through glory and dishonour, through evil report and good report as deceivers, and true;
Paul is listing the marks of a true servant of God, and here they come in opposite pairs: honour and shame, praise and slander, a fraud's name given to a truthful man. If opinion swings that far, what holds a Christian steady?
Paul knew both extremes of public opinion. One writer traces those swings:
Who ever touched both extremes as fully as the man who describes here the path of service according to God? Who ever served the Lord Jesus so far above circumstances? Who was less lifted up? Who was further from depression? People honoured him as a divine being and then stoned him. One moment they suspected him of murder; at once after that they treated him as a god. Among the saints themselves he went through ups and downs almost as wild and quick.
These swings were not only in the world:
In the church, as well as in the world, he met these opposite extremes of human opinion. In the church his position and his personal grace both gave him a claim to respect. Yet some thought little of him — even people he could call his own children in the faith. In the world he was sometimes an honoured guest, though far more often in chains for Christ. But in either case he proved himself God's minister.
The ESV reads "slander and praise" here, where older translations have "evil report and good report." That second word is hard to pin down in English:
The words "of good report" translate only one Greek word: euphemos. It is found only once in the New Testament, though a similar word, formed from it, is found in 2 Corinthians 6:8, linked with its opposite. The word is not easy to translate accurately. Some suggest that "sweet to speak of, winning, winsome, gracious, attractive" give something of its true meaning. One example from the classics is said to mean "putting the most favourable reading on the account."
The same writer names the word's opposite, and the people it fitted:
Its opposite is dusphemos, which means slanderous... Those who slandered Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:8 were, I have no doubt, people who were Christians — at least in name. And remember what we saw in Philippians 1. Some there "preached Christ" out of envy and rivalry, hoping to add affliction to Paul's chains.
Because both verdicts kept coming, Paul stopped treating either as his measure:
"Through evil report and good report," he ran on steadily toward his mark. He sought people's souls, not their votes, so he closed his ear to flattery and criticism alike... Nothing moved him from his steadfastness. He looked for the honour that comes from God alone, and kept his heart and eye fixed on invisible things. So he could afford to be indifferent to human praise or blame.
Where the ESV has "impostors," older translations read "deceivers." The charge lives in the rumour; the truth lives in the man:
"As deceivers" in the evil report, and "true" in reality... What contradictions and puzzles are here! Yet they are all made to work together to show Christ and His people.
"Deceiver" was not a new insult invented for Paul. People said the same of Jesus:
In a world such as this, the true servant of God will at times be treated as a deceiver by some and as true by others. It was so with the Lord, for some dared to say, "He is leading the people astray," while others said He was "a good man" (John 7:12)... In all these ways the disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord.
Both verdicts meet the same answer — righteousness worked out in daily life:
They commended themselves by a life of practical righteousness towards people on every side. This held whether they were treated with honour or dishonour, and through good report and evil report. So, wearing the breastplate of righteousness, they were armed against every attack of the enemy.
- Two verdicts. People honoured Paul as a god and then stoned him. Some in the church thought little of him too.
- Two words. "Good report" is speech that is warm and puts the kindest reading on things. Its opposite is slander — sometimes from people who carried the Christian name.
- One direction. Paul closed his ear to flattery and criticism alike. He ran toward his mark, seeking souls, not votes.
- One reality. "Deceiver" was what the rumour said; "true" was what he was — and both together displayed Christ.
- One pattern. Jesus carried the name first, and the servant is not above his Lord. Practical righteousness is the armour for both verdicts.
as unknown, and well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as disciplined, and not put to death;
Paul describes his ministry in a run of contrasts, and this verse holds three of them. Each pair sets what people saw against what was really true.
One writer sums up the whole list of contrasts in a single picture:
So he showed himself to be the minister of God in everything that could test him... unknown to the world, and known and prominent; outwardly trampled underfoot by people and disciplined, inwardly victorious and joyful.
Being unknown did not mean nobody had heard Paul's name. His reputation travelled; what failed to travel was any true grasp of him.
None was more widely known than Paul, for the fame of him and of his teaching filled the world, yet none was so little understood. For what he said and did was "by the Holy Spirit," and the natural person does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God. So his tireless zeal made him known everywhere, but the world took him for a wild fanatic. He spoke words of truth and good sense, yet the Gentile ruler who heard him called him mad.
Greek has more than one word for knowing. The word here is the stronger one, and one writer notes where older English versions showed it:
The difference between the two words is the strength that the added preposition epi gives to gnosis, "knowledge" (or its verb). It makes the word mean "a deeper and more intimate knowledge and acquaintance." Yet only one passage in the Authorized Version shows this (2 Cor. 6:9), where epiginosko is translated "well known."
Some of that obscurity is chosen. A servant who refuses to chase a reputation loses it — and still cannot stay hidden.
Never was it true of Paul, and it never can be true of a thoroughly devoted and unworldly servant of God, that everyone speaks well of him. That is how the Jews of old spoke of the false prophets, not the true. Faith does not love the chief place at feasts, or greetings in the marketplaces, or being called Rabbi, Rabbi by people. It refuses them. The servant clings to the name of the One whom the world does not know, and so is unknown. Yet as with the Master, grace in service cannot help making itself felt in a world of need and misery. It cannot be hidden.
The two words can also mark two stages that take turns across a life of service.
There is a time to hide ourselves and a time to show ourselves... A time to pass through the land "as unknown," and a time to mingle with the crowd "as well known" (2 Cor. 6:9). Such changes are the common lot of all true servants of the Lord. John the Baptist, in his day, was in the desert "as unknown" until the day he appeared to Israel "as well known." Then he withdrew from public view again, in the presence of One of whom he could say, "He must increase, but I must decrease."
Paul stood at the edge of death over and over, and was still alive the next morning.
He carried the sentence of death in himself. He was in constant danger of his life for Jesus' sake, through the active rage of the destroyer. Yet he lived always in the power of that deathless life, whose source is in the Name he confessed. What is more, until his work was done he was, though vulnerable, safe from fatal harm. Once his enemies were allowed to spend all their fury on him, and they left him only when they thought he was dead. Yet he soon revived, with strength to continue his usual work the next day (Acts 14:19-20).
The last pair changes who is acting. Man's hostility is not the only hand at work in these sufferings.
God's hand was on him too, as well as man's. As a true son of the Father of spirits, he shared what all share whom God acknowledges as His (Heb. 12:5-7). If others forgot this, he did not, but confessed it openly, to the glory of God and for the comfort of his brothers... Apostle and chosen vessel though he was, that made him need it all the more — the very thing his own word says we all need.
- Known. Paul's fame filled the world, yet almost nobody understood him. Being widely heard of is not the same as being truly known.
- Better known. The word behind "well known" is the strong one. It means a deeper, more intimate acquaintance.
- Unhidden. A servant who refuses the chief seat becomes unknown. Grace in service still makes itself felt, because it cannot be hidden.
- Alive. He was always at death's door, yet safe from fatal harm until his work was done — struck down one day, back at his work the next.
- Corrected. Behind man's blows lay a Father's discipline. It fell on a chosen apostle who needed it as much as anyone, and it stopped short of death.
as grieved, but always rejoicing; as poor, but enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things.
Paul ends a long list of what marks a true servant of God with three short pairs. Each pair sets something people can see beside something hidden: grief and joy, poverty and wealth, empty hands and full ownership. How can both halves be true at the same time? And does this belong only to Paul, or to every Christian?
These clauses end a description of ministry, and they change register as they go. One commentator notes that the earlier items in the list describe how Paul was reported, while these last ones state what was simply so.
The clauses which follow have a rather distinct character, sliding from matters of report into actual fact: "as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not put to death, as grieved but always rejoicing, as poor but enriching many, as having nothing and possessing all things."
The grief was not mainly about hardship or persecution. It came from walking close to Christ, and from carrying the churches.
Why was he sorrowful? The general answer to this question is, if rightly given, because he followed so closely in the steps of the One who was "the Man of Sorrows" on earth… No outward persecution made him grieve, but tears were often his food while, as one on whom the Lord had laid the care of all the churches, he watched with anxious longing for their souls.
The two halves do not cancel each other because they belong to different orders of experience. Natural joy leaves when sorrow arrives; this joy does not.
These words, written by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:10, must be a puzzle to the men of this world, for in natural things when sorrow enters the human heart its joy departs. Though the Christian knows the joys and sorrows that are natural to men, he also has a divine joy of which the man of this world knows nothing, and he also has sorrows that cannot be known to those who have not the divine nature that God has given to His children.
The pattern was set by the Lord Himself, and the clearest case is an hour when both were present together.
In Luke 10, as in Matthew 11, the Lord pronounced woes on the cities in which His mighty works had been done. These favoured cities had closed their doors on the One who had brought the grace of heaven down to them, and with deepest sorrow in His heart the Lord is compelled to speak of the judgment awaiting them because of their unbelief. Yet in the moment of deepest sorrow the Spirit of God records, "In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children" (Luke 10:21; Matt. 11:25-26).
Paul's poverty was partly chosen. He worked with his hands when he need not have, and there was a second poverty underneath the first.
To work with his hands was not in fact a necessity, for the labourer is worthy of his wages; yet for example's sake he added this to his other burdens, and what his hands earned hard by this voluntary toil, the same hands also gave freely to the weak (Acts 20:34-35). And if poor in worldly goods, he was poorer still in that poverty which God has blessed (Matt. 5:3). Thoroughly self-judged and self-humbled, his heart held Christ in a fullness that flowed out continually to enrich the souls of others.
The last pair is the boldest. It is not a mood but a legal claim, held on another's title.
"As having nothing, and possessing all things." If Paul's earthly property had been valued, some books and parchments and a cloak would probably have been the bulk of it; yet the unlimited credit he had in heaven, as a simple and fervent truster in the living God, made him bold to make valid promises of an unlimited amount to those he dealt with in his Master's name (Phil. 4:19; Philemon 18, 19). Like Abraham… he would not call the ground he stood on his own, because the time of lasting occupancy had not come; but because Jesus holds all things as the Father's gift, he claimed, and taught others to claim, the ownership of all things in His name.
The reverse also holds, and it is worth weighing:
Men out of Christ, as they have right to nothing, so indeed they possess nothing… To him who belongs to the world the world cannot belong.
Paul knew this in an unusual measure, yet the same words are pressed on ordinary believers.
If Paul knew it above measure in his ministry, he like Peter calls on every Christian to be "as sorrowful (or, grieved), yet always rejoicing."
- Fact. These pairs move from what people said about Paul to what was true of him.
- Sorrow. It came from following the Man of Sorrows and from the daily care of the churches, not from mere hardship.
- Joy. The believer has a joy the world knows nothing of. Grief and gladness can fill the same hour, as they did for Christ in Luke 10.
- Riches. Paul was poor in goods and poor in spirit. His heart was full of Christ, and he preached those riches to make others rich.
- Ownership. All he owned was books, parchments and a cloak. Yet his credit was heaven's, and all things were his because they are Christ's.