BIG IDEA:
THE PROSPECT OF THE MINISTRY — FUTURE RESURRECTION AND REWARD — ENABLES US TO ENDURE PRESENT PHYSICAL SUFFERING IN THE MINISTRY WITHOUT LOSING HEART
INTRODUCTION:
In what ways are you physically challenged? Paul experienced such severe suffering that he could say that he was “constantly being delivered over to death.”
Paul Barnett: It is interesting to ask why Paul should have raised these matters immediately after the section in which he declared the old covenant to be outmoded, overtaken by the new. One possible answer is that because the apostle himself had so recently stared death in the face he could not help writing about it. Another is that for all their words about power, the new ministers in Corinth have nothing to say about suffering, death and judgment. Ultimately they are concerned with transient and superficial matters. But in the new covenant of righteousness and the Spirit, God meets humans in their suffering, death and judgment – at their points of deepest need.
Raymond Collins: Paul is a paradigm of God’s activity in Christ. As Christ died to bring life, so the apostle brings life through his own “dying.” The purpose of his apostolic suffering is so that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our body. Unlike the Stoics, Paul has not rehearsed his sufferings in order to demonstrate his fortitude; rather, he wants the Corinthians to know that the reason for his suffering is so that the life and power of Jesus may be manifest. He does not separate the sufferings of the earthly Jesus from the resurrected life of Jesus. It is the dying and resurrection of Jesus that makes sense of Paul’s difficult life. Jesus was crucified from weakness but lives by the power of God, as he says in 13:4.
The power of God is likewise manifest in the multiple hardships of Paul (see 4:7). Paul’s sufferings do not deter him from his ministry; rather, they are an integral part of his ministry. They allow the power of God to shine forth through the fragility of his humanity. The power of God at work is the focus of the gospel message. It is not only the message itself but also the speaker of the message who must convey the message.
John MacArthur: The apostle declared that the priceless truth of the gospel was held in a humble container. In fact, his weaknesses, far from being reasons to reject him, were among his most convincing apostolic credentials. To express this, he used the analogy of a precious treasure kept in a clay pot. . .
Paul was merely another in a long line of clay pots that God has successfully used. The genuineness of his apostleship in spite of his humanity is evident not from his human abilities, skills, or achievements, but from his spiritual character. This passage unfolds seven spiritual characteristics that marked Paul as a very useful clay pot. He was humble, invincible, sacrificial, fruitful, faithful, hopeful, and worshipful. . .
God chooses humble people to proclaim the gospel message so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of Him. He alone reveals “the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:6). By using frail, fallible people, God makes it clear that the power lies not in the human messenger but in the divine message. God’s power transcends the limitations of the clay pot. And it is precisely those limitations that allow Christians to experience the greatest demonstration of God’s power.
Frank Matera: Having explained that he is the minister of a new covenant of the Spirit, in which the glory of God is revealed on the face of Christ through the preaching of the gospel, Paul now turns to the question of suffering and weakness in the apostolic minister. If Paul is truly the minister of a new covenant that reveals the glory of God, where is the glory? Why is his ministry characterized by affliction and weakness? Aware of objections such as these, Paul must show the Corinthians the intimate relationship between his suffering and affliction and his new covenant ministry. He will argue that his apostolic sufferings on behalf of the Corinthians paradoxically reveal the eschatological power of Christ’s resurrection life in his mortal body (4:7–15). This is not to say that he and other apostolic ministers already experience the full power of the resurrection. Rather, he is affirming that God’s eschatological future is already making itself felt in the present. Consequently, while the world sees Paul’s “outer self,” which is in the process of decaying, his “inner self,” which cannot be seen, is in the process of being renewed day by day as it prepares to assume an eternal weight of glory (4:16–18).
Eric Mason: Main Idea: God wants you to be broken so you’ll depend on him and reflect Jesus.
If You’re Going to Be 100 Percent Broken, You Must Know This:
I. God Puts Power in the Vessel (4:7).
II. God Puts Pressure on the Vessel (4:8-9).
A. God loves to break up your plans.
B. God loves to break up your will.
III. God Promotes Jesus through the Vessel (4:10).
IV. God Has a Purpose for the Vessel (4:11-18).
George Shillington: Paul’s defense of the character of his ministry continues in 4:7-15, but from a different angle. Beginning in this text, he elaborates on three aspects of the ministry:
(1) the relationship between the mortality of the minister and the substance of the ministry;
(2) the necessity of adversity in relationship to the crucified-resurrected Christ;
(3) the necessary connection of the minister to the congregation of converts (in this case the Corinthians).
Paul intertwines these three perspectives in his argument that extends to 5:10.
I. (:7-12) SHOWCASING JESUS INSTEAD OF OURSELVES REQUIRES DYING SO OTHERS MAY LIVE
A. (:7) God is Our Power Source (made obvious by our Human Frailty)
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of
the power may be of God and not from ourselves.”
Guthrie: Titles this section: We are purposeful pots.
Scott Hafemann: Within its context, the “treasure” in view in 4:7 refers most directly back to “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” from 4:6. But the link between 4:6 and 4:4, where the glory of Christ is seen to be the content of the gospel, suggests that it can also refer to Paul’s entire ministry as this is embodied in his life of suffering.
Frank Matera: It is not necessary to be more precise about the treasure than is Paul himself (Furnish, 279). As the minister of a new covenant he presents himself as an inferior and fragile vessel that contains the treasure of the gospel through the new covenant ministry he exercises.
George Shillington: Clay jars are fragile, expendable, and cheap. As such they constitute an apt metaphor for the physical body, subject as it is to suffering, death, and decay. The metaphor is not new with Paul. The OT makes much of it (Isa. 29:16; 45:9; 64:8; Jer. 18:1-11; 19:1-13; cf. Gen. 2:7). Paul’s contemporary in Alexandria, Philo, also spoke of the body as “a vessel for the soul…. It comes to maturity, wears out, grows old, dies, is dissolved” (On Dreams 1.26). Yet Paul exploits the metaphor in a way peculiar to his own Christian thought and situation in the ministry of Christ. Unlike Philo and the Stoics, Paul does not here consider the physical body a container for the soul. Instead, his mortal body, like that of Jesus, exists as a foil for the power of God in renewing human life.
Robert Gromacki: Gideon learned this lesson when his army, reduced to three hundred, besieged the Midianites with weapons of trumpets and burning lamps within clay pots (Judg. 7:16). Just as the pots had to be broken to let the lamps shine, so believers must be broken to manifest the light of God through them.
Paul Barnett: We come to appreciate how powerful God is only when we acknowledge the certainty of our own death. This, apparently, had been Paul’s experience. Human life is short, its form easily defaced and its fabric destructible in a second. It is an earthen jar, a cheap clay pot. Hughes comments that “the immense discrepancy between the treasure and the vessel serves simply to attest that human weakness presents no barrier to the purposes of God, indeed, that God’s power is made perfect in weakness”.
David Garland: Paul continues his defense for exercising his apostolic right to criticize frankly the Corinthians by first pointing out that his all too conspicuous weakness that so annoys some of them is divinely intended to highlight God’s strength. God houses this treasure in such lowly vessels so that others may see the true wellspring of the treasure and power and know that God can mightily use anyone. Paul has been talking of the sufficiency, glory, and boldness of his ministry, but the danger is that one (and particularly the Corinthians) might be tempted to reverence the conveyer of this spiritual power rather than the divine source. Putting this treasure in unremarkable household articles keeps “the pretensions and accomplishments” of the gospel’s ministers from obscuring the fact that the power does not belong to them. Paul confesses that no one looking at him would mistake him for something grand or would be so taken by his grace and comeliness that they would then mistake the source of power that was working in and through him to reconcile the world. In this way he undercuts his showy, bombastic, and pretentious rivals, whose manner was so different from his.
B. (:8-10) Jesus is Our Resurrection Life
- (:8-9) Four Contrasts Between Intense Suffering and Surprising Perseverance = Paradoxes of Power
a. “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed”
R. Kent Hughes: best represented by the word squeezed. Any number of the catastrophes that befell Paul could have exerted intense compressions. But his pressured weakness was ever met with God’s power, and he was “not crushed.” Merrill Tenney’s unpublished translation brilliantly expresses it: “We are squeezed but not squashed.” Perfect! Paul, clay vessel that he was, was astonishingly resilient but never squashed.
b. “perplexed, but not despairing”
R. Kent Hughes: In Greek these words form a rhyming word play (aporoúmenoi . . . exaporoúmenoi) as the second word intensifies the first. Various attempts have been made to capture the word play in English — “at a loss, but not at a loss” (Tasker), “in despondency, yet not in despair” (Plummer), “confused but not con-founded” (Hughes). But again, Dr. Tenney seems to get it best: “bewildered but not befuddled.” Fragile as Paul’s humanity was when confronted with difficulties and loss, he was never befuddled and despairing.
c. “persecuted, but not forsaken”
John MacArthur: Persecuted is from diōkō, which means “to pursue,” or “to hunt.” Paul’s many enemies stalked him day in and day out (cf. Acts 9:23–24, 28–29; 14:5–6, 19; 20:3; 23:12). But despite that, Paul was not forsaken, deserted, or abandoned. His Lord never left him to face an impossible difficulty on his own.
d. “struck down, but not destroyed”
John MacArthur: Struck down is from kataball? and means “to strike down,” as with a weapon, or “to throw down,” as in a wrestling match. Destroyed is from apollumi, which could also be translated “ruined,” “lost,” or even “killed.” In modern boxing terms, Paul may have been knocked down, but he was not knocked out. He triumphed not by escaping adversity but by successfully enduring it.
Paul and the apostles suffered physically for the gospel in the extreme. In our circumstances these phrases might have a somewhat different application.
Ray Stedman:
Afflictions: These are the normal trials which everybody faces, Christian and non-Christian alike. . .
Perplexities: This refers to all the pressing calls for decisions, when we don’t know what to decide. We are at a loss, we can’t see the end, we don’t know how it is going to turn out. We are afflicted with fears, anxieties, worries, and uncertainties, all gathered up in this word “perplexities.”
Persecutions: These are the misunderstandings we all run up against, the ostracisms, the cold shoulders which are shown to us at times, the malicious actions and attitudes, deliberate slights, attacks on our character and our reputation, and oftentimes, the bigoted, prejudiced, unfair practices of members of society against one another, all part of the Christian’s life as well as the non-Christian’s.
And finally,
Catastrophes: “Struck down!” Stunning, shattering blows which drop out of the blue into our lives — accidents, fatal illnesses, war, earthquake, famine, riot, insanity — these terrible episodes which shatter a family or an individual, and leave us frightened and baffled. All these things are part of normal Christian experience. There is no change in the problems, the pressures.
- (:10) Sharing in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus
a. Sharing in the Death of Jesus
“always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus”
Richard Pratt: To carry around the death of Christ was to suffer repeatedly for his glory. Paul declared that these sufferings happen always. He and his company did not experience their union with Christ’s sufferings in one act. They endured the suffering repeatedly everywhere they went.
Even so, there was a purpose to all this suffering. The goal was that the life of Jesus might also be revealed in their body. Paul taught throughout his epistles that the reward for those who suffered for Christ was a resurrection body for eternal life (Phil. 3:10–11). This resurrection in the future will result from our union with the resurrection of Christ (Rom. 6:5). The troubles that believers experience in this world will result in the glory of the next world.
b. Sharing in the Resurrection of Jesus
“that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body”
Frank Matera: Having presented a list of his hardships in verses 8–9, Paul now interprets these hardships in relation to himself (vv. 10–11) and in relation to the Corinthians (v. 12). In regard to himself, he affirms that he bears “the dying of Jesus” (tēn nekrōsin tou Iēsou) in his body so that “the life of Jesus” (hē zōē tou Iēsou) might be manifested in his body (v. 10). Then in verse 11, employing a clause that begins with gar (“for”), he explains that he is being handed over “to death” (eis thanaton) in order that “the life of Jesus” (hē zōē tou Iēsou) might be manifested in his mortal flesh. Finally, in verse 12 Paul points to the result (“consequently,” hōste) of his suffering for the Corinthians: while “death” (ho thanatos) is at work in him, “life” (hē zōē) is at work in them.
C. (:11-12) Death is Our Ministry Calling (So Others May Live)
“For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake,
that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So death works in us, but life in you.”
Scott Hafemann: In 4:11 Paul gives the theological basis for his conviction that his suffering, like the “death of Jesus,” mediates the resurrection power of God, that is, the “life of Jesus.” By using the divine passive, “we are always being given over to death” (by God), Paul again asserts that his sufferings are not merely coincidental, but part of the divine plan for the spread of the gospel. Like Jesus, Paul too is delivered over to his own death (cf. 2:14; for Jesus, see Mark 10:33; Rom. 4:25; 8:32). In verse 10, Paul “carries” the death of Jesus in his own body; in verse 11, Paul himself is the living one who is given over to death by God. But this does not lead Paul to the conclusion that the “life” he mediates is his own—it remains the “life of Jesus” (4:11b).
Richard Pratt: Paul did not want the Corinthians to forget that they benefited from the sufferings of the ministers of the gospel. The pain and trials endured by Paul and others made it possible for the Corinthians to have eternal life in Christ. Those who suffered brought the gospel to the church, teaching and leading the church. The Corinthians should have realized that their new life in Christ came at the cost of suffering by those who ministered to them.
II. (:13-15) SPREADING GRACE TO THE GLORY OF GOD REQUIRES PROCLAIMING THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION
Paul Barnett: Having stated that “death is at work” in him so that life may be at work in the Corinthians, Paul now proceeds to state two reasons or motives for his sacrificial lifestyle.
The first is that he has that same spirit of faith (13) as the writer of Psalm 116 who thankfully testified to God’s deliverance of him from death. Paul’s recent and profound awareness of death (1:8–10) has led to an intensified understanding of the “all-surpassing power” of God to deliver him (7). In particular, his more deeply realized faith that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us (14) has led the apostle to say with the psalmist, we also believe and therefore speak (13). So far from having lost heart (1, 16), as his critics claim, the recent experience of deliverance from death has strengthened Paul’s resurrection faith, and because of this he writes, we . . . speak (the Greek implies “continue to speak”) the word of God.
The second reason for his missionary zeal was his passion for the glory of God (15). Paul laboured in the ministry of the new covenant so that more and more people (15) would come to understand the grace of God and cause thanksgiving to overflow to him. Paul longed that men and women who “neither glorified [God] as God nor gave thanks to him” (Rom. 1:21) would, in increasing number, be converted through the gospel and express thankfulness to God, and so glorify him.
R. Kent Hughes: Now, beginning in verse 13, Paul explains what sustained him to continue preaching — his faith in God. Paul does this by citing a brief line from Psalm 116:10, the heart of Psalm 116:1 “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak” (v. 13). For Paul, a brief reference like this served as a pointer to the full context of the Psalm upon which he based his statement of faith. Significantly, Psalm 116 describes a time when the writer (King David) almost died (cf. vv. 3, 8, 15), but God delivered him from death (cf. vv. 8-10). David “believed” that God had delivered him and therefore “spoke” of it (v. 10). As this statement in verse 10 is the center and pivot of the Psalm, it places faith at its very heart.
The Apostle Paul felt a spiritual kinship with King David because, like him, Paul had been also delivered from death (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:8-10; 4:7-11; 11:23ff.). Paul had likewise believed, and so he also spoke — as he preached “God’s word” (4:2), “the gospel” (4:4), and “Jesus Christ as Lord” (4:5). Thus Paul’s gospel ministry rested squarely on God’s Word and his experience of God’s deliverance from death, which was in grand continuity with the experience of the suffering righteous of the past. It is from this platform of faith that Paul spoke with unflinching certitude and power.
This said, we must understand that while the foundation of Paul’s faith was in the past, Paul now goes on to show that the focus of his faith was on the future. What heartened him for the battle and fortified him to preach Christ Jesus in every circumstance was his dynamic certainty and confidence about the future. It will become ever so clear in this passage that what Paul longed for and believed about the future had everything to do with how he lived in the present. And it is exactly the same for us. Our beliefs and hopes for the future exert a control that dictates how we live our present lives. Our “futures” determine the present.
A. (:13) Testimony Springs From Faith
“But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written,
‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore also we speak.”
Scott Hafemann: This is Paul’s response to God’s presence in his life. The power of God that sustains Paul in his weakness (4:7–12) causes him to remain confident in his proclamation (4:13) and in his suffering for the sake of others (4:16). All that God has done and is doing through the adversities of his life (4:1–15) leads him to focus on all that God will do (4:16–18), which in turn gives him confidence to endure the daily consequences of sin (4:1–15). This is the cycle of faith.
John MacArthur: The apostle declared that he had the same spirit or attitude of faith—in other words, he believed in the same thing—as what is written. That is, he agreed with the psalmist who wrote, I believed, therefore I spoke (Ps. 116:10). That was Paul’s response to the critics of his bold preaching. His unwavering faith compelled him to preach (cf. Rom. 1:15; 1 Cor. 9:16); it was impossible for him to believe the gospel truth but not long to proclaim it. Those who lack conviction in their preaching do so because they lack conviction in their hearts. Because they have weak confidence in the truth of God, they seek the comfort, prestige, and popularity that come from muting the message. True belief impels strong, consistent, unwavering testimony to the truth. On trial for his faith before the Diet of Worms, Martin Luther defiantly declared,
“Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds and reasoning— and my conscience is captive to the Word of God—then I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me! Amen.”
Those who genuinely believe the truth cannot help but speak that truth.
B. (:14) Testimony Springs From Confidence in the Resurrection
“knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus
and will present us with you.”
Scott Hafemann: No matter what the circumstance, Paul’s commitment to preach derives from his assurance for the future, the initial fulfillment of which he has already experienced in the Spirit.
C. (:15) Testimony Springs From the Ultimate Desire to See God Glorified
“For all things are for your sakes, that the grace which is spreading to more
and people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.”
Scott Hafemann: Paul keeps preaching, no matter what, because he knows that the purpose of his life is exhibited in the lives of others. As in 1:3, 11 and 2:14, here too Paul reminds his readers that the purpose of his ministry is to display God’s glory through the thanksgiving that has increased among many as a result of Paul’s ministry. The specific cause and object of this thanksgiving is the grace of God experienced in Christ through Paul. The more people who experience grace, the greater the thanksgiving. A life rescued by God produces a heart filled with gratitude, thereby reversing the fundamental sin of self-glorifying ingratitude that lies at the root of all sins (cf. Rom. 1:21; 3:23).
Thus, Paul keeps preaching because he is confident that this very redemption is now taking place through his ministry of the Spirit under the new covenant (3:3–6). Through his unveiled boldness (3:12), an unveiled encounter with God’s “surpassing glory” is transforming God’s people into those who praise his glory (cf. 3:10, 16–18; 4:6, 15)
III. (:16-18) SUFFERING AFFLICTION WITH PERSEVERANCE REQUIRES FOCUSING ON THE ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY
William Barclay: Here Paul sets out for us the secret of endurance.
All through life it must happen that a man’s bodily strength fades away, but all through life it ought to happen that a man’s soul keeps growing. The very sufferings which may leave a man with a weakened body may be the very things which strengthen the sinews of his soul. It was the prayer of the poet, “Let me grow lovely growing old.” The years which take away physical beauty should add spiritual beauty. From the physical point of view lie may be a slow but inevitable slipping down the slope that leads to death and ends in the grave. But from the spiritual point of view life is a climbing up the hill that leads to the peak of the presence of God. No man need fear the years, for they bring him nearer, not to death, but to God.
Frank Matera: These verses are transitional in nature (Thrall, 1:347). On the one hand, they draw a conclusion from what Paul has said in 4:7–15, as the opening phrase indicates: “therefore, we are not discouraged” (dio ouk enkakoumen). On the other hand, they are the basis for the argument that will follow in 5:1–10, as the first words of that unit indicate, “for we know” (oidamen gar). Consequently, it is not surprising that whereas some commentators view 4:7–18 (Barrett) as a single unit, others see 4:16 – 5:5 (Furnish) or 4:16 – 5:10 (Lambrecht) as a unit. This commentary treats these verses as a discrete unit because 4:16–18 describes the present transformation that Paul is already experiencing, whereas 4:7–15 focuses on his daily apostolic sufferings and 5:1–10 on the final transformation that he will enjoy when he is clothed with a heavenly habitation.
A. (:16a) Main Application = Don’t Lose Heart
“Therefore we do not lose heart”
B. (:16b) Battleground: Physical vs. Spiritual –
Maturing Spiritual Life More Than Compensates for Deteriorating Physical Life
“but though our outer man is decaying,
yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”
R. Kent Hughes: It is easy to misread what Paul says here so that we interpret it as the means of enhancing our power. Thus we may imagine that as we embrace our weakness God will pour his power into us so that we become powerful. The natural equation is: My weakness plus God’s power equals my power.
But that is not what Paul is saying. Rather, he teaches that as we embrace our weakness, God fills us with his power so that his power is manifested through us. We do not become powerful. We remain weak. We do not grow in power. We grow in weakness. We go from weakness to weakness, which is to remain vessels of his power — ever weak and ever strong.
C. (:17) Eternal Reward — When it Comes to Eternity – No Comparison
“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us
an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison”
D. (:18) Eternal Focus
“while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Robert Hughes: He also had a world view that linked affliction to eternal glory. According to Paul’s view, the one who loses heart is the one who sees suffering as an end in itself, rather than as a means to glory. He did not look at “things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (4:18). That was the very perspective he labored to instill in the Corinthians throughout this section (see 5:12). The various strands of Paul’s thoughts were controlled by the central concept of what is unseen and eternal: the glory of the Spirit (chap. 3), the pledge of resurrection (1:22; 5:5), and the new creation of the believer in Christ (5:17).
* * * * * * * * * *
PREACHING CHRIST:
1) We need to be intimately connected daily to the dying of Jesus. This is the aspect of taking up our cross daily and following after Christ as a genuine disciple.
2) We access spiritual power when we are intimately connected moment by moment to the indwelling life of Christ so that “the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
3) Our resurrection will be patterned after that of Christ’s. Therefore, our resurrection is certain and glorious and yields an eternal result.
4) Christ is our connection to the realm of ultimate reality = the realm of the spiritual unseen and the realm of eternity.