that the power of the ministry (the Holy Spirit), in respect to its surpassing "excellency," exhibited in winning souls (Co1 2:4) and in sustaining us ministers, might be ascribed solely to God, we being weak as earthen vessels. God often allows the vessel to be chipped and broken, that the excellency of the treasure contained, and of the power which that treasure has, may be all His (Co2 4:10-11; Joh 3:30).
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may be of God . . . not of us--rather, as Greek, "may be God's (may be seen and be thankfully [Co2 4:15] acknowledged to belong to God), and not (to come) from us." The power not merely comes from God, but belongs to Him continually, and is to be ascribed to him.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10, 11, 12 7. Treasure… vessels—The divine gold gives even now its…
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.
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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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–12 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels]…
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.
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of us] The Greek implies from ourselves as a source.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–12 (7) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.—The…
(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 ours—’earthen vessels’—we 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 God’s strengthening grace, show this to be the true underlying sequence of thought.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Vers. 7-15. Glory of the ministry in the midst…
Vers. 7-15. Glory of the ministry in the midst of its weakness and suffering.
Ver. 7. In earthen vessels. The glorious light which we have to show to the world is, like Gideon"s torches, carried in earthen pitchers. The word skenos, vessel, is used in Mar_11:16, and "vessels of earthenware" in Rev_2:27. St. Paul, in Act_9:15, is called "a vessel of election," whence Dante calls him lo vas delezione. Man can never be more than an earthen vessel, being frail and humble, and the metaphor specially suits an apostle of Christ (see 1Co_2:3-5; 2Ti_2:20) But when he takes the Word of life from the earthen pitcher and waves it in the air, it illuminates all on whom the light shines. No commentator seems to have seen the probable allusion to Gideon"s pitchers. It is the "light," of which he has been speaking exclusively in the last verses, which constitutes the "treasure." Those who suppose that the "treasure" is gold or silver or something else of value, refer to Jer_32:14, and Herod., 3:103; Pers., "Sat.," 2:10. The excellency; literally, the excess or abundance. Of God, and not of us; rather, of God, and not from us.
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The true gospel ministry.
we have this treasure," etc. The words lead us to consider the true gospel ministry in various aspects.
I AS CONTAINING AN INESTIMABLE TREASURE. The gospel is a system of incalculable worth. The most valuable things in nature are employed to represent it water, light, life, etc. There are four criteria that determine the worth of a thingrarity, utility, duration, the appreciation of the highest authorities. All these applied to the gospel demonstrate its surpassing value.
II AS THE SERVICE OF FRAGILE MEN. "In earthen vessels." To whom have the inestimable truths of the gospel been entrusted for exposition, enforcement, and distribution? Not to angels, but to frail and dying men.
1. They have frail bodies. They are subject to infirmity, exhaustion, decay, etc.
2. They have frail minds. The most vigorous in intellect is weak, the most lofty in genius is feeble, the most enlightened is ignorant.
III AS DEVELOPING A DIVINE PURPOSE. "That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." The grand reason why frail men are employed to preach the gospel is that the glorious renovating and soul-saving effects may evidently appear as the work of God, and not of man. When sermons prove effective in converting souls, it is not because of the originality of their thought, the force of their logic, the splendour of their rhetoric, or the majesty of their eloquence, but because of the Divine power that accompanies them. "Not by might, nor by power," etc.
Vers. 7-18.
Ministers in their weakness and strength; present affliction and future issues.
There is the ever-recurring contrast. It is now the ministry as a "treasure," and this treasure is "in earthen vessels." We understand the apostle to refer to the body when speaking of the "clay vessel," the contrasted elements being the glory of the ministry as a Divine illumination and the fragile human form in which it was contained. It was thus that "the excellency of the power" was seen to be "of God, and not of us." Not only was it the power of God, but of "exceeding greatness" (Kling), and while the "surpassing might" demonstrated itself in the gracious and widespread effects of the ministry, it was also obvious in the physical support given in the midst of such unprecedented labours and trials. To illustrate this "surpassing might" (Conybeare and Howson), St. Paul adduces his own experience. As it respects the "earthen vessel:
1. Troubled on every side.
2. Perplexed.
3. Persecuted.
4. Cast down.
5. Always dying; bearing about in the body the dying of the LordJesus.
As it respects the "excellency of the power:
1. Not stressed.
2. Not in despair.
3. Not forsaken.
4. Not destroyed.
5. Life of Jesus made manifest in our mortal body.
These ideas of suffering are taken from the body.
1. Pressed or hemmed in on every side.
2. Benighted on our path.
3. Pursued in a conflict.
4. Thrown down and expecting to be killed.
5. The dying of the Lord Jesus never absent as a bodily impression.
This is the second of those vivid pictures St. Paul has given of his personal life, the first being found in 1Co_4:9-13. There is a marked difference between the two representations, the former referring to the contrast between himself and the self-sufficient Corinthians, while the latter sets forth the contrast between "the glorious gospel" and the weakness of its ministration by means of men. Here the prominence is given to the similarity of his own life to that of Christ," that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." Had he spoken in the previous Epistle of self-denials and voluntary sufferings over and above "other apostles," going on a warfare "at his own charges," planting a vineyard and eating not "of the fruit thereof," a shepherd who "eateth not of the milk of the flock"? No such allusions (except in the reference made in the twelfth verse) are found in this chapter. Before him, in full view, is the career of Jesus of Nazareth, his resignation of the comforts of earth, the homelessness and other privations he endured, and he, the apostle of the Gentiles, is conformed in outward or physical aspects to the sufferings of Christ. Still more, the life of Christ"s resurrection and exalted glory appears in him, and this life, so manifested in "our mortal flesh" and the more signally exhibited because of infirmities and afflictions, is for their benefit. "Death worketh in us, but life in you." But is death a shadow, a discouragement, a paralyzing terror? Nay; the life imparted to the Corinthians through him returned from them to his own soul. He believed and spoke; they heard and believed. Furthermore, he had another consolation, the hope of a resurrection, when he and they should be presented by Christ to the Father for final acceptance. Yes; the fellowship would be immortal as well as glorious. "All things are for your sakes," whatever had befallen him, and this "abundant grace," extended to an ever-enlarging number, would swell the volume of thanksgiving to God. In his mind "the glory of God" is never associated with narrow bounds, never with a few, always with the "many the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God." This is his manhood; largeness in everything; breadth of thought and sentiment for this world and the future! a manhood that could breathe in nothing smaller than a universe. How much he is worth to us in this particular! On this account "we faint not." Nothing had power to dishearten his spirit or depress his efforts. The burden rallied the strength; the heavier the weight the more energetic the resistance. Another contrast outward man, inward man: man in each. St. Paul, who is the theologian of the Bible on the subject of the body no less than of the soul, is here in one of his favourite moods, and, as usual, his philosophy (if we choose so to regard his discernment) is as profound as his piety. "Though our outward man perish." It cannot but perish. "Dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return." The body exists for no independent purpose, it is for the soul, and the ideal of the soul determines the ideal of the body"s history. It eats, sleeps, works, for the soul. It decays for the sake of the soul. Now, this decay which the apostle is considering, we may look at in the light of modern physiology. St. Paul is no teacher of physiology or of science in any form, but he mentions facts, which we can interpret by aid of recent science. What, then, do we know of decay as a bodily law? We know it is a law coexistent and cooperative with our physical life. It sets in early, goes on continuously, and ends only when the body dies. It is a succession of decays. Viewed in this light, decay is a function of activity or a sequel to activity, and, accordingly, a condition of renewal. Exercise the arm like a blacksmith, and it rapidly wastes matter. Exercise the brain as a student, and certain constituents are constantly thrown off and expelled from the system. Yet, in all this, there is reproduction and even growth. The decay has an order; it proceeds from the less serviceable to the more useful functions. Early in life, animal sensations are in excess. The outer world floods the young senses, and no image is painted on the brain that is not a copy of something external. But this abates. It lessens by providential law. The spirits decline in boisterousness; perceptions are not so vivid; reflectiveness increases; and the pulse is more of a pulse of thought, will, emotion. What we can spare best is the first to decay. Long before eye and ear show signs of failing other organs begin to advertise their decline. And hence the decay proceeds as to time and method in such a form as to answer the ends of the body in its relation to the soul. Seldom are there violent changes, No great revolutions occur. Little by little the alterations go on, so that the mind is insensibly accommodated to them. Agreeably to this law, decay contributes till late in life to the development of the mind. Not until decay has accomplished higher ends does it tend towards dissolution. Gently, indeed, the hand of the Father touches the frail tenement, here a nerve and there a muscle, so as to make it less a body for the earth and more a body for the soul. Physiologically, therefore, there is a basis for St. Paul"s theology of the body. Now, physiologists may say, as some of them have said, that their science has nothing to do with religion, and, forsooth, this in one sense may be true. But it is certain that Christianity has a good deal to do with their science. Nor, indeed, have we to look further than the text for proof of the fact that, while St. Paul was doing nothing more than unfolding the glory of the gospel, one or more of the rays of that splendour shone on facts which science is only just now beginning to understand. But the inner man, what of him? Renewed day by day." We have seen that Providence uses decay for restoration and even enhancement of power, and moreover, not until physical development has attained its maximum in respect to mind, does it happen that decay operates towards dissolution. Outward and inward both the man, as we have said and yet the differencing adjectives are very expressive. Look at the outside of a tree, the rough bark adapted to the hard usages of wind and weather, and fitted to enclose and protect the fibre and circulating sap. So of the body. It is a sheath to the soul, preserving its freedom from being overpowered by the outward world and guaranteeing self-direction to its activity. More than this, body is a developing instrumentality of mind, and, in this respect, fulfils the special purpose of Providence. Nevertheless, the soul has its own prerogatives. It is God"s image, and, as such, witnesses to its own nature as infinitely different from matter. We call it soul because it is perfectly unlike body. We call it spirit because "God is a Spirit." Such words as body, soul, spirit, stand alone and contain the truth of all truths. Now, the apostle urges this contrast; body decays and dies, spirit under the influence of the Holy Ghost is renewed daily. Spirit has a capacity for interminable growth. Day by day, a clearer knowledge of itself, a keener penetration of consciousness, a deeper sense of sinfulness in its nature, and, anomalously enough, while gaining a victory more and more over particular sins, having an acuter conviction of inbred sin. Day by day, the world falling away from its senses, and yet, amid the decay of sensuousness, a continual ascension of delight and gladness as the spirit loses its hold on merely aesthetic beauty and enters more fully into moral beauty, so that, while the body becomes more and more the "temple of the Holy Ghost," the earth grows into a sanctuary of God, where the hours fail not to observe their ritual of worship and the air is never so hushed as not to breathe praise to God. Day by day? Ah! are there not idle days, apparently useless days, even days when prayer and holy service seem a burden? Doubtless; but we must not conclude that these seasons are altogether unprofitable. If we are learning nothing else, we are learning how weak and impotent we are, and how unreliable are our constitution and habits except we have daily renewing grace. God leaves us to ourselves sometimes, that we may find out what company we keep when he is absent. Day by day, the most precious of all is a growing nearness to the Lord Jesus Christ. We can recall the time when he was mainly to our young souls a traditional Christ. We knew him by the hearing of the ear and by the sight of the eye. Voices there were that spoke of him and commanded our listening. Faces there were that shone with unearthly light and touched our eyes to a reverent gaze. They are gone now. Sorrow has done its work, and, if that be done, all other work is made effective for spiritual progress. How real he becomes when we suffer as Christians! In the loneliness that comes with all profound grief, what a personal Christ is he to our hearts! Hearts, we say, for the revelations of sorrow, the fullest and grandest ever made to the soul, are all revelations of the blessed Jesus to the affections. Once we could not have thought it possible, but, in later years, the secret of the Lord is with us, and we commune with him as friend with friend. The wonder now is, how we could ever live an hour without this sense of sonship possessing the soul. "Out of the depths" we have learned to say, "Abba, Father," and then we can rejoice with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." The outward man perishing, the inward man renewed day by day, how would such a man as St. Paul look upon trial and adversity? We know more of the nature, variety, and depth of his sufferings than of any one among the saints of the New Testament, and yet he calls his affliction light. It is also "but for a moment? Why he spoke in this way is made clear at once, for the light and momentary affliction is working for his benefit, fulfilling a purpose, executing a design, and this is a "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." These words are best left to private meditation. "Glory" in contrast with "affliction," "weight" with "light," "eternal" with "moment," and then the "exceeding," the "more exceeding," the "far more exceeding;" we honour the sublimity most by thoughtful silence. And this winking, which is now going on by means of Christ"s presence in affliction and derives no merit from him, is so far realized by the apostle that he cannot look upon the things about him other than as transient. It is not the mere decay of the outward man nor the evanescence of the world"s glory that produces in him this exalted state of mind. The point of view is altogether different. From the height of spiritual life as essentially eternal life, he glances at the panorama of the world as it passes by, but his look the fixed eye, the earnest gaze is on the things which are eternal. For him this eternity has already begun; and while every new grief and every repetition of an old sorrow "worketh" a deeper feeling of the spiritual and eternal life within, he is equally well assured that each one adds something to the accumulated glory of the heaven awaiting him as an apostle of the Lord Jesus. L.
Spiritual treasure.
In this Epistle Paul speaks more frankly and warmly than in any other of his compositions of the ministry which was the work of his life. It is observable, however, that, in treating of this ministry, whilst he uses the most honourable terms in characterizing the office, he displays the utmost humility in what he says of himself.
I PRICELESS TREASURE.
1. What it is. It is "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in theface of Jesus Christ." It is the truth which Paul declared, the gospel which he preached, the mystery which he unfolded. The promise of free pardon for sin, of a new law and power for life, was what the apostles were privileged to convey to mankind. This is still, as it was then, the true wealth of the world, which enriches the mind and heart of man.
2. Upon whose authority this "treasure" is so described. This is the highestauthority, that of the Divine Christ, who designates his gospel the "true riches," "the treasure hid in the field," "the pearl of great price;" who reminds us of "treasure in heaven;" who tells us that "where our treasure is, there will our heart be also;" who counsels to buy of him "gold tried in the furnace.
3. What makes this treasure so valuable? It is unvaryingly satisfying: it isinexhaustible; it is enduring, and not like the "riches that take to themselves wings;" it is accessible to all, so that the poor in this world, having it, are "rich in faith.
II EARTHEN VESSEL.
1. Explain the figure. As Eastern kings stored their gold, silver, and jewelsin earthen jars, so a plain casket may hold a costly jewel, a miry soil may yield an abundant crop, a battered ship may carry a precious freight, a lamp of clay may give a brilliant light, a mean book as to appearance may contain noble thoughts. So it is no objection against the gospel that those who preach it are in many respects unworthy of an office so dignified.
2. Exhibit its application. Christ was apparently a peasant, a carpenter"sson; yet he was the Son of God most high. The apostles were fishermen, toll takers, tent makers; yet they were the heralds of salvation to mankind. The upper rooms where the early disciples met were not comparable to heathen temples, but they were scenes of Divine communion. Among those who frequented the assemblies where Christian ordinances were observed were not many noble or great, but there were inheritors of the kingdom of God. The apostle was deeply conscious of defects and weakness, was often distressed by humiliations and persecutions and contempt. His frail body, his fallible judgment, his imperfect character, his lowly and harassed condition, all contrasted with the preciousness of the gospel which was deposited in his heart and ministered by his labours. If it was so in the case of St. Paul, how much more manifestly was it so in the case of those tar less gifted and far more burdened with infirmity!
III DIVINE GREATNESS. To what purpose was this arrangement which the apostle here describes? He himself gives the true reason.
1. That all Christian labourers may feel their littleness and their weakness.
2. That they may recognize the exceeding greatness of the spiritual powerof God.
3. That they may give Heaven the glory, alike for what they receive and forwhat they impart. T.
Earthen vessels.
I GOD HAS CHOSEN AS MINISTERS OF HIS GOSPEL "EARTHEN VESSELS,
1. Not angels or other celestial beings. Not heavenly vessels, but earthly.
1. Men.
1. Frail;
2. imperfect;
3. lowly;
4. weak;
5. unimposing.
II THESE EARTHEN VESSELS ARE HELD IN THE DIVINE HAND.
1. They are thus preserved. "He had in his right hand seven stars". (Rev_1:16) Often they seem in peril. "Pressed on every side perplexed pursued smitten down" (vers. 8, 9); but the vessel is not allowed to be broken until it has done its work.
2. They are thus useful.
(1) They are in the Divine hand to be filled.
(2) They are in the Divine hand to be poured forth from.
(3) They are in the Divine hand sometimes to be shaken, and the shaking of the vessel often makes the contents more efficacious.
III A GREAT TREASURE IS COMMITTED TO THE EARTHEN VESSELS. The treasure is the truth as it is in Jesus the great gospel message. Christ"s ministers are vessels to hold this treasure and to dispense it to those to whom they minister.
1. Ministers have not to originate what they convey. It is given to them bytheir Master. The vessel is filled by a Divine hand from a Divine source.
2. Ministers have not to convey themselves to their people. The people donot want the vessel, but its contents. "We preach not ourselves" (ver. 5). An earthen vessel is poor food for folks to live upon, and poor medicine for a sin-sick soul to be cured with. The "vessel" must be "the servant" (ver. 5). Even an alabaster box may well be broken that the precious ointment may be poured forth.
3. The contents are apt to taste of the vessel. This must be avoided asmuch as possible. The less of ourselves and the more of Christ that we convey to men the better. The contents must change the vessel, not the vessel the contents. The preacher must be Christ"s as well as his message. "We also believe, and therefore speak" (ver. 13).
IV THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE EARTHEN VESSELS AND THEIR CONTENTS. A treasure; and what a treasure! For it how long the world has been waiting! What marvels it has to work! What wonders it has wrought! And committed to "earthen vessels"! No royal vessels for this royal gift. What honour to the vessels chosen! A minister of Jesus Christ! how poor all other titles are compared with this!
V THE OBJECT OF THE DIVINE CHOICE.
1. The uninterrupted working of the Divine power. An "earthen vessel" can do nothing but receive and pour forth. What egregious folly for a minister of Christ to seek to enter into partnership with his Lord for the production of a theology! The earthen vessel cannot do anything, and should not attempt to.
2. The glory of the Divine Being. No glory can attach to the mere earthen vessel. God is "all in all." This should be the desire of every servant of God. Many, it is to be feared, are robbers of God in this matter. They snatch at the glory to which they have not the smallest claim.
VI THE FUTURE OF THE EARTHEN VESSELS. They will be raised up (ver. 14).
1. Made glorious. "This mortal must put on immortality." "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly". (1Co_15:49) The "vile body" will be exchanged for a "glorious body." We shall be made like Christ. The earthen vessels will be transformed into the likeness of him who filled them. The change is taking place whilst the earthen vessels are in the earthly service. "Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day" (ver. 16). But when we see him as he is we shall be like him.
2. Fitted for higher service. Heavenly activities. We know not how closely associated the earthly service is with the heavenly, how much the one may depend upon the other, how much the one will influence and shape the other. Let us make the earthly service as true and perfect as we may. H.
The lamp in the pitcher.
This verse is often quoted to express human insufficiency for the ministry of the gospel. It deserves to be quoted, for, if St. Paul felt so deeply his powerlessness without God, how much more should this feeling influence ordinary ministers of the Word of life!
I THE TREASURE. Paul, working in the factory making tents, or passing through the street undistinguished by dress or retinue, may have been taken for a poor artisan. But he was conscious of possessing a treasure by the use and distribution of which he, while poor, made many rich. It was no store of silver or gold. It was not even the treasure of intellectual eminence, the wealth of a large and lofty mind; for, though he had this, he could not impart it to others. It was the ministry of righteousness and liberty whereby he communicated to his fellow men "the unsearchable riches of Christ." There is no need to draw a distinction here between the ministry which is the topic of the whole context and the light of knowledge which is the immediately preceding subject. In the apostle"s thought these are intimately and necessarily combined and together constitute the treasure. It was as an illuminated man that he showed the light to others. And so at this day, only a man in whom the true light shines can be a minister of Christ. But who has the light may spread the knowledge of the glory of God, and has a treasure better than silver and more to be desired than fine gold.
II THE EARTHEN VESSELS. It was and is the custom of Orientals to keep valuables and money in jars which might be hid, and, in case of danger, might be buried underground. A mere earthen jar might thus contain an enormous treasure. Alluding to this, St. Paul pointed to his own body, hard pressed by labours and afflictions. His bodily presence was weak. He had no external advantages for making an impression on either Jews or Greeks. Yet in such an earthen vessel was contained a treasure beyond all computation, and not needing to have its worth enhanced by adventitious surroundings. If we think of the treasure as one of light the light of the knowledge of God"s glory there is a story in the Old Testament which may illustrate the phrase. The followers of Gideon had their lamps in pitchers, or earthen vessels, when they stole a march on the invaders from Midian, and, with sound of trumpet and loud war shouts, fell upon their comp. So, by the light in earthen vessels, with the trumpet notes of their testimony, did the apostles and other early preachers assail and defeat those opposing powers of the world that would have laughed at their weakness. It is still the same. Gospel victories are gained, not by a great array of human might, but by the treasure of light in earthen vessels, and by the shout of faith that makes appeal to Heaven.
III THE POWER. "That the excellency," etc. This corresponds to the previous expression, "excellency of the knowledge," and both illustrate a Hebraic form of the superlative. The excellency of the power was that surpassing energy which, in St. Paul"s time, attended the ministry of the gospel, and bore down the most formidable opposition. The contrast between the power of the ministry and the weakness of the ministers struck the apostle in thinking of his own early labours at Corinth. (see 1Co_2:1-5) It is a remarkable, and in some respects a mortifying, fact that the modem Christian ministry, with all its advantages of special training, public respect, and perfect protection by law, shows less of conscience convincing and heart compelling power than the primitive ministry did when it was surrounded by difficulty and threatened with death. When it seemed weak, it was strong; and now that it seems strong, it is weak. As some explanation of this, it is only fair to admit that the modern ministry in Christendom has no longer the charm which lies in novelty. It has to be exercised where the terms and facts of our religion are already known, and the Holy Bible is the most widely circulated book. And when it goes to fresh fields, as India, China, or Japan, it has this disadvantage as compared with the apostolic ministry, that in those countries there is no such preparation for the gospel as there was in the countries and cities which were visited by St. Paul. The settlements of Jews, and the very considerable number of proselytes who knew the Old Testament in the Greek Version, and looked for a Messiah, gave an important facility to the Christian preacher, who formed out of them an intelligent nucleus round which to gather his converts from among the heathen; whereas now preachers must go to heathen communities that know not their language, and are wedded to religious conceptions quite different from those in which the missionaries have been trained, and, if there be Christians living among the heathen, holding office or in pursuit of commerce, too often they impede rather than promote the success of the gospel. All this may be recognized, and still it is true that the ministry might and should exert much more spiritual power everywhere than it does. Let prayer be made for this, since the power belongs to God, and only he can enable the ministers of his Word to overcome the dulness of religious routine as well as the hardness of anti-religious prejudice, to sober the frivolous; to abase the proud; to arrest minds that engross themselves with trifles, and recover those that have debased themselves with fleshly vice or avaricious deceit; to wound and to heal; to warn and to win; to kill and to make alive. Oh for power to prevail, to search the breasts of men, to make conscience start and hearts quiver, to reprove sin, to shatter vain excuses, to kindle new resolves and hopes! We cannot do it; but he who supplied all sufficiency to St. Paul can supply it to us, "Our sufficiency is of God. F.
Heavenly treasure in earthen vessels.
was the practice of Eastern kings, who stored up their treasures of gold and silver, to fill jars of earthenware with coin or bullion". (see Jer_32:14) To this custom allusion is made. St. Paul says that in these frail bodies of ours, with their limited faculties and powers, in these "earthen vessels" we have that priceless treasure, the knowledge of the glory of God as a Redeemer. Cecil says, "The meanness of the earthen vessel which conveys to others the gospel treasure takes nothing from the value of the treasure. A dying hand may sign a deed of incalculable value; a shepherd"s boy may point out the way to a philosopher; a beggar may be the bearer of a valuable present." Three points claim attention.
I THE TREASURE. This may be regarded as
(1) a revelation,
(2) as a gospel,
(3) as a life.
In either respect, the personal Christ being the very Centre and Essence of it, he is properly the Treasure. Christ himself is our most sacred Trust. We have the one Saviour for men committed to our care. Then how jealously we should guard the treasure! and how wisely we should put it to use!
II THE NEED FOR THE CONVEYANCE OF THIS TREASURE. For it is not to be stored up in hiding places, but somehow made the treasure of all men. It is a spiritual treasure, and needs some kind of material conveyance. Christ himself must be ministered to men by his disciples.
III THE VESSELS FOUND FOR THE DUE CONVEYANCE OF THE TREASURE. Humbly spoken of as earthly, or as mere earthenware. Enlarging upon them beyond St. Paul"s immediate thought in the use of the term, we may show
(1) their frailty;
(2) their fitness, especially in that they do not take away the honour that is due to the treasure by directing attention to themselves;
(3) their safety, since God, who guards the treasure, will guard the vessel that holds it;
(4) their usefulness, as the human agency commends the heavenly truth; and
(5) their reward, for God will surely commend those who, in such a trust, are found faithful. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
2Co_4:7
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
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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.)
.
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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v7 Chapter 12
Chapter 12
THE VICTORY OF FAITH.- 2Co_4:7-18 (R.V)
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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 (απορουμενοι, αλλ ουκ εξαπορουμενοι) 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 (θανατος) but his dying (νεκρωσις, 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, την νεκρωσιν του Ιησου, 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 ουκ εγκακουμεν 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 ουκ εγκακουμεν ("we faint not"). The same word (ανακαινουσθαι) 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."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10, 11, 12 7–9. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. The…
7–9. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. The treasure of the knowledge of Christ and of the ministry of the gospel of life. Perhaps his enemies pointed to his sorrows as a proof that he was not so favored as a minister of Christ. A splendid treasure was placed in a fragile, cheap earthen vessel. Then it was manifest that the great work wrought was the power of God, not of us, the apostles and evangelists.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v7 2Co_4:8.—“Pressed for room, and still having room” (Stanley). “Perplexed,…
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).
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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 believe”—emphatic, i.e. I do believe, I have been taught trust in God by painful experience—“for I must speak”—I 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 Paul’s 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 Christ’s 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 Christ’s 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 αἰώνιος. I cannot, on philological grounds, agree with Mr. Maurice in thinking that our Lord’s 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 Paul’s life. “Troubled,” “perplexed,” “persecuted,” “cast down,” to a reader’s 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 Poppæa, 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” one’s feet, off one’s 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 God’s 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 illicitœ 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 Origins—Genesis—he 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 lax—“worldly”—section 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 man’s own life. If a man will live for himself, introverting upon himself all thought and action—“will save his life” for himself—he 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. Christ’s death the highest exemplification of this, though it is unique quâ 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 Paul’s 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 Paul’s life is the very opposite of self-centered; Christward—“to me to live is ‘Christ’ ”; manward—“all 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 price—by him thankfully paid—for their daily “life.” (To extend Alford’s 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 us—seeing that for Christ’s sake and for your sakes we die daily—but 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 filled—earthen vessels though they be—with 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,” faith’s 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 God’s “just man live by faith.” In every age, in every believer, faith’s 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 life’s 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 Spirit’s 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 man’s 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 God’s Spirit. Whatever “grieves the Spirit” weakens faith.
(2) The immediate object of Paul’s 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 Paul’s 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 premiss—Christ’s resurrection—as fact; faith draws the inference, with its own sure logic; and accepts, and rests in the consequence—Paul 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 certainties—“I 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 foes—men and circumstances—are 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 Despair’s 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, Antæus-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 pæan 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 life’s 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 life’s 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 man’s 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 world’s moral and social life a tinge and a direction, as they please. But the religious teacher ought to be, might be—every faithful one is—one 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 man’s intellect,” by all means. Religion has nothing to fear—revealed doctrine has nothing to fear—from 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” may—perhaps the better for its poverty—have reached a conscience. Let the hearer ask for a preacher who is mighty with the conscience.
2. “Every man’s 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 Truth—that which humanity wanted to raise it from its fallen state—the 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 preacher—every thoughful man will—have 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 influence—good 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 hearer’s 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 Christ”—mark that, no other, no less, than Christ—“died,” “lost.” Now in the process of being lost,—such is the force of Paul’s 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 moment—it came at Pentecost—when 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 life—to some extent even Jewish life—was spent under the overspreading “shadow of death.” A terror and a bondage (Heb_2:15) to thought and heart. In the Gospel of Christ—of the dying and risen Christ—the meaning of death, and the certainty of a life beyond death, and the hope of blessedness in that life—all 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 men’s 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 man’s 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 God’s 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 God—the 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 pœna 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 within—“the glory of God”—permeates, 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 man’s 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 God’s 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 God’s light, penetrating the mind that is allied to Him.” The heart’s 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 arm’s 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 life’s 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 world’s 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 master’s 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 “exhorter”—in Primitive Methodist terminology—is 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 mental—and to some extent of moral—characteristics. 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 human—vessel. 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 Paul’s 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, Gamaliel’s 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 Paul’s 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 God’s 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 Paul’s 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 man’s 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 shadow—rather broad, perhaps, but only a bar—thrown 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 Paul’s 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 body’s “death.” Sickness, a “thorn in the flesh,” hunger, wounds, weariness, all in the broadest sense are forms of death. They hasten—they are—the 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 man’s 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 day’s 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 day’s drift nearer home.” The very day’s 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 heaven—the place—would 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 author’s 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 writer’s 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 Paul’s faith is that, though he is the maker and writer of his life’s 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” incidents—not in spite of, or merely in the midst of them—He 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 God’s power is displayed.
II. In their affliction God’s 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.—Paul’s [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.]
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v7 2Co 4:7-15.
THE HUMILIATION OF THE GOSPEL
2Co 4:7-15.
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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 world’s 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 Nero’s 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 elder’s 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 Lord’s 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 devil’s neck.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv7–12 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that…
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];
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv10–11 Lit. putting to death, i.e. crucifixion. 11 1Co 15:31.
dying
Lit. putting to death, i.e. crucifixion. 11 1Co 15:31.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v7 Paul’s bodily weakness:
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.
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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.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 11 But we have
But we have
Here the word "we" refers to Paul and his coworkers, but not to the Corinthians. (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We")
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we have this treasure in jars of clay
Paul speaks of the gospel as if it were a treasure and their bodies as if they were breakable jars made out of clay. This emphasizes that they are of little value compared to the worth of the gospel that they preach. (See: Metaphor)
so that it is clear
"so that it is clear to people" or "so that people clearly know"
We are afflicted in every way
This can be stated in active form. AT: "People afflict us in every way" (See: Active or Passive)
We are persecuted but not forsaken
This can be stated in active form. AT: "People persecute us but God does not forsake us" (See: Active or Passive)
We are struck down but not destroyed
This can be stated in active form. AT: "People strike us down but do not destroy us" (See: Active or Passive)
We are struck down
"We are hurt badly"
We always carry in our body the death of Jesus
Paul speaks of his sufferings as if they are an experience of the death of Jesus. AT: "We are often in danger of dying, as Jesus died" or "We always suffer in such a way that we experience the death of Jesus" (See: Metaphor)
the life of Jesus also may be shown in our bodies
Possible meanings are 1) "our bodies will live again, because Jesus is alive" or 2) "the spiritual life that Jesus gives also may be shown in our bodies."
the life of Jesus also may be shown in our bodies
This can be stated in active form. AT: "other people may see the life of Jesus in our bodies" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
power
afflicted
persecute
forsake
die
life
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 11, 12 4:7 The message of good news is like great…
4:7 The message of good news is like great treasure, but it is housed in fragile clay jars—our weak bodies. This insight gives purpose to suffering (4:8–5:10).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.