Bible Commentaries
2 Corinthians 4

Verses 1-15

XXVIII

THE GOSPEL MINISTRY AND THE GLORY THAT IS TO COME

2 Corinthians 4:1-5:15.

This discussion commences with 2 Corinthians 4, and I will call attention only to points of special interest as we pass along in the exposition. We made a point in the preceding chapter that when the Jew read the Old Testament he read it with a veil over his eyes. In this chapter Paul anticipates this objection. "Is not the gospel itself veiled to some, as well as the law?" Here is his reply, 2 Corinthians 4:3: "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." His reply is that the gospel is veiled only for a certain class of people – them that perish.

The reason it is veiled in that case is that the devil has blinded their eyes that they cannot see. The veil is on the eye, and not on the gospel. That is a very important matter. If at night we should point to a lamp in a room and ask a bystander, "Do you see that light?" and he were to say, "No"; if we take him out of doors and show him the Milky Way, and the stars, and ask, "Do you see those lights up yonder?" "No"; or if we should show him the moon and say, "Do you see that light?" "No"; or wait until morning and point out the sun rising in the east, and say, "Do you see the light of that sun?" "No"; what would that prove to us? That the man was blind! If he were not a blind man he could see the light. In that case those lights were not hid, but were shining in all their brightness. The trouble was with the beholder, who had no eyes to see. Preachers oftentimes wonder that the unconverted cannot see how very plain the gospel of Jesus Christ is. They look at the people and talk contrition: "Do you see that light?" "No." They talk about repentance and explain it: "Do you see that?" "No," They talk about faith in Jesus Christ and ask, "Do you see that?" "No, I don’t understand it." Whenever a case of that kind occurs the fault is in the vision of the one addressed. The truth is that the devil has blinded his inner spiritual eyes that he may not see and be converted.

Paul says that his commission was to the Gentiles, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. There is a spiritual blindness. Our Saviour referred repeatedly in his preaching to people having eyes to see and seeing not, and having ears to hear and hearing not. That is one thing we must always take into account – the power of Satan to blind people so that they cannot see. Suppose I shut my left eye, and hold a dollar over my right eye and look up – can I see anything? The light is shining, but there is an object between me and the light, and it does not take a very big piece of money to hide the spiritual light from some people; a quarter of a dollar will sometimes do it. As a quarter laid on a dead man’s eye keeps his eye closed, so the love of money shuts out everything else in the world from the vision. That is his reply to the objections about the gospel being veiled.

Look now at his comparison between conversion and the creation of light in Genesis 1. It is there said that the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and God said, Let there be light. And there was light. Paul says, "Seeing it is God that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." As the brooding of the Holy Spirit over the chaos of original matter brought out light, so in the spiritual world the unconverted man is in a chaotic state, everything mixed, darkness on the deep of his mind, and the first sign of regeneration to him is light. "Whatsoever maketh manifest is light."

I may be standing by a man perfectly satisfied with himself. "Not a wave of trouble rolls across his peaceful breast." He has committed a great many sins, but has no spiritual realization of his state. I may keep preaching to that man, and presenting one truth after another, and whatsoever that will make manifest to him that he is a sinner, that is light. After a while I may present a thought, and as if a lamp had been lighted and carried down into his heart, the secret things of his inmost soul are revealed to him. As that light shines down there, he sees himself a sinner against God. Paul in the first letter gives a description of it, 1 Corinthians 14:24: "If all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all; the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so he will fall down on his face and worship God." When a man is in a cellar he may think that he is as clean as an angel, but bring him up out of that dark pit into daylight and he will see the smut, coal dust, and dirty hands. The light does not create those spots but simply manifests them. Paul says, "I was alive without the law once, that is, I felt myself all right. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. As soon as the light shone into my heart, and I saw myself a lost sinner in the sight of God, dead in trespasses and sins, I died." That is a very impressive biblical illustration.

Take 1 Corinthians 4:7: He is talking about his ministry – indeed all this is about Paul’s ministry – the chapter commencing: "Therefore seeing we have this ministry." Here he says that they had this gospel treasure in earthen vessels, that the power might be shown to be of God, not of the man vessel, or earthen vessel. What a theme for a sermon I Paul and Barnabas quarreled – both great preachers and good men – earthen vessels. We see a preacher who seems to be a great power in leading souls to Christ. When we get close to him and he is off his guard, we detect frailties and infirmities. We are disillusioned. A preacher sometimes wonders why a gospel so pure, intended to bring about purity, to fit one for heaven, should have been placed in the hands of such frail beings for administration. Why not have placed it in the hands of spotless beings? Why not have made the angels preachers? Paul says one reason is that when a man is converted God wants it to be known that the greatness of the power of conversion did not lie in the messenger that brought the message. The messenger was an earthen vessel, but the message was divine. He goes on to illustrate this earthen vessel, and answers another question: How is it, then, if the vessel be earthy – if the preacher be a man of such infirmity and frailty – that he can go on and be a successful preacher? He responds to that this way: "We are pressed on every side, yet not straightened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken ; smitten down, yet not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. . . . So then death worketh in us, but life in you." His explanation is that the omnipotent power of God sustains this messenger of light, though he be frail, perplexed, pursued, cast down. "The bruised reed he will not break and the smoking wick he will not quench until he hath brought forth judgment unto victory." This is a great consolation.

In 1 Corinthians 4:16 we reach our next thought. If the preacher that preaches this glorious gospel of God is himself earthly and frail, why does not the thought of this mortality utterly crush him? Here is his explanation: "Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For 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."

The part of the preacher that is earthy, breaking down all the time, is the outward man. The inward man does not break down; he is renewed day by day, and lives the life of Christ who lives in him, and while he is conscious that the human side of him is mortal, and constantly crumbling, that does not discourage him.

Nothing of that kind can discourage him, because he is not looking at the temporal things, but he is looking at the invisible and eternal things.

He then comes to the climax of death. A preacher, though he be as great as Paul, may die at any time. What about that? He commences the next chapter with his answer: "For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands," but God will give a heavenly home for the soul. Finally, Jesus will come and raise and glorify the body in the grave, and this glorified body will never die. He carries that thought about with him all the time. It is one of the sweetest thoughts to me in all the Bible.

When this outward man perishes, and the soul tenant has been evicted by death, or when the approach of death has chilled his feet and hands and crept up to his body, chilled his vitals, stopped his breath and the pulsations of his heart, and he is dead) there is no stop to the inward man. And this outward man that perished will be raised from the dead and glorified.

But we come to a more important thought than that – the resurrection is a long way off. Now, if the enemies of the gospel kill Paul, as they did kill him nearly 1900 years ago, what about him from then till now? Here is his answer to that (1 Corinthians 4:6): "Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight); we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord."

When the body perishes, when the man’s work is ended, without a break in the continuity of his being, instantly upon his death, his soul is where Jesus is.

Right here I have a controversy with the "middle-life" brethren. They say that the soul of a Christian does not go directly to heaven, but lodges somewhere in a halfway house; that here it is under guard and safe keeping, and must wait until the judgment day. I frankly confess that that would not comfort me much, but if I know that at the very moment I am absent from the body I am present with the Lord, that is comfort. The question is, Where is the Lord? We know that he ascended into heaven, and we know that he ascended soul and body, and we know that he is sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Certainly, after the resurrection of his body the Lord Jesus Christ did not lodge anywhere: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Stephen says, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of the Majesty on high."

Is Jesus lodged halfway between here and heaven? Paul says, "The very minute I die I am present with the Lord and that is the reason I am not discouraged." It is not only a beautiful thought but an intensely practical thought. I wish that all of my religion was as strong as my faith in the resurrection of the body. There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind about either of those two points.

When I was a teacher and had just commenced preaching, a beautiful girl I used to know when we were in school together, a very gifted girl, and a particular friend of mine whom I thought to be the genius of the school, married a worthless man (as it proved), the son of a very wealthy man, very handsome, though he proved to be a great rascal, who broke her heart and abandoned her. I did not know what had become of her, and one evening there came a note from her saying, "Dear friend: It has been a long time since I saw you. I want to see you once more before I die. Come to see me tonight if you want to see me one time before the judgment." I went to the house and she was propped up in bed, dying. She said, "I did not send for you to lead me to Christ, or to teach me how to die. I know that. I have been a great sufferer, much of it in body, but the most of it has been spiritual suffering. You have some idea, but you cannot have a full idea of the darkness that has clouded my life. You remember how bright my prospects were when we were at school. This is my last night on earth. I go out forever tonight. I want you to get somebody who believes as we do about the future life to come and sing to me of heaven." So I gathered a few members of the church and we sang, O, sing to me of heaven, When I am called to die, Sing songs of holy ecstasy, To waft my soul on high.

As we sang you could see the play of light on her face, and when we got through she took up the last verse, and in a very faint, sweet voice, sang that verse, and it ended in a whisper, and that whisper was her last breath. She understood just what Paul means in our text, "When I am absent from the body I am present with the Lord."

Whoever does not believe that, cannot be a happy Christian. If the preacher believes it with all his heart and soul, he can comfort people, even though the treasure they have is in an earthen vessel – a poor frail old vessel – full of aches and pains subject to sickness and death.

The next thought is in 1 Corinthians 4:9: "Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing unto him." In other words, "Whether in the body or out of the body, I want him to see that I am trying to do what he told me to do, trying to’ live as he told me to live, and if he looks at me out of the body, I want him to see that I am coming right up to him."

His track I see and I’ll pursue

The narrow way till Him I view

He tells us the reason why that is an ever present thought with him. "For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Then if we ask Paul, "Why do you all the time seek to be well pleasing to God?" he answers, "Because I know that at the judgment seat of Christ there will be a perfect revelation of my whole life." The same thought is presented in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, where he tells about the work that a man does: "If any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire." If a man is a Christian, on the foundation of Jesus Christ, he will be saved. But salvation is not everything.

We see two ships coming into a harbor from distant ports. As one comes in sight we see that every mast is broken and every shroud torn, its cargo lost, it has sprung a leak, and a harbor tug must tow it in. It just barely gets into port. The other ship comes in with every mast standing, with every sail filled, cargoed to the water’s edge, meeting the shout of men and boom of artillery from the shore. That is the difference in dying Christians. Some have no reward. Others have great reward on account of their fidelity. When they believed in Christ, they were justified. That does not have to be done over. But a Christian’s fidelity will be judged by what a man does.

2 Corinthians 5:11 contains another thought: "Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men." That accounts for his earnestness in addressing either Christian or sinners. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, and, as Peter says, "The time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God: ... And if the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?"

He now explains another thing (2 Corinthians 5:13): "For whether we are beside ourselves, it is unto God; or whether we are of sober mind, it is unto you. For the love of Christ constraineth us." Some of his enemies had accused him of being a crazy man, saying that a man who would talk about hell-fire and judgment and all that stuff, must be seeing visions. Now he replies: "If I am beside myself, it is unto God." As he said on another occasion. "I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but speak forth words of truth and soberness." Here it is: "The love of Christ constrains me and impels me into this zeal which you object to."

The brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ objected to his zeal, and went one day to arrest him as one would arrest a lunatic, because he worked without stopping to eat. Whenever you see an earnest Christian who does not count his life dear unto him, who puts the salvation of men above all bodily ease, lets it triumph over all thought of time, and bestirs himself in the might and power of the commission of God given unto him, a great many worldly-minded people will say, "He is a crank. We want a preacher who doesn’t get excited and who is too polite to say ’hell.’ Let him say ’hades,’ and not talk about eternal punishment."

2 Corinthians 5:15 leads us to another thought: "He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who, for their sakes, died and rose again." I have heard at least twenty-five sermons preached on that, in which it was expounded in this way: "No man liveth unto himself, other people are interested in him and he must live with reference to other people." That is not the thought, but that we must live unto Christ, not for earthly pleasure or glory, but for Christ who purchased us, must we live. Some may say, "I will not go to my appointment today because it is raining and I might get wet." But another will say, "I am not living for myself, but for Christ. I am going to that place today if I have to swim a creek."

It is the creek-swimming men that shake the world – the brier-cutting men who will not allow obstacles to keep them from doing what God wants them to do.

Let a congregation get the idea of their pastor that he is a pink of perfection, can beat anybody in town tying a cravat, and wears the nicest little shoes, knows how to fasten a nosegay in his vest, and how to enter a room and entertain company; carries an umbrella so as not to burn his delicate skin, then what will be his power to awaken and save the lost? An umbrella is all right in its place, but what I want to impress is this – that a stalwart man, a real man, will accomplish more of the great things in the work than all of these little fellows. He will not stop to consider a thousand things that absorb the mind of the trivial man, but will go right straightforward to the accomplishment of his great purpose. I have heard these dainty essayists preach. I have gone to their churches hungry and tried to get something – and failed.

It reminds me of the story of a preacher who tells this of himself: During the war he went to a house to get some supper. Army rations were poor, and he was very hungry. They had just a little butter and they all wanted to make it go as far as possible, so each one tried to hurry through in order to get another chance at the butter before it disappeared. He said that he could not get rid of the butter in his plate. He even tried to sop it up with his bread, but it did not have any taste to it. At last he looked up and saw through a knot-hole in the roof over his head that the moon was shining down through into his plate, and that all the time he had been sopping moonshine.

QUESTIONS

1. Is the gospel, as well as the law, veiled to some people, and what is the reply of Paul to this objection?

2. What is the reason for their blindness does Paul give, and how does the author illustrate it?

3. How does Paul show from his commission, the spiritual blindness of the lost man, and what the teaching of Jesus on the same point?

4. Give clearly Paul’s comparison between conversion and the creation of light.

5. How is a man led to see himself a sinner, and how may a church convict a sinner, as described in 1 Corinthians 14? Illustrate.

6. How does Paul here show the weakness and imperfection of preachers, and what reason does he assign for the Lord’s commissioning men instead of angels to preach?

7. What Paul’s reply to the question, "If the preacher is so frail, how can he be successful"?

8. Why does not this thought of mortality utterly crush the preacher?

9. How does Paul answer the objection that the preacher may die at any time?

10. What about Paul from his death until now, what the "middle life" theory, and how does the author refute the claim?

11. How does the author illustrate from his own experience his faith in the realities of heaven and the resurrection?

12. In view of this doctrine, what was Paul’s great aim in life, what reason does he assign for it, and where do we find the parallel thought expressed by Paul? State and illustrate.

13. How do we account for Paul’s earnestness from 2 Corinthians 5:11, and what parallel thought expressed by Peter?

14. How does Paul answer the charge that he was crazy, what other similar accusation against him cited, and what his reply? What the meaning of the first clause of 2 Corinthians 5:14, and what the practical application of all this to present day preaching?

15. What is the meaning and application of 2 Corinthians 5:15? Illustrate.