But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us
Paul has just spoken of God's glory shining in the heart. Now he answers an obvious question: if the message is so glorious, why are its carriers so ordinary and so battered?
Paul does not say here what "this treasure" is. The words point back to God shining in the heart. One writer names it in a single word:
"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Then he says, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." What treasure? Christ. Paul has seen the One who has put away his sin — who is his righteousness — who is in glory. He sees Him, and he says, That is what I want. In seeing Him I see One who has the power of life, who has passed through death, and overcome it. I have this One — Christ. He is the treasure. I have it in an earthen vessel; still I have it.
God could have used angels to carry His light. One commentator asks what would have happened if the container had been magnificent:
Angels are servants, but God passes them by. He has chosen for His service men with bodies open to suffering, decay, and death… Men often put their treasures into a very costly case, and at times the case outshines the jewel. God puts His treasure into a perishing, fragile vessel of clay… Suppose God had put this treasure into the glorious angels that excel in strength. Would not man have been caught by the glory of the vessel rather than the glory of the treasure? And what room would there have been to display the power of God in a spiritual being that excels in strength?
The clay does not lower the value of what is inside it:
Here he lays down the general principle. "We have this treasure in jars of clay," and this "to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." The deposit was no less precious for being stored in the coarsest ware. The whole aim is to make it clear, by the contrast with man — weak, fragile and suffering — that the power is God's.
The little words matter. Older translations read "of God and not from us." One writer weighs that wording:
"We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not from us." This is forceful and striking. He does not allow that the power would be "from" God, as something separate from Him, handed over or given to us. No, it is divine, and yet inseparable from Him who works. It is "of God" — and yet not "of us."
If the light is inside the clay, something must give way for it to shine out. One commentator recalls Gideon's soldiers, who hid torches inside jars and then smashed them:
They were then to break the pitcher and the light would shine out. Beloved, notice what was needed for the display of the excellency of the power. It was not a decorated pitcher, not a surrendered pitcher, not a discarded pitcher, but a broken pitcher. Let us see how Paul treated his earthen vessel. It was a fine one to look at — a beautiful Hebrew vase with delicate patterns on it. "If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more"… Surely, a fine and beautiful vessel to admire. What did Paul do with it? He broke it to pieces.
God's dealings with the body all point one way:
Everything God does with us, as far as the earthen vessel of the body is concerned, has one object. He wants the treasure He has placed within to shine out better and more fully.
In the verses that follow, the vessel and God alternate phrase by phrase:
"We are afflicted in every way" — that is the vessel. "But not crushed," because God was there. "Perplexed" — we see no way out. "But not driven to despair," for there was a way out after all, since God was there. "Persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." The vessel is all broken and dealt with, but still God is there all the while.
- Treasure. What is carried is Christ Himself, seen in glory — the light of the knowledge of God shining in the heart.
- Vessel. God passed over angels. He chose bodies that suffer, decay and die, so the container could never outshine what it holds.
- Contrast. The deposit loses none of its worth in the coarsest ware. The mismatch proves whose power it is.
- Breaking. Only a broken vessel lets the light out. Paul smashed his own credentials to pieces.
- Result. Afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down — yet never crushed. God is there all the while, and the surpassing power is His, not ours.
every way afflicted, but not straitened; seeing no apparent issue, but our way not entirely shut up;
Paul has just described the light of the knowledge of God's glory as treasure inside jars of clay. Now he shows what that looks like day to day. Each phrase names a real pressure, then denies its worst outcome.
Each clause has two halves. Commentators trace them to two sources: the weakness of the man, and the presence of God with him.
The treasure is the light of the knowledge of the love of God, and it is in a clay vessel, so that the surpassing power may be God's and not ours... "We are afflicted in every way" — that is the vessel. "But not crushed," because God was there. "Perplexed," see no way out. "But not driven to despair," for there was a way out after all, since God was there. The vessel is completely broken and dealt with, but God is there the whole time.
Paul is not describing one bad season.
The whole aim is to make it clear, by the contrast with man — weak and fragile and suffering — that the power is God's... The vessels of this delivering power were not exposed to an occasional attack by the enemy. God kept them going under constant pressure, severe trial and extreme weakness, and blessing still flowed out on every side: hard pressed, but not hemmed in; at a loss, but not completely so; pursued, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Being at a loss is not the same as being trapped.
When we see so much sorrow, and so many problems and trials, how do we react? Do we look for a "solution" in a worldly way? We won't find one. We may even make things worse. But perhaps, like the apostle Paul, we reach the point where we are perplexed — an older translation says we see no apparent way out. If we then have a truly broken and humble spirit before the Lord, He will save us and show us the way. Then we can add, like the apostle, "but our way not entirely shut up." This may not be the easy way — but we will be certain it is His way.
Every pressure in this verse depends on having a body that can be hurt. That is not a flaw in God's plan for the messenger; it is the plan.
If God had sent an angel on this service, the angel could not have been troubled, or perplexed, or persecuted. He would have no body for circumstances to touch. A testimony given by an angel would be a testimony given by someone with irresistible power... A testimony given by a man with a frail body is a testimony given in weakness. Yet that very weakness only shows the surpassing greatness of the power of God.
One writer sees the same pattern in Gideon.
Gideon blew his trumpet, and at the same moment he broke his own pitcher (Judges 7). Breaking the pitchers mattered as much as blowing the trumpet. The light inside stayed hidden until the pitchers broke; then it shone out. The Apostle Paul may be referring to this when he says, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."
It would be easy to read Paul as made of different material from us.
A close look at these verses shows that trouble reached him in three ways. First came hostile circumstances, in verses 8 and 9. Trouble, perplexity, persecution, being cast down — all these came upon him. He really was "a man," as he told the Jews (Acts 22:3), and so not beyond these things. He knew what it was to be perplexed and cast down like the rest of us.
What held Paul steady was not his personality.
He was not lifted up when things went well, and not depressed when they went badly. He lived in no ruts, and he did not depend on outward conditions. In fact, the harder the conditions, the brighter his light shone... And what lay behind this tireless energy, this more than human courage, this unconquerable enthusiasm and joy? He knew God, THE LIVING GOD, and he leaned upon the surpassing power of Christ.
- Pressure. The first half of every pair is honest: hard pressed, at a loss, chased, knocked down. Paul was a man, and felt all of it.
- But. The second half of every pair is God. Afflicted, but not crushed; no way visible, but the way not entirely shut up — because God is there.
- Clay. God chose a breakable messenger on purpose. An angel could not be perplexed, and so could not show that the power belongs to God and not to the vessel.
- Break. Like Gideon's jars, the vessel has to be broken before the light inside can be seen. The trouble is not interrupting the work; it is the work.
- Shine. The point of every "but" is not survival. Anyone who watches a hard-pressed, perplexed believer still standing is looking at the power of God.
persecuted, but not abandoned; cast down, but not destroyed;
Paul has just called believers clay jars that hold a treasure. Now each phrase names a blow, then a limit on it — and God sets the limit.
Every clause pairs a fact about the man with a fact about God:
So Paul was troubled on every side; this was the earthen vessel. Though troubled he was not distressed — this was the power of God. He was perplexed — the earthen vessel; but his way was not entirely shut up — the power of God. He was persecuted — the earthen vessel; but not forsaken — the power of God. He was cast down — the earthen vessel; but not destroyed — the power of God.
Persecution was no surprise for a man who lived as his Master lived. But there was a line his trials could not cross.
It was only to be expected that he would be "persecuted." His whole life and walk were Christ (John 15:20; 1 Corinthians 11:1). But if persecuted, he was not forsaken; the trials of the servant must fall short of those which came upon his Lord. All forsook the Saviour in the hour of His desolation, but Paul was never left completely alone. If he was cut off from human help or sympathy, the Lord stood by him, whether in his prison cell or before unjust judges. "Cast down," he had to be, in case he was tempted to think he could stand by his own power. "Destroyed," he could not be, for his soul was in the keeping of his Saviour. The enemy could not even kill his body until his course was finished and the work his Lord gave him was done. Left for dead by the haters of the truth, he was soon back among its friends as a living comforter (Acts 14:19-20).
Not being rescued is not the same as being forsaken. Only one Man was ever truly forsaken.
Yet a long line of martyrs shows us this: as far as plain rescue from the hands of enemies goes, many have cried and were not delivered. Their sufferings only proved that they were not forsaken. A power held them up and strengthened them for whatever they went through, and that power showed itself all the more because of it. How many before and since have proved Paul's experience, "Persecuted, but not forsaken"! Their patience was precious and acceptable to God. Yet none of these patient sufferers touched even the edge of the darkness of the cross, when the cry of the holy One found no answer.
Both halves describe a real fall, not a near miss. One writer works through them in an older wording — "abandoned" for forsaken, "cast down" for struck down:
"Persecuted, but not abandoned." However great the persecution, to have God's presence in it more than makes up for it. "Cast down, but not destroyed." This was deep suffering to the flesh, but as Proverbs tells us, a righteous man may fall seven times, and rise up again (Proverbs 24:16).
The blows landed. Paul kept coming back up:
Circumstances were always against him. Yet he was not distressed, not in despair, not forsaken, not destroyed. Clearly a sustaining power was working in him which counteracted all that was working against him. He was like one of those self-righting lifeboats. Stormy seas pound it and even turn it over, yet it comes up the right side up once the crashing waves have passed.
One writer ties Paul's broken jar to Gideon and his soldiers:
Empty pitchers represented what Gideon and his warriors were in themselves. Like Paul's earthen vessel, these empty pitchers were only fit to be broken. When God raises up a testimony, He glorifies Himself only in instruments which He has broken. He carried His gospel to the nations through a Saul whom He had first thrown down in the dust on the road to Damascus. He displayed the excellence of His power in a Paul whom He kept on disciplining to the end. Gideon's men blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers (Judges 7:19), and the light shone out all around them.
- Vessel — every phrase names the jar, then names God. Persecuted is the jar; not forsaken is the power of God.
- Broken — the jar has to crack before the light gets out. God shows His power through instruments He has first thrown down.
- Not forsaken — many have cried and were not rescued, yet a power held them up all the more. Only Christ cried and got no answer.
- Not destroyed — being struck down keeps Paul from trusting his own strength. He cannot be destroyed, because his soul is in his Saviour's keeping. The enemy cannot end his life before his work is done.
- Righted — a power inside works against everything outside, like a lifeboat that rights itself once the waves have passed.
always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body;
Paul has just called himself an earthen vessel — a weak clay jar that God can use for His own purpose. This verse says what he carries in that body, and what God means to get out of it.
The ESV reads "the death of Jesus." Older translations read "the dying of Jesus," and one writer rests his whole point on that one word.
It is worth noticing that the Apostle does not say the death of Jesus. The death of Christ has indeed set the believer beyond the power of death and judgment. It puts him in an entirely new place before God in Christ. Here, however, the Apostle is not speaking of the death of Jesus as making atonement before God. He is speaking of the dying of Jesus as the holy Martyr suffering at the hands of men… We cannot share in the atoning sufferings of His death under the hand of God. But we can share, in our measure, in the martyr sufferings He bore when dying at the hands of men.
So how does a person carry this? One writer answers with an everyday example.
What is the dying of Jesus? Simply, it is the application of the truth of the cross to what I am. The apostle meant this: he carried the dying of Jesus in his body, so that nothing of Paul might come out — only Christ in all he said and did. Here is a simple example. Suppose I am a witty man, and we are having a conversation. If I am not held by the power of the Spirit of God, I might be tempted to display my wit. That would not be Christ, but self.
Another writer traces the phrase to Gethsemane, the garden where Jesus prayed before He was arrested. There he finds the cure for self-will: not effort, but an object worth loving.
It is a moving expression, "the dying of Jesus." It involves His death indeed, but it is Gethsemane above all that it brings before us. It is the whole scene of His choosing to die rather than have a will of His own. He went down to meet the judgment of God on that will of ours, so that His will-less life may be reproduced in us… The will is self, while the affections rest on an object outside myself. So let the object be worthy and adequate — and who could say the dying of Jesus is not — and the will has no place.
One writer sets this verse beside the next one. Faith has a part, and God has a part.
If you applied the cross to every thought that arises in your heart, you would find how many thoughts the cross would crucify. The flesh would never put up a thought at all. What thought could a dead man put up?… To manifest Christ always, I hold the flesh dead. That is his part in faith. Then comes the second thing — God's part. "We who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." However faithful he was, God had to help him.
The weakness of the body is not an obstacle to the plan. It is the plan.
God has taken us up as earthen vessels, in which He can accomplish something for Himself. He takes up exactly the right material to be broken into pieces — poor, weak creatures who can stand nothing, we might say. Then, like Gideon's men, He hides His lamps inside and breaks the vessel to make the light shine out. Death may have power over Paul's body, but that very fact shows there was something in Paul over which it had no power. His true life is beyond death, untouched by it. The life of Jesus — the risen, heavenly life of Jesus — shines out in him.
The change reached Paul's own temperament, not only his service.
The manifestation of the life of Jesus is not just service. It is character. In his unconverted days Saul of Tarsus manifested himself in his mortal flesh as a man of overbearing energy and self-will. Now all was changed. The dying of Jesus was so applied to him that the Saul character was truly stilled in death, and the life of Jesus manifested.
There is a return on all this, and it lands on other people.
In bearing about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus, Paul found death to self, and the result was life to the Corinthians. Paul held the power of Christ's death on the natural man, so that when he ministered among the Corinthians there was no Paul at all, but only Christ. It was life to them, because death was working in Paul.
- Dying, not death — His atoning death is His alone. His martyr sufferings at the hands of men we share "in our measure."
- Cross applied — I bring the cross to bear on what I am, so that nothing of me comes out in what I say and do.
- Two hands on it — faith holds the flesh dead (v. 10); God gives us over to death for Jesus' sake (v. 11).
- Broken to shine — God chooses the weak vessel, then breaks it, like Gideon's jars, so the light inside gets out.
- Life for others — death worked in Paul, and life reached the Corinthians.
for we who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh;
Paul's body is the fragile jar holding a light, and in this verse the breaking of that jar is traced back to God's own hand. The purpose clause is the heart of it: the dying is aimed at a showing.
One writer reads the verse through a scene in the book of Judges, where Gideon's soldiers carried lamps inside clay jars.
What use were these empty pitchers? They held the lamps — the third and most important element in testimony for God. They carried this treasure inside them, the divine light... If, in testimony, the trumpets stand for the word of God and the pitchers for ourselves, what are the lamps but the life of Jesus, the light of Christ? The first two elements only serve to make the third visible in the surrounding darkness. Gideon's men blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, and the light shone out all around them. It is God Himself who takes care to break the vessels... It does not say the life of Christ, but the life of Jesus — the life of that Man whose path through this world was one of holiness. We are called to represent the Man Jesus down here, walking as He walked. That is what our testimony is.
The two verses aim at the same end but start from different sides. In verse 10 Paul carries the dying about; in verse 11 he is handed over to it.
God makes Paul realise these things by the very circumstances he has to pass through. The aim is that the life also of Jesus might be shown in his mortal body... The flesh must be kept down and not allowed to move or act. When someone is in earnest, the Lord passes him through circumstances that help him do this. Paul learns in an honourable way. The circumstances were trying, but they came upon him for Christ's sake. With us the Lord often has to send discipline, because we have been allowing the flesh.
The word "always" points to a way of living, not to one hour. One writer weighs this long, steady trial against a sudden violent death.
Trial that never lets up is a far weightier testimony to God's power with His servant than enduring a martyr's death in some sudden outburst of the world's hatred. Such a death is blessed and honourable, without doubt.
One writer notes that Paul speaks of the dying of Jesus rather than His death. That difference marks off what belongs to Christ alone.
The death of Christ has indeed set the believer beyond the power of death and judgment... Here, though, the Apostle is not speaking of the death of Jesus as making atonement before God. He speaks of the dying of Jesus as the holy Martyr suffering at the hands of men... We cannot share in the atoning sufferings of His death under the hand of God. But we can share, in our measure, in the martyr sufferings He bore when dying at the hands of men... When the Lord was dying, His martyr sufferings called out no murmur or complaint from His lips. Instead they drew out the infinite love of His heart and led Him to pray for His murderers.
Paul uses three phrases for the body in this chapter. Each one says something different.
It is described as an "earthen vessel" (2 Cor. 4:7); "our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11); and "our outward man" (2 Cor. 4:16). These three expressions describe the character of the body. The first emphasises that it is fragile. Some have paraphrased this as a "body of fragile clay." The second points to its being subject to death. The third shows a body under pressure from outside.
Commentators differ on how far the "we" reaches. Some read the chapter as describing the work of the apostles.
The whole chapter concerns the apostolic ministry. It shows the different experiences God brought His servants through, so that only Christ might flow out from them, in life and in service... This was death applied to all that Paul was, so that nothing of himself would show in his ministry.
Others apply it to every believer, since the Spirit supplies the power.
No exhortation is ever given that has not found its living example in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus has lived out in this world every thought of God about what His children should be. And the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, is so powerful that we may reproduce what has already been produced.
- Vessel. The body is fragile clay. It can die, and it feels pressure from outside. God chose such a jar so the treasure inside would show.
- Broken. God Himself does the breaking. He uses real circumstances, so that nothing of the man hides the light.
- Dying. What we share is His suffering at the hands of men, never His atoning death under the hand of God.
- Shown. The point is not the pain but the display: the life of the Man Jesus seen in flesh that can still die.
- Ours. The Spirit within can reproduce the life Christ already lived here, so the same light may shine from us today.
so that death works in us, but life in you.
Paul has been speaking of himself as a fragile vessel carrying a treasure that is not his own. Now one short sentence sums up the result: cost in the servant, gain in the people he serves.
Some readers hear a sting here, as if Paul meant "I suffer while you enjoy." One writer rejects that reading. He takes the words as a plain account of what serving Christ costs.
It is a complete misreading of the opening words to think that even the faintest stinging rebuke is hidden here... Calvin and others have thought so. But there is no real reason to doubt that the apostle is simply stating what serving Christ does to a man now, when His mind and grace rule in a world and a state like this. It is death to the man who shares the affections and thoughts of Christ in the work.
The "death" at work is more than the physical danger Paul faced. Another writer takes it as the wiping out of everything in a man that makes people look up to him.
The words "So death is at work in us, but life in you" make the apostle's meaning very clear. He is speaking of what is death to a man simply as a man. That means everything that would lift him in other people's eyes: the authority that comes from a superior mind, the influence of family background, the advantages of a good education. Death was written on all of them. And the servant of the Lord had to face the deep trial of giving up all these advantages, so that life might work in others.
Why should God press His servant so hard? Because a clay jar that asserts itself blocks the light it is meant to carry.
In practice he treated himself as a dead man... In his case, it was made good by the trials he went through, and with this aim: that nothing but the life of Christ could come out... Paul was so completely a dead man that nothing but the life of Christ worked in him towards the Corinthians. What a description! If the vessel thinks or acts, it is ruined. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is there to come out. If the vessel is anything, it blocks that much of the light. But if the vessel is kept dead, only the life of Christ is there to come out... Death and life are both taken in a moral sense in this verse.
Paul's constant dying looks like defeat. One writer says the opposite happened.
This death that was working in him was the power of his testimony to them. Death, so to speak, had a fair chance to show its power over him. All it showed was that it had none at all. The only thing it could do was make life shine out brighter.
The second half of the verse names the gain. It lands on other people, not on Paul.
True ministry, in self-denial and self-forgetfulness, works death to the servant. Paul's self-forgetting love kept bringing him hardship and suffering. He followed the Lord in all of it and knew what it means to share in His sufferings. But through that, the people of God were helped, comforted and blessed. In this sense life worked in them through the apostle's self-sacrifice.
Death at work in a person leaves visible marks. There are two, and both are the opposite of self-display.
There are two sure marks of the witness who has eaten the truth, digested it, and tasted its bitterness as it applies to himself. The first is humility. Death works in him, while life flows out to others through his testimony. Self is set aside in practice, held under the cross. Then "the life of Jesus" runs freely through the vessel, with nothing in the way. The second is love.
This was an apostle's path. One writer holds it out as ours too.
All his sufferings were for Jesus' sake, and for the good of God's people, so that life might work in them. How far short we fall in these things. Still, we can aim to follow in the same steps in our own day.
- Pressure. Trials are not punishment here; God brings the servant low so that nothing of self shows in his ministry.
- Emptying. The death at work strips natural advantage: mind, family, education, reputation. Each one would make people admire the vessel instead of the treasure.
- Display. A vessel that asserts itself hides the light; a vessel held as dead lets only the life of Jesus come out.
- Overflow. What costs the servant everything reaches others as help, comfort and blessing. His loss, their life.
- Proof. Death got its full chance at Paul and proved powerless. All it did was make the life shine brighter. In any true witness it leaves two marks: humility and love.
And having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I have believed, therefore have I spoken; *we* also believe, therefore also we speak;
Death is at work in Paul while life is at work in the Corinthians. At that exact point he reaches back to a psalm and makes its words his own, because faith is what keeps him speaking.
Paul names what held him up under the trials he has just listed. A writer traces the same pattern in the psalm Paul quotes: death pressed in on the psalm-writer, yet he spoke of life.
The Apostle passes on to speak of the power that, on his side, sustained him in all these trials. It was the power of faith. The same spirit of faith sustained the Psalmist. Sorrows of death surrounded him; he found trouble and sorrow, and he was greatly afflicted. Even then he could speak of life, for he said, "I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living." Then he tells us how he could speak of life while death was closing in. He says, "I believed, therefore have I spoken" (Ps. 116:3, 9, 10).
(The ESV reads Psalm 116:10, "I believed, even when I spoke, 'I am greatly afflicted.'" The writers quoted here use an older wording.)
The psalm and the apostle share more than hardship. Both men looked past death to what lies on the other side.
Faith, however, looks ahead to the land of the living before it gets there. It may get there by deliverance from death, or by resurrection. "I believed, therefore have I spoken," is the language of faith. Paul pointed to this in 2 Corinthians 4:13, saying, "Since we have the same spirit of faith." Death rolled in upon his spirit and threatened his body too. But in faith he kept his eye on the resurrection world, and so he could testify with boldness, just as the Psalmist did in his day.
The words Paul borrows come from Psalm 116. Who is speaking there?
This is the resurrection song of Messiah… We know from 2 Cor. 4:13 that Jesus is the one we hear in this Psalm. But we also learn there that anyone with a "like spirit of faith" may use it in their measure.
Is there one spirit of faith, or many? One writer answers, and puts Christ at the head.
What spirit of faith? There is indeed only one. It was given by measure to the prophets, but to the Son without measure… He who is now the revealed object of our faith is also our great Forerunner in this race. In a supreme and matchless sense, the Saviour both believed and spoke. As a man on earth He testified to what He, and He alone, had seen and heard with God.
The order in the verse is fixed: belief, then speech. Speech that runs ahead of belief has nothing behind it.
This word is to be the guide in everything… And that, you know, is the only ground on which we ought to speak: "I believe and therefore have I spoken." David said of King Saul's armour that he had not "proved" it, so he had it taken off him. It is the thing you have proved that you can speak of for a certainty.
Because faith rests on resurrection, no threat can reach far enough to silence it.
But in Christ is the power of resurrection — now to faith, one day in fact… No trial or suffering can stop the believer's mouth, not even death in view. He trusts in God, and can speak out, and speak well of Him.
One writer puts Paul's stand into plain words. He had counted the cost before he opened his mouth.
That is to say, 'At whatever cost, despite everything — all the danger, all the opposition — I have spoken for God. I have borne my testimony. I have had confidence enough in God to bear testimony to Him and to His truth, whatever the consequences might be, even if I had died in doing it.'
Paul could have leaned on his apostleship here. Instead he chose a footing that anyone who believes can stand on.
But even this great, large-hearted apostle loved to place his ministry on the broadest ground of grace. It was the ground that would vindicate the scattered preachers: "we also believe, and so we also speak" (2 Cor. 4:13).
- Same faith. One Spirit of faith runs through the psalm-writer, through Christ our Forerunner, and through Paul. That is why an old psalm fits the apostle's lips.
- Same pressure. That faith speaks of life just when sorrow and death are closing in.
- Same sight. What it sees is the resurrection world ahead, so death cannot be the last fact it reckons with.
- Same order. Believing comes first, speaking follows. You can speak for certain only of what you have proved.
- Same ground. Paul rests his ministry on believing, not on office. That ground is open to every believer who speaks.
knowing that he who has raised the Lord Jesus shall raise us also with Jesus, and shall present [us] with you.
In verse 12 Paul described a life where death works in him so that life may work in others. Now he names what keeps him speaking: God has already raised the Lord Jesus.
Verse 13 quotes a psalm. Verse 14 gives what the speaker knows: death cannot cost him anything.
So the apostle could use the language of the Spirit of Christ in the Psalms: "I believed, and so I spoke." That is to say: whatever the cost, despite all the danger and all the opposition, I have spoken for God. I have borne my testimony. I had enough confidence in God to testify to Him and to His truth, whatever the consequences. I would have spoken even if I died doing it. In other words, the apostle said: I have acted as Christ Himself did. I know that He who raised up Jesus would do the same for me. He would present me, together with you, before His face in that same glory where Christ now is in heaven.
Others put the same thing in a single sentence. Commenting on these two verses, one writer sums up Paul's attitude:
That is, "I do not mind death, I have faith in my Lord."
The word "knowing" carries the weight of the verse. We can know our future resurrection because it hangs on something God has already done. The two stand or fall together.
We know God as the God of resurrection in a way Old Testament believers could not. He has raised up the Lord Jesus. We are so identified with Him that this fully assures us of what lies ahead for us also: He "will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence." The resurrection of Christ guarantees the resurrection of His people, as the apostle has told us before. If we do not rise, then it must be that He has not risen. If He has risen, He has risen as the firstfruits of those who slept.
Commentators differ on the wording: some read "with Jesus," others "by" or "through Jesus." Read as "with," it marks out whose resurrection this is. God does not raise everyone on the same footing.
And so we are to be on a common principle with Jesus. The wicked stand in contrast: they refuse to believe on Him, and divine power raises them only for judgment. It is not so with the righteous, or saints. They live by His life, and since redemption the Spirit of God dwells in them. They look to be changed at His coming. Then they will enjoy His glory and love in a perfect state, as they already enjoy them in His person.
Read as "through Jesus," the verse adds Him to a list of things He personally carries out for His own:
Then we have a further step, don't we, in 2 Corinthians 4:14, where we are told we shall be raised up also by, or through, Jesus. So we see Him as administrator: first, the One through whom we are justified; second, the One who puts His saints to sleep; and third, the One who raises them up.
"With you" is not a throwaway. Paul expects to arrive in glory beside the very people who had been criticising him. Some readers have tried to make the promise smaller than that.
He adds that God will "bring us with you into His presence." Meyer and others today, like some in earlier times, try to reduce this to rescue from dangers or difficulties. Their efforts are useless. Here all are presented together in glory, the servants and those served in grace alike. All are raised on the same principle as their Master. He died for them, and He is their life. What are present trials compared with such a prospect! Nothing will be able to separate the saints from the love of God which is in Christ. In the same way, God will have together in glory those who on earth faced all sorts of divisive and destructive influences. How blessed that is!
A worker and his converts appear side by side, with nothing to separate their welcome:
God's labourers will be presented together with what they have produced, by the effective working of His grace, with an equal acceptance in that coming day of joy.
This is not abstract teaching. It comes from a man under persecution, and hope is what keeps him standing.
Here the hope so fills the apostle that even if persecution should end in death, he has no fear. He looks forward to resurrection by Jesus, and to being with the Corinthian saints when the Lord presents them all... Many today are spoken against for Christ's sake and treated as the scum of all things. Without this hope they would be of all people the most miserable. So here the hope cheers the witnesses of the rejected Jesus. They will guard His honour here. He will soon bring them into glory, and five minutes there will more than repay the sufferings of the little while.
- Knowing — Faith speaks because it knows; Paul testifies at any cost because he is sure death cannot rob him.
- Raised — Christ's resurrection is not a parallel case but the guarantee of ours: if we do not rise, He has not risen.
- With Jesus — Believers rise on the same principle as their Master and share His life. The unbelieving are raised only for judgment.
- With you — This is more than rescue from danger. Servants and those they served arrive in glory together.
- Therefore — This hope keeps a suffering witness on his feet. Five minutes in that glory more than repays the pain of the little while.
For all things [are] for your sakes, that the grace abounding through the many may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
Paul has just said that God raised Jesus. He will raise Paul too, and present him with the Corinthians. Verse 15 gives the reason behind everything he has described: the treasure in a clay jar, the pressure, the dying, the service. None of it stops with Paul himself.
Paul writes these words to ordinary believers. One writer presses the point home until it turns personal:
Now, notice: this is directed to you. "All things are for your sakes." Do you believe that? Everything. You are so beloved of God: Paul for your sakes, Peter for your sakes, Christ for your sakes, the object of God's delight, the Son, the gift, the glory, all for your sakes. God gave His Son to death — "All to the glory of God by us." Oh, if we only saw it, we would get out of the little narrow path of minding our own things.
That Paul could say such a thing at all is striking, and it places him in a particular company:
"All things are for your sakes." (Ver. 15) What a wonderful thing for Paul to say! How much like his Master here.
The words "all things" gather up what Paul named earlier in the chapter. They also reach past his first readers to us:
Paul's ministry and service are still in view in verse 15. The "all things" of that verse are the treasure God entrusted to him, the mercy that carried him in triumph through the persecution and discipline, and the resurrection world which lay at the end. None of these things belonged to Paul alone. Through him they were for the sake of the whole church of God. So the Corinthians had an interest and a share in it all. They could add their thanksgivings to Paul's, to the greater glory of God. We too may join in the thanksgiving though nearly nineteen centuries have passed.
The ESV says grace "extends to more and more people." One writer prefers a closer rendering, and says who "the many" are:
Verse 15 is more correctly translated, "For all things are for your sakes, that the grace abounding through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God." The willing suffering of the apostles was for the sake of the saints. "The many" to whom grace abounds would include the entire body of Christ. Do we not also thank God today for the way the apostles faithfully represented Christ in their many afflictions for the truth's sake?
One writer traces the path from one man's trials to the thanks of many:
All the trials and experiences that the Apostle passed through were for the sake of the church and for the glory of God. His trials were not only for his good, but for the good of all. In this way the grace given to one abounds to many, and gives many cause for thanksgiving to the glory of God.
Paul's suffering answered the love of Christ, and he looked for fruit from it:
What an answer the apostle gave to the love of Christ! It was endurance with joy, in a love like the love it came from, for the saints of God. And he looked for fruit from it. If it fell to men like himself to suffer in the service of the many, then the grace at work would spread further, and thanksgiving would go up from all who received the blessing, to the glory of God.
God's glory is the end of it all, and the church is the object:
All was for God's glory, but its object was the church, God's chosen people. "All things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, overflow to the glory of God." There we have the truth of the church, that everything was for their sakes — all this even in Paul.
Seeing where his sufferings were going, Paul did not lose heart:
And so he did not let himself be discouraged. On the contrary, if the outward man was wasting away, the inward man was renewed day by day. His affliction was light and lasted only a moment. That is how he counted it when he looked at the glory, for it was only the passing affliction of this poor dying body. And it worked out for him an eternal weight of glory, far beyond anything human thought or language could express.
- Everything — the treasure, the mercy in persecution, the coming resurrection world: none of it was private to Paul. It is for the whole church, and we share in it.
- Grace — grace given to one person does not stop there; it abounds to many.
- Reach — "the many" takes in the entire body of Christ. Believers centuries later still thank God for the way the apostles represented Christ in their afflictions.
- Thanksgiving — grace spreads, and praise goes up from everyone who receives the blessing.
- Glory — the church is the object, God's glory is the end. Seeing this, Paul did not lose heart while his outward man wasted away and his inward man was renewed daily.
Wherefore we faint not; but if indeed our outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed day by day.
Paul has just described a path of pain, opposition and weakness. Now he draws his conclusion in one sentence, and it holds two opposite facts together: one man wears out while another is made new every day, and both are true of the same believer at the same moment.
The verse opens with a "so." It rests on everything before it. What follows is not hope about circumstances. It is a refusal to give in, joined to real inward growth.
Standing on such divine ground, the apostle rejects all thought of giving in, and settles it that he will move on undaunted. Enjoyment, ease and honour are out of the question for the present. No — pain, trouble, slander, contempt and opposition are certain for anyone who walks the path of Christ. All of them wear away the outer man. But in all these things is the life of the Spirit. Even now, grace uses Christ to turn to our account the very things that seem most against man's life in this world. It is not that the saint becomes more fit to share the inheritance of the saints in light, for that rests on Christ and His redemption. But there is spiritual growth. There is a new nature and sound judgment about the things around us. We value what once attracted us less, and joy in the Lord grows deeper and more undivided.
These are not two halves of the body. One is the physical frame. The other is what God has made new in us. Everyday use of the phrase has drifted far from Paul's.
"Our outward man" is the material body that clothes us. "The inward man" is not material but spiritual. It is that spiritual being each of us has, and since we are believers, God's new creation work has taken it up. The world today uses the phrase in a way that misapplies it completely. A man speaks of attending to "the demands of the inner man" when he means having a good meal to satisfy his stomach. So even the inner man becomes part of the anatomy of the outward man.
Each man is in touch with a different world. One shrinks while the other grows.
The outward man is the man in touch with this scene. He wears away under the strain of trials, persecution, weakness and age. The inward man is the man in touch with spiritual and unseen things. He is renewed day by day. There is spiritual growth in the inner man. The very trials and weaknesses that wear the body down become the occasion for strengthening and renewing the spirit.
The body may get patched up for a while. The inward man is under a different care altogether, and it never fails.
The outward man takes all kinds of knocks and wear and tear. Yet in the mercy of God it may receive a certain amount of renewal. That can hold off for a time the final perishing we call death. The inward man is renewed day by day. No doubt this renewal comes from the gracious ministry of the Spirit of God, who lives in us.
The renewal comes with a condition. Where the eye rests decides what the hand holds.
If the outer man perishes, the inward man is renewed day by day — but only while we look at what is unseen; and while we look at what is unseen, the hand is open to let go of what is seen. I want, and my prayer is for, more heavenly-mindedness, and with it less concern for present things.
The body wears out. Beside it grows something decay cannot touch.
But the inward man is renewed day by day. It never grows old. Age creeps over the outward man because the renewal does not match the wear and tear. If it did, we would never grow old. The full renewal is lacking because of sin. But with the new nature the renewal is perfect and complete. New creation does not know the meaning of the word "age." I once heard a neat saying: "There will never be a grey hair on the head of eternal life." How glorious it is to link ourselves in thought with our true self! That self is the inner man, the indestructible, the gift of God.
- So — Paul does not lose heart. His refusal to give in stands on the divine ground he has just described.
- Two men — the outward man is the body, in touch with what we see. The inward man is God's new creation work in us, in touch with the unseen.
- Daily — the body's patching only postpones its perishing. The inward man's renewal is the ongoing ministry of the Spirit who lives in the believer.
- Trials — the very pressures that wear the body out become the occasion for strengthening and renewing the spirit.
- Looking — the renewal continues while the eye stays on what is unseen. The hand then loosens on the seen, and the inner man never ages.
For our momentary [and] light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory;
Paul has just described a life of constant pressure. Now he weighs that whole experience against what is coming. How can a man who was beaten, jailed and often near death call his trouble light and brief?
The words land differently once you remember whose mouth they come from. This is not a comfortable man philosophising about pain.
The storm of trial was harsh and pitiless. It kept repeating itself in fresh blows and constant grief. Yet the apostle does not hesitate to call it "the momentary lightness of our affliction." Who ever saw, or even imagined, such suffering, except in the One with whom none can compare? And it is His grace that works this way, and strengthens a man to reckon like this. Lightness of affliction! — in beatings beyond measure, in prison more often, facing death often.
"For a moment" is measured from the other end of the comparison, not by the clock. The writers below quote an older English translation, which reads "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."
The affliction is not only light but also only "for a moment." In Paul's case it started shortly after his conversion, when the Jews of Damascus plotted to kill him. It ran on to the day he died as a martyr. That is a period of thirty years or more. This period is only a moment to him because his mind is set on an eternity of glory. What tremendous contrasts we have here! The coming glory is weighty and not light; it is for eternity and not just for a moment; and it is all this in a "far more exceeding" way. It might have seemed enough to say it was exceeding. To say it is "more exceeding" seems almost unnecessary. But, "far more exceeding!" Paul piles on the words.
This reckoning does not stand on its own. The next verse gives the reason.
Verse 18 is the argument for verse 17. Only while faith looks at things unseen can we count such burdens light, though in themselves they have overwhelming weight. Every creature is nothing next to its Creator. In the same way, what faith looks forward to always shrinks the believer's passing experiences, whether happy or painful. The passage plainly states a positive link between two things: the trouble that is the common calling of God's people while they live in this body, and the glory they are to have.
"Working for us" says the trouble produces something. The suffering is not merely endured until glory arrives; it has a hand in the outcome.
Afflictions work out glory for the true follower of Christ, and that in an inverse ratio. The afflictions (when measured by the heart of faith) are light; the glory is above all weight. The connection of ideas in this memorable contrast is very plain. What Paul suffers, he suffers in the body, with the limited endurance of a man. But he suffers in the name of Jesus and for His sake. So the joyful reward will match that name, and the worthiness of the One who bears it.
Where does such calm come from?
The ups and downs of life are "our present light affliction which is but for a moment." They are not without purpose or empty of blessing. They work "for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." This is not cold, lifeless theology. It is the sure word of God, and we are to take it up in triumphant faith. This calm of soul does not come from human toughness, and even less from an inability to feel suffering. No, it is the divine life in the Christian, strengthened and made glad by the glory of the grace that shines in the face of Jesus.
The verse is meant to be used. Put the two things in the balance.
Affliction — how many endure it! How painful it is, especially when there is wearying pain night and day! The time seems endless. But let the mind think on "the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," and the true proportion is discovered, the divine perspective is ours. What seems so heavy becomes "light affliction." Put the affliction, which lasts a moment, in the scale. Weigh it against the glory, which is eternal. How light the affliction; how weighty the glory.
- Weigh — the verse is a scale. Set momentary affliction against eternal glory. Then the true proportion appears: how light the one, how weighty the other.
- Look — the weighing only works while the eye is on what is unseen. There is no other way to call crushing burdens light.
- Work — trouble is not dead time. The suffering of God's people is linked to their coming glory, and it helps produce it.
- Name — Paul suffers as a man, with a man's limited endurance. But he suffers for the sake of Jesus, and the reward matches the worth of that name.
- Life — this calm is not human toughness or numbness. It is the divine life in the Christian, gladdened by the glory shining in the face of Jesus.
while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen [are] for a time, but those that are not seen eternal.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.