2 Cor 4: Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 Cor 4:1-5

1Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

A. Find Out:

1. What was the effect of this ministry on Paul? v.1
2. What had they done and what did they not do? v.2a
3. On the other hand what did they do? v.2b
4. To whom is the gospel veiled? v.3
5. Why? v.4
6. So who did Paul preach? v.5

B. Think:

1. How does verse 1 connect with what’s gone before?
2. What descriptions of wrong ways of trying to save people are given?
3. By contrast what right ways are given?

C. Comment:

Having just spoken about the wonder of the new covenant, Paul can say that it is this wonder that help them not lose heart. Yes, pressures do come, obstacles do arise, people are negative, but this Gospel is still glorious and worth every bit of it!

Look, he says, we don’t go about bringing the Gospel in an underhanded way, distorting the truth, seeking to deceive people. No, everything we do is open and above board. We simply set forth the truth plainly and thus we can stand with clear consciences before both God and men. There is nothing underhand about the Gospel.

Yes, he continues, there will be some for whom the Gospel still seems to be veiled so they can’t see it, but those are people who are simply blinded by Satan and who refuse to see and who will be lost in eternity. These people just cannot see how wonderful Christ is. Paul preached Christ, not himself (his own experience), because response to Christ is the means by which God decides our eternal destiny. Some do not see his wonder and reject what they are hearing. That is simply an indication of the state of their heart. If it continues….. eternal death.

D. Application:

1. Do we see that preaching the Gospel is simply declaring the truth and leaving it up to the Holy Spirit to convict and convert.
2. God looks to see how a person responds to the good news of His Son.  That is what decides our eternal destiny.

Passage: 2 Cor 4:6-12

6 For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

A. Find Out:

1. What did God say and then do, and why? v.6
2. What do we have? v.7
3. How did Paul describe his life? v.8,9
4. What did he say they did and why? v.10
5. What happens to Christian ministry and why? v.11
6. What did he say what happening? v.12

B. Think:

1. How is God’s light seen?
2. What happens to us to show that that must be God?
3. How should all this be an encouragement to us?

C. Comment:

What truths! Paul has just written about the light of the Gospel, and that being hidden from some. Now he refers to the light that shines in us, the very presence of God within us. It comes by the word of God coming into our hearts and then by the Spirit of God coming to dwell in us. We are but earthen vessels, rather crude pottery, but within us we have something glorious. When we are enabled to do great things, remember, we’re just the earthen vessels, it’s the glory who dwells within who achieves it.

Paul then describes how it works with him in his ministry. They were hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down. Those are the words that he uses to describe what had happened to them. BUT, they weren’t crushed, in despair, abandoned or destroyed, all the things you would expect to happen as a result of those things. Oh no, they were instead constantly displaying the same submission to death (IF it was to come) that Jesus displayed at the Cross, submitting to his Father’s will. This was the heart of their ministry: submission to God in all things.

Why does God allow this to happen to His servants? So that when they come through it, both they and the world around them will realise that is must have been God who achieved it.

D. Application:

1. Christian ministry means giving up your life to God.
2. Christian ministry means all the glory going to Him.

Passage: 2 Cor 4:13-18

13 It is written: ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ Since we have that same spirit of[g] faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

A. Find Out:

1. What follows what, and why? v.13
2. What did Paul say they knew? v.14
3. What was happening through their ministry? v.15
4. What was happening in them? v.16
5. What was all that achieving? v.17
6. So what did they fix their eyes upon? v.18

B. Think:

1. How did what Paul knew, affect what he did?
2. Why, for the Christian, is getting older and infirm not the issue?
3. How can having an eternal perspective help us in the present?

C. Comment:

Paul has been writing about how God preserves them in their ministry to glorify Himself. Now he reminds them why he speaks as he does. It is because he believes what he does, and it is the Holy Spirit who has brought him to that belief. He knows that God who raised Jesus will also raise Paul at the appropriate time to grant him eternal life, and that truth affects everything he does.

The result of this, says Paul, is that God’s grace is able to reach out through them to many, many people and God is glorified. Because he knows this is happening (he will be glorified in eternity and God is being glorified now) he doesn’t lose heart. At times he is made aware of just how frail he is, he feels his body is running down, it’s wasting away with the passing of years and the pressure of life, but he also knows that on the inward side, the spiritual side, the more and more he goes on doing the will of God, the more and more the Lord is renewing him on a daily basis. The daily affliction and perseverance in God’s will is achieving glory in heaven which Paul will receive when he gets there. It is that truth that helps him through the difficult days here. He sets his mind on eternity and that carries him through time.

D. Application:

1. Do we receive the grace of God daily as we serve Him?
2. Are our lives bringing Him greater and greater glory?
3. Do we set our eyes on our eternal destiny to help us now?