2 Corinthians 4

Chap. IV. Ver. 11—18. The sincerity, trials, and triumphs of Paul and his brethren.—Having, in the preceding chapter, stated the superior excellence of the gospel above the law, St Paul here states the encouragement which he and his brethren derived therefrom in its promulgation. Having thereby obtained mercy themselves, they were anxious, at all risks, to preach it for the salvation of others, and determined to do it with the greatest simplicity and integrity. If, indeed, their gospel was hidden beneath a veil, it should we be by any artifice of theirs. They would not leave it concealed under the veil of Mosaic types and ceremonies, to which the Judaizing teachers were prone to return, nor would they veil it with the false philosophy of the Greeks or Asiatics; neither would they adulterate or debase it by any dishonest arts, such as vintners of those times (as well as of our own) were known to practise.

If the gospel they preached was veiled, it was veiled only to those who are perishing through their own obstinacy and unbelief: whose minds Satan, “the god of this world,” hath blinded, ‘lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine upon them.” — Here observe—‘ 1. That God and Satan are placed in contrast: the latter darkens the understanding by his influences, whence the Jews call him Samael, the god who blinds; but the true God, on the contrary, illuminates the understandings of men by the grace of his Holy Spirit. [He is light, and in him is no darkness.] 2. That this work of illumination in the mind is compared to the first creation of ‘light out of darkness,’ as being wrought in the same sovereign, efficacious, and instantaneous manner.”—(Hist.

Def.) When Satan is, however, called the “god of this world,” we must not understand it as conferring upon him any title of honour, any more than our Lord’s calling him “the prince of this world,” ((John 12:31),) conferred on him a rightful dominion. As a prince he is a usurper, and as a deity an idol: he is a prince without right, and a god without divinity. When the apostle says, ‘‘We preach not ourselves,” the declaration may be fairly understood to imply that they sought neither to gratify their vanity, nor promote their secular interest, nor to raise a religious party; by all which motives, it is to be feared, the Judaizing teachers who opposed him were more or less influenced. The apostles preached not to advance their fame, their interest, or their authority; but as the faithful servants of Christ, solely to promote the glory of their Master and the salvation of mankind.

‘For our parts, (as if he had said,) we are but frail and earthen vessels, of little value and of less strength; yet, worthless as we are, to us is committed the invaluable treasure of the gospel; and we, therefore, in the midst (though continually exposed to death) of dangers and of enemies, are preserved that we may be to you the means and instruments of eternal life and salvation.” The apostle then states what it was that supported him and his colleagues under all their trials—it was iodine from things temporal to things eternal; and weighing against their present momentary afflictions, a vast, accumulating, and eternal weight of glory. ————“From dreams on earth we move, And wake through death to endless life above.”"—Parnell

Notes on the verses

Chap. IV. Ver. 2. Renowneed.—Macknight, “commanded away;” perhaps ‘denounced’? would be the most exact rendering. Ver. 8. If our gospel be hid, it is hid.—Doddridge, Macknight, &c., “If veiled, it is veiled.” Compare (2 Corinthians 3:13-16), Ver. 4. The image of God.—See (Hebrews 1:3). Ver. 7. In earthen vessels.—In us frail creatures, continually exposed to be crushed and broken. The original (osfragkinois) seems by its derivation to refer to the shells of fishes, some of which, while they are extremely frail, inclose treasures of great value; as the shell of the porphyry, from which fish was extracted the famous Tyrian dye— May be of God.—Doddridge, “appear to be of God.” Ver. 8. Troubled on every side, yet not distressed.—We conceive, “Pressed on every side, but not crushed,”

would be more literal and expressive. Hammond and Macknight think it refers to the wrestlers in the public games, who sometimes so griped their adversaries, as to deprive them of the power of resistance. Ver 9. Cast down, but not destroyed.—Another allusion, perhaps, to wrestlers, who might be “thrown down, when not killed,” nor “‘disabled.” Ver. 10. The dying—That is, marks of sufferings analogous to his. See (2 Corinthians 1:5-6); and compare these verses with 1 Epis. (2 Corinthians 4:11-13). Ver. 12. Death worketh in us, &c.—i.e. “we are dying daily that you may live.”; Ver. 14. Knowing that, &c.—That is, we regard not the sufferings of our bodies, however fatal, since we know that, if killed, our bodies shall be raised again at the last day.

See 1 Epist. xv. 19, &c.: Ver. 17. light affliction.—(Matthew 11:30). the same epithet, “light,” is applied by our Lord to the yoke and burden which he lays on us. It may be lasting suffering—but both are light, extremely so, compared with the reward.— 4 far more, &c.—Upon this passage the eloquent Chrysostom remarks, that the apostle here “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, hyperbole upon hyperbole, (so the Greek, that is, ‘a greatness excessively exceeding.’ ”—— Weight of glory.—This is a Hebrew idiom: the same word which in that language signifies weight, signifies also glory.

Ver. 18. While we look.—"* The word, skopein, (says Macknight,) properly signifies to look at a mark which we intend to hit”—to aim—so Doddridge.