Bible Commentaries
2 Corinthians 4

Verses 1-18

IV 1-6 The Openness of True Apostles and the Shiftiness of False Ones —The passage is suggested by the recent verses, but turns definitely to the doings of his enemies at Corinth. (1 ) ’Mercy’ probably means both his conversion and his call to the apostleship. ’Faint not’: ’Remain undaunted’.

2. A protest against the underhand methods of the False Apostles. ’Hidden’, etc.: ’All shameful subterfuges’. ’Conscience’: i.e. he is not content to captivate the ear or the emotions.

3. ’But if our gospel is hidden’,i.e. if it does remain obscure or meaningless to anybody. It was, and is, impossible so to present Christian truth that it carries conviction to everybody. What impedes the act of faith is often some affection to sin, as he explains in

4. The verse may be an answer to some complaint or slander. 4. ’The god’, etc.—Satan, whom our Lord calls ’the prince of this world’ (John 16:11). The power which he wields is usurped but real; worldly men do choose him as their god. ’The minds of unbelievers’ practically means: ’He (Satan) has blinded their minds so as to prevent them from believing’. 5-6. The apostle’s greatness comes from God, not from himself.

5. ’Preach not ourselves’: his message is not something he has invented, and he does not preach it to gain power or applause for himself.

6. The revelation Which had burst upon him on the Damascus road was as much God’s act as the first creation of light. ’The face of Christ’: it was no vision, but his bodily presence, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:8.

7-15 Divine Power and Its Weak Instruments —A more forcible re-statement of that paradox with which the epistle began (1:3-11).

7. ’We’: the apostles. ’Treasure’: the light of the Gospel, and also no doubt the apostolic grace. These gifts are entrusted to men who have no great learning or polish or impressive appearance, like gold hidden in an earthenware jar, not displayed as an ornament. The jar denotes not only the apostle’s body but his whole human equipment. ’Excellency’: ’pre-eminence, distinction’. ’May be’, etc., i.e. that everybody, especially the apostle himself, may see that his eloquence, miracles, success, etc., are due to the Divine power in him, not to himself.

8. ’We are oppressed but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair’.

9. ’Cast down’: ’Struck to the earth’, like men on a battlefield. In their agonizing trials they are spared nothing except defeat.

10. ’Mortification’: ’execution, death’. The Crucifixion is reproduced in the apostles, and their suffering, borne for Christ’s sake, is merged in his. ’Saul, why persecutest thou me?’ ’Life’ means in the first place the marvellous grace of apostleship. This sentence shows that their sufferings were actually a means towards their work. Perhaps there is also a glance forward towards final glory, as in 14. 11. A restatement of 10. ’Delivered unto death’: ’we are at death’s door’, from whatever cause (prosecution, plots, riots, sickness, etc.). ’Mortal flesh’, i.e. even in this world they become superhuman agents.

12. Sums up the last four verses.

13-15. These verses form a bridge to the next subject, Apostolic Confidence.

13. ’Having that spirit of faith which is expressed by the words of Scripture’: ’I believed’, etc. ’Spirit of faith’: divine inspiration to believe, God-given faith. ’I believed’, etc.: quoted from Psalms 115:1 (116), in LXX.

14. Faith and hope (confidence) go together and they will not allow him to be silent. ’Place us’: ’Present us (alive before him) and you also’.

15. Evervthing (my preaching and suffering) is for your sakes’. Or perhaps: ’I would do anything for you’: almost the same words come in 12:19. ’That the grace’, etc., i.e. that God’s grace may be spread wider by being received into more souls, and may thereby multiply the words of thanksgiving which rise to God’s glory, cf. 1:11.

IV 16-V 10 The Apostle’s Confidence —St Paul gives the deepest reasons which nerve an apostle to unceasing effort: the firm hope of a glorious life with God, and the thought of the account he must give for the extraordinary gifts bestowed on him. There are few finer passages in his writings. The impressive preface in the Mass for the Dead is based on it. On the same subject cf.1 Corinthians 15:47-58; Romans 8:11-23.16. ’We faint not’: he goes back to the thought and words of 4:1. ’Though’, etc.: ’Though our outward self (the body) is wearing out, yet the inward self (the soul, transformed by grace) gains new strength daily’.17. ’Our temporary and light tribulation wins for us’, etc. It is made ’light’ by faith and hope—viewed by ordinary standards it is a ’death’ (12). ’Weight ’of glory’. He compares eternal life to a mass of treasure, as our Lord often did, Matthew 6:20; Matthew 13:44, etc.