2 Corinthians 4

2 Corinthians 4:1

Since therefore this dispensation of the gospel, which is so glorious in itself, and so efficacious and transforming in the hearts of true believers, is committed to me and my fellow labourers, we are animated, by the grace of God bestowed on us and his mercy towards us, amidst all our weakness, tribulation, and reproach, to discharge our important trust without despondence, cowardice, or shrinking

2 Corinthians 4:2

And, notwithstanding manifold temptations, we have, with abhorrence, kept at the remotest distance from all secret and dishonourable artifices and contrivances, and all overreaching and ensnaring the souls of men by sly, subtle, and false, pretences; and all attempts to corrupt or falsify the word of God, or to accommodate it to the depraved taste of our hearers; and have endeavoured to preach the gospel, and nothing else, with the greatest simplicity and upright freedom, answerably to every one’s case and conscience, as in the sight of that all-seeing and heart-searching God, to whom we must at last give an account of our conduct

2 Corinthians 4:3

But if, notwithstanding our plain and faithful publication of the gospel, any of our hearers still remain ignorant of its attracting glory and saving power, it is merely because, by their wilful obstinacy and unbelief, they continue in their natural, lost, and perishing, estate, in which, if they persist, they must be inevitably undone for ever

2 Corinthians 4:4

And because the devil, whom the idolatrous Gentiles worship, and carnal men every where serve and obey, has, by the malignant influence of his allurements, terrors, and delusive suggestions, increased and confirmed the natural blindness and stupidity of their minds, and led them into wrong notions concerning the things of God and their eternal interests, that so the bright discoveries of the glory of Christ, who, as the Son of God, is the express image of his Father’s person, and, as Mediator God-man, is the representative image of God, in which all his perfections appear harmoniously exalted and illustriously displayed, may not, by this gospel, penetrate through their natural ignorance and error, enlighten their hearts, and dispose them to abandon the slavery of Satan, and receive Jesus Christ by faith

2 Corinthians 4:5

For, in preaching the gospel, we do not conceal the glory of it, by attempting to promote our own honour or interests, authority or inventions, passions or prejudices, but labour plainly to exhibit the person, offices, relations, righteousness, grace, and government, of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of lost sinners and Lord of all, and to represent ourselves as no more than servants, who are called by him to consider your weakness, wants, temptations, and dangers, and to labour by all means to promote your spiritual and eternal welfare, to the praise of the glory of his grace

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, who in the creation of the world did, by his own powerful and efficacious word, cause light to shine out of the dark chaos, has graciously enlightened the minds of us apostles and ministers, and even ordinary believers, with discoveries of his own being, perfections, purposes, and will, relative to our eternal salvation, as they are displayed, with the most endearing lustre, in the person, offices, relations, states, and work, of Jesus Christ our Redeemer

2 Corinthians 4:7

And he has committed the ministration of this infinitely precious and enriching truth and grace of the gospel to us, who are but frail, contemptible, mortal, and sinful men, like yourselves, that the transcendent excellency and infinitely powerful influence which attends it for the conversion, comfort, and sanctification, of men, may appear to be wholly of God, and in no respect or degree from us the preachers of it, who, on account of weakness, persecution, and trouble, need his almighty power to support and preserve us

2 Corinthians 4:8

We are oppressed with manifold afflictions from all quarters, and by all means that men or devils can invent; yet neither straitened in our minds, oppressed with anxiety, hindered from preaching, or irrecoverably entangled.—We often know not what course to take in present dangers, or how to avoid further trials; but are never left to distrust or despair of God’s wisdom, power, goodness, and truth, to uphold us under, carry us through, and in due time deliver us from, all our troubles, and make them work for his own glory and our good

2 Corinthians 4:9

We are persecuted for righteousness’ sake in our persons, characters, liberties, and properties, by every method of reproach and violence; but never left to ourselves, abandoned by our God, or deprived of his acknowledgment, assistance, and comfort.—In our wrestling with sinful lusts, seducing devils, unreasonable men, or even our own infirmities, we are sometimes dejected, foiled, and cast down; but by faith we rise again, and neither we nor our cause are slain or defeated

2 Corinthians 4:10

In these daily and severe hardships and sufferings, which we endure for Christ, we carry about an external resemblance of those which he endured for the salvation of men; while, by our fellowship with him in the virtue of his death, resurrection, and eternal life, we are enabled to bear them with faith, patience, constancy, and courage

2 Corinthians 4:11

For we, who live spiritually, by quickening influence derived from him as our vital Head, and in conformity to him as our great Pattern, and who by his marvellous providence are still preserved in our natural life, are perpetually betrayed and delivered up by our restless enemies into the hands of secular powers or outrageous mobs, and are always surrounded with dangers and exposed to death for preaching and professing our faith in Christ as the only Saviour,—in order that our wonderful preservations and deliverances, and our continued boldness in preaching the gospel with divine energy, may be an evident demonstration of the great power and glory by and to which our living Redeemer was raised from the dead, and that his holy and heavenly life may be conspicuously exemplified in our holding fast our faith, and holding on in our ministrations and holy practice, with submission, patience, and undaunted resolution, amidst all the infirmities and oppressions which attend our abiding in mortal flesh

2 Corinthians 4:12

Thus we ministers are exposed to distress and danger in the most hideous forms, while ye, my Christian friends, dwell in safety, and enjoy all the comforts of life; and all the troubles which we endure in preaching the gospel, and for the confirmation of it, are, by the power and wisdom of Christ, made means of promoting your spiritual and eternal life

2 Corinthians 4:13

But, whatever difference there be in our outward circumstances, yet, being animated by the same lively principle of faith, wrought by the Holy Ghost, as you and the Old Testament saints were influenced by, we, after their example, having firmly believed the gospel revelations, and experienced them to be faithful and true, do persist in boldly preaching them, and openly avowing our hopes of complete deliverance and eternal life according to them

2 Corinthians 4:14

Being fully assured that God, who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, as an evident testimony of his having perfectly fulfilled his law and satisfied his justice for the sins of his people, will, for and through Jesus Christ, by his Spirit, raise us up to a blessed immortality at the last day, and will solemnly approve and present us faultless before an assembled world with exceeding joy: 15. For all the labours and sufferings of Christ’s ministers or people, and every thing else relative to the gospel dispensation, yea all the providential dispensations of God, are by him intended, ordered, and made effectual, for your spiritual edification and eternal salvation, that the overflowing streams of his grace and mercy might, through Christ, issue in abundant grateful acknowledgments, thanksgivings, and praises, of converted multitudes to himself as the Father of mercies and God of salvation

2 Corinthians 4:16

And these realizing views and contemplations of the blessed fruits of our ministrations bear up our spirits amidst every danger or distress; and though, by numberless fatigues and hardships, our mortal bodies and outward enjoyments gradually decline and waste, yet our immortal souls, as regenerated by the grace of God, are daily revived and strengthened in holiness and comfort by fresh supplies from Christ’s fulness of grace, and gradually increase in desire of, and meanness for, the heavenly perfection

2 Corinthians 4:17

For, however burdensome and tedious our multiplied tribulations may appear to carnal men, yet to our faith, and in comparison of that important and endless happiness which we look for, they appear extremely light and momentary: and meanwhile, by the all-gracious management of Providence without us, and the sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost within us, they all, in a marvellous connexion, issue in, and prepare us for, an incomparable, inexpressible, inconceivable, and everlasting, glory and happiness, in the full enjoyment of God in Christ as our ALL and IN ALL

2 Corinthians 4:18

While, in order to promote this astonishing co-operation of our troubles, we, by faith, overlook the visible and transient things of this world, as altogether unsuitable, and insufficient to be a portion for our souls, and intently look at, desire after, and hasten towards, the invisible things of heaven, which, like God himself, shall for ever endure in their glory and delightful usefulness

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. IV.—Happy are they who are divinely called to, qualified for, supported under, and rendered faithful in the gospel ministry! It is not enough to begin well, but they must courageously persevere unto the end. And in all things they must recommend themselves to the gracious approbation of God and to the consciences of their hearers, by a candid and open publication of truth. Not themselves but Christ in his new covenant characters, must be the matter and end of their preaching; and they must take pleasure in serving the spiritual and eternal interests of his church for his sake. How excellent is the gospel treasure, which is put into weak, despicable, mortal, and sinful, ministers, for the enriching of themselves and others! And wisely hath God thus ordered it, that all the good found in or done by them may appear to be of himself. With great subtilty, labour, and force, Satan strives to hold fast his slaves of mankind through their ignorance of the gospel. And nothing can more clearly discover men in a lost and perishing estate than obstinate ignorance of gospel truths. Thrice happy then are those who have had its illustrious, amiable, and penetrating, light shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost! Like Christ, their sufferings may be great and many, but they shall be supported and honourably carried through them all. If, like the ancient prophets and saints, they stand fast in the faith, no tribulation shall overwhelm or cause them to faint. While bodily troubles waste their outward man, Jesus’ Spirit makes their inward grace increase, and their souls to advance in spiritual strength and ripeness for glory. Never should saints murmur at their troubles, when they are so light and transient, and yet so inexpressibly useful. But how inconceivably delightful and glorious is our eternal felicity: And the more we set our eyes and affections on things above, the more remarkably will our troubles prepare us for, as they bring us nearer to, this eternal happiness