We carry this treasure in vessels of clay
1 Since this is our ministry mercifully given to us, we do not weak en.
2 We refuse to stay with half-truths through fear; we do not behave with cunning or falsify the message of God but, manifesting the truth, we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.
3 In fact if the Gospel we proclaim remains obscure, it is obscure only for those who go to their own de struction.
4 The god of this world has blinded the minds of these unbelievers lest they see the radiance of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is God’s image.
5 It is not ourselves we preach, but Christ Jesus as Lord; and for Jesus’ sake we are your servants.
6 God who said, Let the light shine out of darkness, has also made the light shine in our hearts to radiate and to make known the Glory of God, as it shines in the face of Christ.
7 However, we carry this treasure in vessels of clay, so that this all-surpassing power may not be seen as ours but as God’s.
8 Trials of every sort come to us, but we are not discouraged.
9 We are left with out answer, but do not despair; persecuted but not abandoned, knocked down but not crushed.
10 At any moment we carry in our person the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in us.
11 For we, the living, are given up continually to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may appear in our mortal existence.
12 And as death is at work in us, life comes to you.
13 We have received the same spirit of faith referred to in Scripture that says: I believed and so I spoke. We also believe and so we speak.
14 We know that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and bring us, with you, into his presence.
15 Finally, everything is for your good, so that grace will come more abundantly upon you and great will be the thanksgiving for the glory of God.
We long for our heavenly dwelling
16 Therefore we are not discouraged. On the con trary, while our outer being wastes away, the inner self is renewed from day to day.
17 The slight affliction that quickly passes away prepares us for an eternal wealth of glory so great and beyond all com parison.
18 So we no longer pay attention to the things that are seen, but to those that are unseen, for the things that we see last for a moment, but that which cannot be seen is eternal.
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Comments 2 Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 4
• 4.1 It is worthwhile underlining some features of the portrait of an apostle as Paul sketches it:
– We do not lose heart.
– We do not proceed with trickery nor do we falsify God’s message.
– We are more than your servants.
– Let everyone discover in us the glory of God that shines in Christ’s face.
– We carry the death of Jesus so that his life may be revealed in us.
– We believe and that is why we speak.
We carry this treasure in vessels of clay (v. 7). Usually, God carries out his plans by using inadequate instruments. Graham Greene became famous for his book “The Power and the Glory” in which we see a priest achieving heroic things despite his many personal faults.
For we, the living, are given up continually to death (v. 11). The apostle’s death is necessary so that his work may live. When a good job has been done in one sector of the Church, there has to come the hour of persecution, or of obedience to leaders whose authority we cannot reject, in spite of the fact that they may be unjust or mistaken. Nothing grows without having died first.
• 16. Paul has just reaffirmed his faith; for a few instants he confides what he feels within himself, confronted as he is by a thousand dangers and obstacles.
The outer being… the inner self (v. 16). With these two terms Paul takes up again what he has already said in Rom 8:10-11. There, he opposes “flesh” to “spirit” as here the outer being to the inner self. Here he reveals this strange experience that is his: the discovery in himself of a presence of God increasingly active, and at the same time a precocious wearing away.
With that, will Paul last long enough to see the return of Christ as he hoped a few years earlier (1 Thes 4:15)? He had greatly hoped that his glorious body would cover his earthly tent (5:21; see 1 Cor 15:52)! Now he is doubtful: from day to day it be comes more probable that he must pass through death, of which he has a horror, share the lot of those who have had to shed their clothing of flesh and await the resurrection.
He has no doubt that at death he will meet Christ: compare 5:8 with Phil 1:23 and Rev 14:13. We do not cease to exist, as is said by some, until the day of our resurrection.
So we feel confident always (v. 6). No certitude of faith removes the horror of death; it may perhaps provide even further reasons for increasing it. Jesus experienced a strange agony before being arrested. This trial is only temporary and faith is reassuring “Who will separate us from the love of God?” (Rom 8:35-39).