2 Corinthians 4

2 Corinthians 4:1

What is it then, brethren? What course should be pursued in the public assemblies of the church? When ye are come together, each one of you hath, etc. When they come together, one comes purposing to sing “a psalm”; another to teach concerning “a doctrine”; another, a prophet, has “a revelation” to present; another proposes to speak in “a language”; another, offers “an interpretation” of what is spoken. Now this must all be done to edification. All that will not tend to this must be left out.

2 Corinthians 4:2

If any man speak in an [unknown] language. He must speak by two, or at the most three, two, or at the most three sentences by course, in succession. Most commentators refer “two” or “three” to persons speaking. I follow Macknight. See PNT 1 Corinthians 14:29. And let one interpret. And another, who has the gift of interpretation, must interpret. See 1 Corinthians 12:10.

2 Corinthians 4:3

But if there be no interpreter. In that case the rule, “Let all things be done to edifying” (1 Corinthians 14:26), will force the speaker in tongues to keep silence in the church. He may speak somewhere else, or in his soul, but not in the assembly of the saints.

2 Corinthians 4:4

Let the prophets speak two or three. Let two or three prophets speak at a meeting. In the Greek, “two or three” are in the nominative. In 1 Corinthians 14:27, in which speaking with tongues is treated, the numerals are in the accusative case with a preposition. Hence there, with Macknight, I have referred to them to the sentences spoken. If the persons speaking were meant in 1 Corinthians 14:27, the construction would be as in this verse. Let the others judge. Let them discern whether they speak by inspiration.

2 Corinthians 4:5

If [any thing] be revealed. If the prophetic impulse comes upon a hearer, let the first hold his peace. Let the first desist. Let only one speak at a time.

2 Corinthians 4:6

For ye all may prophesy. All who have the prophetic gift, but it must be one by one, not more than one speaking at a time.

2 Corinthians 4:7

The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. A prophet can wait his turn in silence; he is not compelled to speak at once, for his spirit is subject to him. He can be silent if he wills it.

2 Corinthians 4:8

For God is not [the author] of confusion. Such confusion as more than one speaking at a time is not of God. But of peace. God demands peace and order “in all the churches of the saints”.

2 Corinthians 4:9

Let your woman keep silence in the churches. This, in view of other portions of the Scriptures, is confessedly a difficult passage. We have the same teaching in 1 Timothy 2:11,12. On the other hand, Deborah was a judge and a prophetess (Jude 4:4); Huldah was a prophetess (1 Kings 22:14); Joel predicted that in the Christian dispensation “the sons and ‘daughters’ should prophesy” (Joe 2:28), and Peter declared that this was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4). In addition, the daughters of Philip prophesied (Acts 21:9), and Paul gives directions concerning women prophesying in 1 Corinthians 11:5. Probably these apparent discrepancies may be reconciled as follows: (1) Paul’s prohibition of speaking to the women is “in the churches”; that is, in the church assemblies when “the whole church is come together into one place” (1 Corinthians 14:23).

It is an official meeting of the church. “Church” in the New Testament always means the “ecclesia”. It does not apply to such informal meetings as the social or prayer-meetings, but to formal gatherings of the whole body. (2) It may be that even this prohibition was due to the circumstances that existed in Ephesus, where Timothy was, and in Corinth, and would not apply everywhere. If so, it applies wherever similar circumstances exist, but not elsewhere. Both were Greek churches. Among the Greeks public women were disreputable. For a woman to speak in public would cause the remark that she was shameless.

Virtuous women were secluded. Hence it would be “a shame for women to speak in the church” assembly. It is noteworthy that there is no hint of such a prohibition to any churches except Grecian. Wherever it would be shameful, women ought not to speak.

2 Corinthians 4:11

What? came the word of God out from you? A rebuke. The Corinthian church must receive instruction, not give it. It did not send out the word of God, but the word of God was sent to it.

2 Corinthians 4:12

If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual. If any one thinks he is inspired, or has spiritual gifts, let him acknowledge . . . the commandments of the Lord. One proof of it is that he recognizes what I write as the Lord’s commandment. This is always a test. Whoever insists that he has the spirit, and sets aside the New Testament commands is self-convicted.

2 Corinthians 4:13

If any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant. If he will be ignorant and obstinate, let him remain so.

2 Corinthians 4:14

Wherefore brethren, covet to prophesy. The apostle concludes this section of church order by again commending prophecy as the chief gift, and enjoining order in the church exercises.

2 Corinthians 4:17

The Resurrection from the Dead SUMMARY OF I CORINTHIANS 15: The Essential Facts of the Gospel. The Resurrection of Christ a Central Fact. The Witnesses of the Resurrection. Those at Corinth Who Denied the Resurrection. The Apostles Then False Witnesses. Our Faith Vain. Death in Adam, but Life in Christ. The Resurrection Body. The Victory Over Death. Moreover. This chapter is devoted to the resurrection from the dead. Among the various false doctrines which had crept into the church at Corinth, composed of those who had so recently been heathen, and who had so much to unlearn, was one that the resurrection of the soul from sin to a new life; that this resurrection was already past in the case of those converted (2 Timothy 2:18), and that a resurrection after death was impossible. The doctrine of the resurrection was absurd, according to the Grecian ideas (Acts 17:32), and “some” were infusing this kind of skepticism into the church at Corinth. It is likely that the letter of the church (1 Corinthians 7:1) asked some questions which called out this remarkable chapter. The epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, written about the beginning of the second century, refers to these freethinkers. I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you. He states the fundamentals of that gospel as the basis of the argument he is about to make. That gospel was common ground, for they received it and still professed it.

2 Corinthians 4:18

By which also ye are saved. Are in a saved state unless you have forgotten the gospel preached and departed from it; that is, unless ye have believed in vain, which he shows would be the case if there was no resurrection. Observe the tact with which he first presents facts conceded by all the disciples, and upon these builds an impregnable argument. He next states those facts.