VIII.—GLORY OF THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY, WHOSE DUTIES WERE OPENLY AND HONESTLY PERFORMED, NOTWITHSTANDING THE INJURIOUS INFLUENCE OF ITS ENEMIES
2Co_4:1-6
1Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2But [we] have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty [shame, τῆς αἰσχὐνης, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully [falsifying (δολοῦντες) the word of God]; but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every 3man’s conscience [conscience of men] in the sight of God. But if [and even if] our Gospel be hid [veiled, κεκαλυμμένον it is hid [veiled] to them that are lost [perishing]: 4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel [gospel of the glory] of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them [should shine forth]. 5For we preach not ourselves, but 6Christ Jesus [as] the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For [that same] God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, [said out of darkness light should shine] hath shined in our hearts, to give the light [in order to the shining forth, πρὸς φωτισμὸν] of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus [om. Jesus] Christ.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
2Co_4:1-2. [Paul “now resumes the thread of the general argument, which he had twice before taken up (2Co_3:4; 2Co_3:12); but with the difference that from the confidence which he possesses in the greatness of his task, he now draws a new conclusion; not ‘we use great plainness of speech,’ as in 2Co_3:12, but ‘we faint not;’ a conclusion which, as it is more directly an answer to the original question, ‘who is sufficient for these things?’ in 2Co_2:16, so is it the basis of the ensuing chapters 2Co_4:7; 2Co_5:10. But with one of the inversions peculiar to this Epistle, he has hardly entered on this new topic before he drops it again. The charge of insincerity which had occasioned the digression in 2Co_3:1-18, still lingers in his recollection, and accordingly he turns round upon it, as if to give it one parting blow before he finally dismisses it from his mind. Hence 2Co_4:2-6 are still closely connected with 2Co_3:1-18, while the new subject begun in this first verse is not resumed till 2Co_4:7, where it is expanded in all its parts, so that the true apodosis or close of the sentence commenced here does not occur till 2Co_4:16, where the same words are repeated: for this cause we faint not.” Stanley]. Returning from his digression respecting the hardening of the Jews, he now resumes his account (2Co_3:12; 2Co_3:15) of that course of action which he was now pursuing, and which he thought suitable to the glory of the evangelical ministry (and to the Apostolic office).—Therefore having, through the mercy of God, received this ministration, we faint not.—What he means by διὰ τοῦτο is more distinctly expressed in what follows: having received this ministration. This ministration (διακονία) he had spoken of as a ministration of the Spirit (2Co_3:8), of righteousness (2Co_4:9), that which remaineth (2Co_4:11), and that which produced the results described in 2Co_3:18. Διὰ τοῦτο therefore finds its original reference as far back as 2Co_3:7. The boasting (καύχησις) which seems implied in this, is reduced immediately to a glorying in the Lord, and made to involve an actual humiliation of himself, when he adds the words, as we have received mercy; implying that he had been personally unworthy of such a ministry, and owed it entirely to Divine grace that he had been called and ordained to it (comp. 1Co_7:25; 1Co_15:9-10; 1Ti_1:12-16; Gal_1:15-16). The course of conduct which he had suggested in 2Co_3:12, and which was suitable to a ministry thus graciously bestowed upon him, he describes first negatively: οὐκ ἐκκακοῦμεν we are not faint-hearted or cowardly. The reading ἐγκακοῦμεν would have substantially the same significance. [The former word can hardly have in this place a strictly moral signification (κακός, bad, wicked) as Rückert contends it should have, contrary to its usage and the connection; but it seems to signify here that the consciousness of such a high calling would not allow him to turn out bad, to prove recreant, or to act inconsistent with it (Luk_18:1; Gal_6:9). Osiander notices that the word has two distinct meanings: the one to slacken or flag, and the other to be discouraged or dispirited. The former agrees very well with the explanation in the next clause; but perhaps the latter agrees equally well, since the discouragement is evidently one which springs from an anxiety about difficulties and opponents, and so leads to deceit and an adulteration of the word of truth. The etymology of the word also confirms this meaning, since the word κακός signifies bad not only in a moral sense, but especially with respect to war. Accordingly the Greek expositors and the more modern strict philologists (Billroth, Meyer, de Wette), embrace both meanings in the rendering: segnescere, to become slow and dull. The connection with the subsequent negative may be regarded as a litotes in which he modestly expresses a high degree of courage by denying the contrary. Thus Theodoret (and Chrysostom, see below): Οὗ δὴ χάριν φησὶ φέρομεν γεννάιως τὰπροσπίπτοντα λυπηρά “On which account, he says, we endure what befalls us with a noble spirit.” ̓Εγκακοῦμεν signifies the opposite of παῤῥησιάζω i. e. to shrink from plainness of speech or action (Alford), to behave in a cowardly manner]. The positive contrast to what is here claimed, is not dulness or indolence in the performance of his duties (and above all, Rückert’s interpretation, which makes it involve something generally and morally base, is entirely inadmissible, or at least not proven), but from what we find is repelled in 2Co_4:2, we are led to believe that it is discouragement or faint-heartedness under difficulties. Chrysostom: We are so far from being without heart, that we are rather full of joy, and bold in speaking and in labors].—But we have renounced the secret things of shame (2Co_4:2).—These secret or hidden things of shame (τὰ κρυπτὰ τῆς αἰσχύνης) were either, in accordance with the original meaning of αἰσχύνη a feeling of shame, or that sense of honor which hides its own shame, and will not let that come to the light which may cause dishonor (Meyer after Chrysostom); or better and more in accordance with predominant usage in the New Testament (Php_3:19; Heb_12:2; Jud_1:19; Rev_3:18; Luk_14:9), a dishonor, the concealment of a disgrace, i. e. of a dishonor done; or, still better (inasmuch as the emphasis lies upon τὰ κρυπτὰ) disgraceful secrets, hidden things which would produce or bring dishonor if they were known (comp. Rom_1:26).
There is no need of supposing that the Apostle had his eye directly as yet upon particular acts, such as plots, intrigues, suppressions or perversions of the truth, or even obscenas voluptates; but he probably alludes simply to those general matters which are mentioned in the participial sentence, those secret things which would infallibly cause shame if they were brought to the light. Neander: “those disgraceful and secret arts of carnal wisdom which had been falsely attributed to him.” ̓Απειπάμεθα is an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον so far as it relates to the New Testament. [On the reflexive force of the middle voice, implying that “the act belonged to the inner mental world of the agent rather than the actual world without.” See Jelf’s Gram. § 363, 6; and Winer, Id. § 39, 3, and on the aorist, “as denoting what is done at all times alike, and is habitual,” see Bloomfield]. The word by no means implies that he had acted in this manner at an earlier period of his life, but it simply means that he declined or refused such things (ἱποῤῥίπτεσθαι παραιτεῖσθαι).—Not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God.—(Comp. 2Co_1:12; 2Co_10:2). He refers here to his own official course, but he unquestionably alludes very significantly to a very different kind of conduct in his more sordid opponents. Πανουργία here rendered craftiness [from πᾶς and ἕργω] (1Co_3:19), signifies adroitness, dexterity; but it is used generally in a bad sense to signify a cunning craftiness, a shrewd use of those intrigues and schemes by which a man makes a way for himself and acquires and maintains influence [“a πανοῦργος is one who can do every thing and is willing to do any thing to accomplish his ends.” Hodge]. A second point in which his conduct differed from that of his opponents, was, that he did not adulterate the word of God (μηδὲ δολοῦντες τὸν λόγοντοῦ θεοῦ), a kind of dealing essentially the same as the καπηλεύειν repudiated in 2Co_2:17. Men were in the habit of saying: a man adulterates his wine (δολοῦν τὸν οἷνον). In contrast with such deceit, he says of himself and his companions:—but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience.—The truth here spoken of is the word of God, the Gospel in its unadulterated purity; and the way in which he had preached it was the reverse of such adulterations of the word of God. Συνιστάναι ἑαυτόν signifies to gain confidence and esteem in this regular way, as opposed to the self-commendation imputed to him by his opponents (2Co_3:1). The way he pursued was directed to every man’s conscience (πρὸς πᾶσαν συνείδησιν ἀνθρώπων; comp. Rom_2:9 : ἐπὶ πᾶσην ψυχὴν ἀνθρώπου). In this way of interpretation, συνείδησις becomes more prominent. The word is used to signify that mental power which makes us conscious of, and certifies to us those thoughts and emotions which pass through our minds, shows us what is truth and duty, and enforces its assertions and claims only on the ground that every thing it approves must be true and right, and that our spirit and motives must be conformed to our conceptions of truth and duty (Beck, Bibl. Seelenl., p. 75; comp, 73 and 77). The Apostle intended to say, therefore, that the way in which he preached was such that every man’s conscience approved of him, and hence that all who attended to the verdicts of conscience, and were not led by corrupt inclinations to reject such decisions, would be obliged to confess that his conduct sprung from a true and honest heart. Such an explanation seems to us more conformed to the context than that of Osiander, who defines the συνείδησις here to be the “essential organ for the recognition of truth, and which must assent to the Gospel as the truth and power of God, because it corresponds to man’s necessities and is effectual to awaken and tranquilize his moral nature.” The phrase: in the sight of God (ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ comp. 2Co_2:17; 2Co_7:12) is not a solemn oath, but simply implies that the assertion he had made respecting his commendation of himself to every man’s conscience, was eminently pure, inasmuch as he made it under a full sense of God’s presence to hear him. Neander: “There is indeed a moral intelligence in every man to which we may appeal as to the impression he receives from us; and yet as every thing human is fallacious, Paul made his final appeal to God himself as the infallible witness of his upright motives and his honest deportment.” [It was not the truth directly which the Apostle says he and his associates commended to the συνείδ. but ἑαυτοὺς themselves, their whole persons, conduct and preaching and this by means of the ἀληθεία which they preached. By recognizing the truth and the honesty of the preaching, men were obliged to commend them. Συνέιδ then is more than “consciousness,” for it recognized the morality and truth of things not only in ourselves, but in others. (See note on 2Co_1:12). The only condition of the recognition was that truth and its relations should be correctly apprehended, i. e., that each case should be truly presented at the bar of conscience. (See Serm. of Chalmers and J. Howe on this passage). Πᾶσαν συνέιδ ἀνθ. is every conscience of man, the universal, or the public conscience. Chrysostom: “not only to believers, but to unbelievers, are we manifested, since we are presented before all, that every thing belonging to us may be scrutinized according to their pleasure.” Nor was it merely “to every good conscience (Grotius), for the Apostle expressly implies that it was even to them that are lost?”].
2Co_4:3-6. The Apostle now meets (2Co_4:3) the objection, that what he had just said would hardly harmonize with the fact that his preaching was not successful with a large portion of his hearers, and was not recognized and received by some as the truth. He does not deny this, and he now recurs to the figure of the covering (2Co_3:14).—But if our Gospel be veiled, it is veiled to them that are perishing (2Co_4:3).—He concedes no contradiction in this to what he was saying, since those who failed of receiving him were among those who were perishing on account of their blindness by Satan. There was no defect in the requisite clearness of his preaching, but only in the mental perceptions of his hearers (2Co_4:3-4). The fact objected against him is made emphatic by putting ἕστιν at the very head of the major proposition (the protasis). “Our Gospel” has here the same signification as the manifestation of the truth (2Co_4:2). The word ἡμῶν tells us who were engaged in proclaiming the Gospel, as in Rom_2:16; Rom_16:25; 1Th_1:5; 2Th_2:14; and it is equivalent to the Gospel which I preached (ὅ εὐηγγελισάμην) in 1Co_15:1 (comp. Gal_1:11). In the conclusion the emphasis should rest upon ἐν τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις (among them who are perishing), and hence these words are placed at the beginning. Comp. 3:25; 1Co_1:18. [’Απολλυμένοις does not necessarily mean the finally lost, those who deserve to be lost (Grotius), but those who are perishing (Alford), those who were then lost. In Mat_10:6; Mat_15:24; Mat_18:11; and Luk_15:4; Luk_15:6; Luk_15:24; Luk_15:32, the lost were such as were at that time lost to the Church, to God and to goodness, but might afterwards in some cases be recovered. Henry: “The hiding of the Gospel was both an evidence and a cause of their ruin, and if the Gospel did not find and save them, they were lost forever]. ̓Εν is equivalent neither to the dative, nor to in respect to, but to, with, coram; since the persons spoken of did not recognize the Gospel on account of inward darkness, a covering on their own hearts, it has the force of in; or, since the ἀπολλυμένοι expresses the sphere or the department within which the Gospel is veiled or not recognized, of, among (inter). Indeed, all these significations come to the same general result. The fact alluded to is still further developed when he goes back (2Co_4:4) to its original cause.—Among whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving (2Co_4:4),—i. e., the blinding of the mental perceptions (νοήματα) and the author of the blindness, the god of this world (θεὸςτοῦ αἰώνος τούτου). The blinding of the νοήματα implies that the mental perceptions of these persons had been impaired and so blinded that their understandings were deluded with sophistries until all original inclination to truth was gone (comp. Mat_6:22), and their minds (νοῦς) had no correct intellectual views (Beck, p. 53, 54). Τὰ νοήματα (comp. 2Co_3:14) may here very appropriately be translated, “the perceptive powers, the understanding.” The blinding is the work of the god of this world (ό θεὸς τοῦ αἰώνος τοῦτου), by which phrase is meant not the spirit of the age, or anything of that kind, but Satan (as in 2Co_2:11), the prince of this world (Jno. 12:31; 14:30). Similar expressions occur in Eph_2:2; Eph_4:12. Neander: “It was with a direct purpose that Paul gives Satan this appellation, for he intended to imply that the selfish principle, here represented by Satan, was to such men all that God should have been.” The word θεός in other places signifies the principle which absolutely determines things (comp. Php_3:19). Bengel: Grandis et horribilis descriptio Satanæ, grandi ejus, at horribili operi respondents. Quis alias putaret, illum posse in hominibus tantae luci officere? [Augustine tells us that nearly all ancient commentators were of the opinion that the word θεός was too exalted to be applied to any created being, and hence, that it must here have meant the Supreme Jehovah. Chrysostom, in opposition to Marcion and Manichees, says: “We assert of this passage that this is spoken neither of the devil nor of another creator (in distinction from the just and good), but of the God of the universe, and that it is to be read thus: God hath blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world; for the world to come hath no unbelievers, but the present only. He blinds them, not by working unto this end (away with the thought)! but by suffering and allowing it.” As the Arians argued from this passage that a created being might be called God, even Augustine and others would not concede to them the natural construction of our passage; on which Calvin remarks: “we see how far the spirit of controversy can lead men in perverting Scripture.” Among moderns, Dr. Adam Clarke was of a similar opinion, and he refers to 1Ti_1:17, as a similar phrase, reminding us also that αἰῶν does not necessarily mean a wicked age or generation (Mat_12:32; Luk_20:34). Even on the common rendering, however, it is not implied that God had surrendered to Satan the rightful or actual sovereignty of any one age, but only that men have yielded him such a sovereignty. Archbishop Trench (Synn. 2d ser. p. 40) regrets that the difference between αἰών and κόσμος has not been preserved in the English version. He assigns to the former in all cases a reference to time, but in a secondary and ethical sense; he thinks it embraces all which exists in the world under the conditions of time, the course and current of this world’s affairs, often with an evil significance (Eph_2:2). It includes all that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, at any time current in the world, which it is impossible to seize and accurately to define, but which constitute a most real and effective power, being the moral or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitably to exhale; what we often speak of as “the times,” attaching to the word an ethical signification; or still more to the point, “the age,” the spirit or genius of the age].” Comp. further upon this τοῦ αἰώνος τούτου what is said on 1Co_1:20; 1Co_2:6. The sphere in which this alienation from God takes place is one which originally was completely dependent (ethically) upon this power. But the expression has a peculiar sharpness in application to the Jews who thought they knew and appropriated to themselves the true God in some special sense, but who were here in their unbelief consigned with the heathen to this mock deity (the simia Dei of Tertullian), as if they belonged to his special department (comp. Jno. 8:44). Instead of ὧν τὰ νιήματα ἐτύφλωσεν (in whose minds) the Apostle writes: among these lost ones, Satan hath blinded the minds of them that believe not (ἐν ὀ͂ις ἐτύφλωσε τὰ νοήματα τῶν ἀπίστων). By them that believe not, we are not to understand those whose unbelief was the direct consequence of the blinding, as if the expression were εἰς τὸ εἷναι αὐτοὺς ἀπίστους. According to the analogy of other places, the word in this case would have been ἄπιστα (comp. 1Th_3:13; Php_3:2). We may remark also that such an idea does not accord with that which follows εἰς τὸ μὴ αὐγ. etc.). Nor is it precisely a designation of the cause of this blinding, as if the expression had been διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς ἀπίστους Τῶν ἀπίστων implies a self-determination toward falsehood, and a turning away from the truth, the reason of which must be traced finally to a perverted will. In these words is brought forward another aspect of the case, viz., that in this blinding process Satan was not alone active and guilty, but that the subjects of it coöperated with him, and were guilty during the process and before it. (comp. Jno. 3:18; 2Th_2:10). [Dr. Hodge, while conceding that the doctrine is Scriptural, that unbelief provokes judicial blindness, contends that the connection here demands a different interpretation, inasmuch as Paul accounts for the hiding of the Gospel to them that are lost, by saying that Satan had blinded their minds. The blindness, therefore, precedes the unbelief, and is the cause of it]. The ἐν οἷς is perhaps equivalent to ὁτι ἐν τούτοις (for, because, etc.), and indicates either the object of the blinding, the persons who could be blinded (Satan’s great work, the blinding of the νοήμ. of unbelievers has to be carried on in the hearts of the lost, for such a work cannot be performed in the hearts of the saved ones, with respect to whom the Gospel is not veiled, Meyer); or, is equivalent to among whom, and so points out the sphere or department in which Satan thus acts. The meaning, however, would be essentially the same on both interpretations. There is no carelessness or tautology in this language. Paul means to give special prominence to the idea that Satan carries on such a work among those who are in απώλεια (perdition). The clause might be translated: in the department of lost souls, where the understandings of unbelievers are blinded by the god of this world.—In order that the shining light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine forth. (2Co_4:4b.). Here we are informed what Satan’s design is in all this; but inasmuch as what he accomplished was the infliction of a Divine judgment (Jno. 12:40; 2Th_2:11-12), it may also be looked upon as an announcement of God’s purpose. According to the reading of the Rec. αὐγάσαι αὐτοῖς must be rendered: might not irradiate or shine upon them, etc. But αὐτοῖς is very feebly authenticated, and betrays evidence that it is only a gloss. In like manner the compound verbs διαυγάσαι and καταυγάσαι seem at first more appropriate: (to shine through, to beam upon), inasmuch as the simple verb appears never to have been used intransitively among the Greek authors. Others, therefore, take the simple form as equivalent to, to see (properly: to beam upon something with the eyes, to cast the light of the eyes upon an object, sometimes with an accusative and sometimes with πρὸς τι). But as we never meet with it in this sense except among the poets, the intransitive meaning (which is favored by the attempt to make it out by the insertion of the compound forms) is to be preferred, especially as it then gives a more suitable predicate to τὸν φωτίσμόν. The αὐτοίς, which we are sorry to be obliged to throw out, is nevertheless implied by the context. In the later Greek, and frequently in the Septuagint, φωτισμός has the sense of: the imparting of light, an enlightening, light (a translation of
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in Psa_27:1; Job 3. et al.), i.e., light when in movement and in communication. (Osiander). The words τῆς δόξης do not here express merely a quality of the Gospel itself (the glorious Gospel), but rather an attribute of Christ, and hence the object or substance of the Gospel (χριστοῦ). The glory of Christ is the same as the glory of God in the face of Christ (2Co_4:6), and the glory of the Lord (2Co_3:18). We are to understand it not exclusively of Christ in his glorified state, for the glory of the only Begotten Son of God is exhibited during his whole manifestation of Himself among men, full of grace and truth (Jno
2Co_1:14); and it was shed forth even in His earthly life, and especially in His death on the cross, which is set forth as the very essence of the Gospel (1Co_1:18). Hence Christ in His glory signifies what the Gospel sets forth as the entire revelation of God through Him in His various conditions. The whole salvation revealed in the Gospel depended on this state of humiliation, including His obedience unto death, and His subsequent exaltation (Php_2:6-11; Rom_5:10; Rom_4:25; Rom_8:34; Luk_24:26). Comp. Meyer, Osiander. This Christ, whose glory is revealed in the Gospel, is yet further said to be the image of God. On εἰκών comp. 1Co_11:7. [“The article is idiomatically omitted after ἕστιν.” Ellicott]. The same expression is used respecting Christ in Col_1:15 (from which some manuscripts have borrowed the adjective ἀοράτου), and Heb_1:3. We are not necessarily required by what is said in Php_2:6; Php_3:21; and Jno. 17:5, to refer this with Meyer exclusively to Christ in His exaltation for the glory of God beamed from Him even during His earthly life (Jno. 2:11; 14:9). Although Christ in His exaltedstate is more perfectly the image of God, yet this expression must be looked upon as a particular representation of Christ in every condition. To justify the Apostle’s language in calling his Gospel (2Co_4:3, τὸ εὐαγγ ἡμῶν) a proclamation of the Divine glory, and to show how inappropriate were the insinuations referred to in 2Co_3:1, he now proceeds to say (2Co_4:5):—For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord.—From the context, we conclude that κυρίους ought to be understood after ἐαυτοὺς κηρύσσομεν, i. e., we do not preach ourselves as your lords (in contrast with δούλους ὑμῶν, your servants). Had he in his preaching set forth himself as a lord (κύριον), and made his authority, his power, and his lordship over them (2Co_1:24, comp. 2Co_11:20) his main object, instead of commending Christ in his glory as the only Lord over them, he would have adulterated God’s Word (2Co_4:2; 2Co_2:17). If we prefer not to supply κύριους, we may explain the sentence with Osiander thus: “The substance of our preaching is not our own light, or wisdom, or merits, and hence we do not commend ourselves, nor seek our own interests.” Both explanations come to the same thing in the end. Κύριον is here used in the sense of Lord, because in consequence of Christ’s redemption the Church belongs exclusively to Him (comp. Act_20:28). The positive side in relation to ἑαυτούς (ourselves) is expressed in the phrase—and ourselves your servants (δούλους ὑμῶν) for Jesus’ sake—where there is an allusion to a very different position which some opposing teachers had arrogated to themselves (2Co_11:20). He thus gives expression to the deep humility which he felt, and shows how entire was the surrender he had made of himself to his work; comp. 1Co_9:19. The phrase διὰ ̓ Ιησοῦν (through Jesus) gives us the reason he was willing to sustain this servile relation to them; it was because the love of Christ constrained him to be their servant. It is possible that he meant thus to say that it was by the authority of Jesus that, he had been invested with this official dignity (by, on account of); or we may even regard the expression as equivalent to beneficio Jesu (this blessing was due to Jesus). The first of these meanings suits our connection the best, and according to it the sense would be: that the Apostle gave himself to be their servant, for Jesus’ sake, and to retain possession of the property he had already won for the Lord, or to bring them to a better acquaintance and more intimate fellowship with Jesus. The reason assigned in 2Co_4:6 seems to point to this last interpretation, for it is there implied that this was the Divine purpose regarding him when he was first enlightened:—Because God who called forth the light to shine out of darkness—(2Co_4:6). It seems quite needless and arbitrary to make this refer back to 2Co_4:4, and regard 2Co_4:5 as a parenthesis. But perhaps we may more completely bring in the contents of 2Co_4:5 in another way. The reason that we preach Christ as our only Lord, and are willing to be your servants for Jesus’ sake, is, that God has enlightened us:—hath shined in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.—[Our explanation of this verse will depend on the answer we give to the question, for what purpose the Apostle introduced it. If his object was to assign the reason for his being the servant of the Corinthians (2Co_4:5, b), then he intended to say here that God, who commanded, etc., had shined into his heart that he might diffuse it to others. But if his object was to give his reason for preaching Christ (2Co_4:5a), it was because (ὄτι) God, who commanded; etc., had shined in men’s hearts (as our version has it) to give us the light, etc. On either interpretation the sense is good. The first accords with Gal_1:16, and is generally adopted. But surely the main idea of the passage is that Paul preached Christ, and the mention of his being a servant to the Corinthians was only incidental; the phrase “our hearts” (plural) can hardly mean here merely Paul’s own heart; and φωτισμός τῆς γνώσεως seems naturally to mean the objective light which came from Christ and would be obstructed by blindness. (Comp. Hodge and Billroth)]. There are also considerable difficulties in the grammatical structure of the sentence, especially on account of the ὂς before ἔλαμψεν. This is probably the reason that this relative has been left out in a number of manuscripts, though for external as well as internal reasons, it must be regarded as unquestionably genuine. The easiest way would seem to be to supply ἐστιν before ὁ εἰπών: q. d. it is God who commanded, etc., who shined, etc. And yet in this way, that which was designed to be merely a type of something higher becomes the principal object of the statement. Certainly the phrase: who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, should be looked upon as describing neither a mental illumination nor a breaking forth of the light of the Gospel from the obscurity of the law, but what took place in the first act of creation (Gen_1:3); and even then it must be taken in such a way that ἐκ will express not a special, but a causal relation.—The idea then expressed would be that he who was the Creator of physical light, and caused it to break forth out of darkness, is the same Being who has caused a light of a higher nature to rise in the heart of the Apostle. Or, if we take ἔλαμψεν, like λάμψαι in a preceding passage, and every where else in the New Testament, intransitively (for the transitive use of the word is confined to the poets, and even among them is infrequent), the idea will, be: He hath shined into our hearts (dwelling in us by His Spirit; comp. 1Co_3:16; 1Co_14:25; Jno. 14:23). There will then be no need either of an αν̓τός or of an ὅς, and the preceding ὁ εἰπὼνλάμψαι, which gives a transitive sense, will not stand in the way. That we may gain this sense, we must either supply an ἔστιν or an οὗτος ἔστιν before ὅς ἔλαμψεν: the God who commanded, etc., is the one who has shined, etc. (de Wette); or the ὅς ἕλαμψεν, etc., must be taken from this and repeated in the principal sentence before πρὸς φωτισμὸν, i.e., the God who commanded, etc., and who hath shined in our hearts, hath shined with the light, etc., (or: hath done this with the light, etc., supplying τοῦτο ἐποίησεν). But will not this, after all, be more difficult than to complete the sentence by supplying ἐστιν before ὅς ἕλαμψεν (is the one who hath shined)? The analogy of 2Co_3:13 would not perhaps be decisive in favor of this, since the completion of the sentence is much easier there. The easiest way would be, to take ὅς as equivalent to ὁ͂υτς or αὐτός: he has shined. But this is only a poetic, and particularly a Homeric usage, and only in special cases is ὅς ever met with as a demonstrative pronoun (comp. Passow s. v. ὅς 1). The logical objection, however, to the completion of the sentence by ἐστιν before ὅς ἕλαμψεν, viz., that this sentence would then have an emphasis which does not belong to it, inasmuch as the principal stress must be laid upon πρὸς φωτισμόν (Meyer), is not very convincing; for we must certainly lay an emphasis also upon the Divine agency which is here so solemnly introduced, and by means of which Paul had been directed to, and fitted for, the φωτισμός. This shining of God into his heart is the same thing which he describes in Gal_1:15-16, thus: it pleased God to discover (or reveal) His Son in me; for it is his own experience which he probably has uppermost in his mind. What he there says in plain words: that I might preach Him among the Gentiles (comp. Act_26:16-18), he here expresses by a figure of the light moving itself, thus: by the shining forth of the knowledge, etc. By these words he certainly intended to say that he was the medium through which such a knowledge was communicated to others. But may φωτισμός be regarded as meaning: to make light, to show, or intransitively to shine? The latter is the only meaning which accords with its use in 2Co_4:4, and the uniform usage, at least, of the Hellenistic writers.—The question may still be raised, whether in the face of Christ (ἐν προσώπῳ Χριστοῦ) ought to be connected immediately with πρὸςφωτισμόν or with τῆς δόξης (i. e., so as to mean the shining in the face of Christ, or the glory which was in the face of Christ)? In the first case, γνῶσις must be taken objectively (not as the subjective knowledge of the Apostle or the Apostolic teachers, but) as the knowledge of the glory of God, irradiated from the face of Christ, the image of God (2Co_4:4). The sense then would be: if any one converts others to Christ, he makes the knowledge of the Divine glory beam from the face of Jesus Christ (Meyer after Fritzsche). But this explanation of the γνῶσις (knowledge), as if it were entirely objective, is not indispensable, inasmuch as the words: the glory of God in the face of Christ, so naturally follow: who is the image of God (2Co_4:4), and so precisely correspond with these, that the article was not necessary before ἐν προσώπῳ, especially as the idea of the glory of God in the face (ἐν προσώπω τοῦπροσώπου) in the Mosaic type (2Co_3:7) was yet present to the Apostle’s mind. The knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (love, power, wisdom) was therefore subjective to the mind of the Apostle by a Divine revelation to his heart (ἔλαμψεν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν), and then it shone around him so as to lead others to know Christ as their Lord, and to have fellowship also with Him. [“Christ is called the image of God in two respects: first (as in Col_1:15) with reference to the λόγος which is in him the perfect representation of God; and secondly with reference to that human manifestation in which the λόγος itself was revealed (comp. 2Co_3:18). We have in this place to think of the latter relation, although the other is included in the idea of the historical Christ. The glory of God is manifested in the absolute image which the historical Christ sets forth.” [Neander.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The only persons who can so preach that the Divine glory in the Person and life of Christ, shall shine into the hearts of men, and cause them to recognize Him as their Redeemer and Lord, are those who have had their own hearts illuminated by that glory, and have mercifully been delivered from condemnation. But a personal experience of that, grace was never designed to be the limit of this revelation. When once the stream of Divine love has flowed into a single heart, from its very nature, it cannot be confined there, but it must struggle for communication. If I have myself been delivered from destruction, I shall long to commend the mercy which has saved me, to all who need the same experience. For the sake of Him who has saved me, and who has purchased those precious souls which are perishing around me, I shall strive to make men acquainted with Him in whom all fulness dwells, and who can satisfy all their wants. I shall cheerfully give myself to the work of winning souls to Him, and not esteem life itself too dear, if thereby I can bring them to salvation, or confirm them in its possession. In such circumstances the servant of Christ will have no room for preaching himself, that he may take the place of Christ by making His people dependent upon Him, and usurping a lordship over them. He will never wish to impose his opinions upon others, so as to impair the authority of God’s word; and he will never be guilty of those tricks and intrigues which gain esteem at the expense of those who have a better right to confidence and honor. He will have no heart for those hypocritical arts by which others seek to become all things to all men (1Co_9:19-23), and under the guise of disinterested benevolence, flatter men’s sinful passions, and accommodate themselves to the weak sides of their followers. Never will he think of evading by such arts the real difficulties of the Christian life, and shunning all earnest labor and self-denial in the pastoral work. Those who have a holy calling to bring their fellowmen to behold the Divine glory, and thus to transform them into Christ’s image, will rather encounter all cares, and reproaches, and afflictions with cheerfulness. They will renounce those impure motives which cannot bear the light, and they will so act and speak as to commend themselves to every man’s conscience. All things will be done as in the presence of that God who sees and judges the secrets of the heart.—And yet even when they are most faithful, their words may not get access to every heart. Some love darkness rather than light, and will, therefore, turn away from their testimony. Satan takes advantage of their aversion to truth, to bewitch them and to blind their understanding, so that the light of Christ, the image of God, cannot reach their hearts. God then gives them up to this blindness for their abuse of His testimony. As they would not yield to the attractions of grace, they are cast out of the sphere of gracious influences, and given up to those arts of the father of lies, for which they have such a predisposition. As they had no pleasure in the truth, and would not believe it, they become more and more unsusceptible to its influence, they willingly yield themselves to every kind of delusion, and fall into superstitions in which nothing but lies can be received (comp. 2Th_2:10-12).
[“The Gospel may be said to be hidden when it is never preached to a people at all, when it is not understood, when it does not take hold of the conscience, and when the heart doth not entertain or give reception to it. Hence this hiding may be either sinful or penal—sinful, when men hear the Gospel but will not set themselves to understand it, or will not receive conviction or a suitable impression from it; and penal, when God gives up such sinners to their chosen way. Such a hiding is a sad token that they are lost, for it is evident that they are not recovered and saved, and hence that they are in a state which both excludes what is necessary to their salvation, and includes what promotes their destruction. There can therefore be no hope that their state will be safe at last who live in the neglect of those methods which the Gospel prescribes for their salvation; and there can be no ground for them to fear that they shall be finally lost, who, with dependence on grace, are using these methods to their uttermost.” Condensed from Howe’s Six Sermons on the Hidden Gospel and Lost souls].
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Starke:
2Co_4:1. The most faithful servant of Christ may become tired in his work but not of it. But he has only to strengthen himself in God and perform his part to the best of his ability. It is upon the end, upon the glorious crown that he should fix his eye.
2Co_4:2. Luther:—False Apostles sometimes make a fine show, but look within and they are full of filthiness (Mat_18:27 f.)!—Hedinger:—Many vain talkers cover up their pride, avarice, envy, malice and bitterness, under a pretence of good intentions, and by this very thing show that they are ashamed of their own dishonesty. They therefore paint it up in false colors, and they twist and pervert the word of God so as to please men and sanction their carnal objects (Tit_1:9 ff.; Php_2:21).
2Co_4:3. Alas! that even in the Church the glorious Gospel should be so covered up! How few have so truly turned to the Lord that the glory of the Gospel has dawned upon their spirits!—Luther:
2Co_4:4. The devil is this world’s prince and god, and therefore God in righteous judgment has given it up to serve and to be ruled by him.—Hedinger:—Dost thou feel, O man, no touch of God’s word? Know then that the enemy is covering up thine eyes and thy heart (Heb_3:13). In the voluntary blinding and hardening of the unbeliever’s heart, there is a concurrence of his own guilt and the malignity of Satan; for if he were not guilty Satan could do nothing. Above all things, then, beware of unbelief.—Spener:—Satan can hardly keep men from knowing God simply as God, for all nature proclaims that it has a Creator and a Governor. But the point on which he has a special desire to blind them is the knowledge of Christ the Son of God, and the work of salvation by Christ.
2Co_4:5. The sum of all true preaching is Jesus Christ. Everything must run into Him (Col_1:27).
2Co_4:6. The best eye can see nothing without light. “In Thy light, O God, shall we see light” (Psa_36:10).—If we would lead others to Christ, we must ourselves turn to Him, and receive the clear beams of faith into our own hearts. If we would know the mind of our heavenly Father, and specially how he feels toward men, we must direct our eyes to the face , (i.e., to the words and life) of Christ, for there we have the best expression of His heart (Jno. 14:9).
Berlenb. Bible:
2Co_4:1. It is a great mercy when God calls a man to such a work. We should not, therefore, make much account of what we have to endure in it.
2Co_4:2. Ministers should never attempt to draw the people by going around the cross and flattering them. God’s servants have no need of intrigues and impure arts.—God’s word is always the same, but it is very easy to add to it something of our own. It can be corrupted either by addition or by subtraction, especially when one has some evil design, and wishes to accommodate it to a corrupt world. The truth is our own best evidence, but it is effectual only when we coöperate with our consciences and open our hearts to it. The truth and we must meet face to face. No true minister will be without this test of himself: that when he merely manifests the truth, he can appeal to every man’s conscience. If he cannot do this, he can do nothing.
2Co_4:3. The Gospel is covered to those who spend their lives to no profit and seek for life in the enjoyments of the flesh and in the evil suggestions of a carnal reason.
2Co_4:4. The god of this world is sure to blind those who believe not and who will not listen candidly to God’s kind invitations. He will suggest to them: “If you choose that way you will never get along in the world.” Such a god they will serve, and we need not wonder that their thoughts and hearts should be so occupied that they can receive no light. Even if the light shines upon them and they feel it, they turn away from it. Though God may penetrate through every obstacle till he reaches the conscience, he never works absolutely, i.e., irresistibly, and the result is not, necessarily saving. Light may shine clearly and yet a man may not perceive it: 1, If the windows of his house are closed and all around him is darkened (false principles and erroneous views); 2, If his eyes (the windows of his body) are so closed that no light can enter them (misunderstandings and perversions of revealed truth). The first obstacle is removed when the armor of light is put on; and when with the help of a Stronger, the strongholds of reason are demolished. The other is removed without violating the established laws of moral and intellectual freedom, when the preventing grace of God destroys Satan’s work in the heart and prepares it to welcome and entertain the light of revealed truth. God therefore first makes an assault upon our wills. When the sun is admitted the darkness flies of course. God does not arbitrarily force us to receive the light, but we must receive it by a free faith. The only reason that many have no light, is, they love the world more than God. The spirit of the world holds possession of them. The arch-deceiver makes the poor soul think: “Surely it is not necessary to give up everything; we may retain this thing and that, and still be Christians; others do so, and are nevertheless very good people; God does not require us to be so very strict.” These are the lies which many admit with greater readiness than they do the truth and the glory of the Gospel. God is resisted by them as if He were an enemy, and was preparing to inflict on them some great calamity and injustice. When the love of self is the reigning principle in the heart, there can be no interest in the glory of Christ, and the image of the sinful Adam will be inscribed over the whole man.
2Co_4:5. Where shall we find those who preach nothing but Jesus Christ? We meet with many who are eager to obtain honor and personal comfort; but so absorbing is their interest in themselves, that they have very little time or heart to give to Christ.
2Co_4:6. God’s works are all in harmony. The illumination of a soul like that of the natural world is a Divine work, a new creation, and can be effected only by the fiat of the Almighty. Our hearts are at first in chaotic darkness, and the type of the process by which they become temples of God must be sought in what took place at the beginning. As the first day’s work was the separation of the light from the darkness, so the first work of grace in the heart is to give it light. We must allow Christ to break through the darkness of our hearts and discover it to us, or we shall never see the light. But the mere admission of the light is not enough; it must be received into the most secret recess of the heart. Then, when the light of a true knowledge is received, how clearly do we see our poverty, but how clearly also the wonders of grace! The darkness is past and the true light shines (1 Jno. 2:8). But this light of Jesus Christ must necessarily shine beyond ourselves. Others also will see it and be enkindled and won to Christ. One great object of the vocation wherewith we are called is to make us God’s witnesses.—God is to be known only as we look upon the face of the only begotten Son (Jno. 1:18). God never presents Himself to us in an absolute manner, but only through this face. Such is the old but sublime theology which was always so precious to His humble ones. There we may look upon God and our lives be preserved (Gen_32:30). But such a sight can often be gained only by a wrestling like Jacob’s, and with a painful discovery of our poverty. But no sooner is this sight gained than we are drawn toward God. We can bear to look upon the Deity Himself, even in His glory, when we behold Him in the face of a Mediator (Psa_89:16; Exo_29:10 f.; Exo_33:14).
Rieger, 2Co_4:1-2 :—The unjust treatment which the word of faith sometimes receives, and the unhappy results which sometimes follow its dispensation, are no reason why those who are called to preach it should renounce their hope or their enjoyment of it; nor should they thus be tempted to use means which are unsuitable to their work. Never should they keep back doctrines or precepts which belong to the mind of Christ, from a fear that they might injure His cause. Let them never show punctiliousness in matters which are known and judged of by their fellowmen, while they tolerate great imperfections in those which none but the eye of God can discern. Let them use no means to please men which would not be commended by God and approved of in the consciences of all who see them, and which would not tend to bring out the truth in still clearer terms.
2Co_4:3-4. The god of this world has a great variety of instruments conspiring together to promote his wicked purpose of covering up the Gospel from the eyes of men.—The unbelieving world is always inclined to throw out the suspicion that ministers are seeking only their private interests. But those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord, will cheerfully confide in His servants, and in the arrangements He has made respecting them.
2Co_4:6. In one of His first, acts God acquired a peculiar name: “He who called the light out of darkness.” That ancient name He still maintains by similar manifestations of His power on a larger or smaller scale; but especially by the revelation of His Son in the hearts of men through the Gospel. In the life of Christ we have concentrated as in a single person, and everything given which we need to reveal God to us, and to make us trust in Him as our Father. The Apostles have given us so complete and so credible a testimony of what they saw of Christ, that we may have from their preaching and writings the same impressions which they had from His personal presence. Truly blessed is every reader whose faith looks steadily and with an unveiled face upon Jesus!
Heubner, 2Co_4:1 :—Keep your eye upon the greatness and sanctity of your calling, and you will be in no danger of falling.
2Co_4:2. The only way for a preacher, is always to be open and honest.—God’s word should be preached in its purity as it was preached at first, with no recent improvements or disfigurements; for not only must it be a great sin, in the Lord’s sight, to present in His name what is not His, but we shall thus deprive His word of its real power.—Luther: Counterfeiters of money are burned, but falsifiers of God’s word are canonized.
2Co_4:3. Though the truth and power of the Gospel are hidden from the eyes of many, it is only to them that are lost, and because they would not believe.
2Co_4:4. A good or an evil spirit rules all men. Why it is by the one rather than by the other, must ever remain one of the mysteries of human freedom, for the result is not always according to the power of the outward influence. The corrupt mind may truly be said to be blinded, when the world is regarded as the only thing real or glorious, when the world’s vanities appear to be all that is substantial, and when the Gospel and Christ’s glories are counted as nothing. Christ, His glory, His love, His holiness, His power, His government, and His Divine excellence, are the substance of the Gospel. He is the image of God, so that as the Son is, the Father must be.
2Co_4:5. The Gospel has an enlightening power, for it is not a system of human inventions; and those who preach it are not founding systems of philosophy, nor leading off new sects or schools of religious belief; but they present Christ as the Master of every other master, and the only Rock of all wisdom, righteousness and salvation.
2Co_4:6. When Christ enlightens a soul, it is as great a miracle as the creation of a world. As the physical light enables us to discern God’s power and glory in the natural universe, so the light of faith enables us to recognize His glory in the spiritual universe.—The highest grace is that look of grace God gives us when we experience His grace.—Every thing which belongs to Christ’s manifestation to men, is a reflection of the Deity, What then was the lustre upon Moses’ face compared with the light in which God manifests Himself?
W. F. Besser, 2Co_4:2 :—An ingenuous deportment is the glory, and an artful concealment is the shame of a minister of Christ. Every man’s conscience recognizes with more or less distinctness what God commands or forbids; and hence when the Gospel is manifested to it, a ready witness there gives an affirmation to the truth; and when this affirmation is withheld, the conscience of the lover of lies feels the penal brand (1Ti_4:2). The consciousness of his guilt is indelibly fixed in his soul. The conscience of believers is good; it is polluted with no corruptions, and it is restrained by no fears; while that of unbelievers is vicious, defiled and burdened; it perpetually accuses them that are lost because they obey not the truth.
2Co_4:3. It may do us no harm to remain ignorant of some truths, but we are lost forever if we know not the Gospel.
2Co_4:4. The special work of the great Corrupter is to corrupt still more them that are lost. In this work, however, he is only God’s executioner. This blinding is nothing but a punishment for the sin of unbelief (Eph_2:2), for loving darkness so much that the light was necessarily hated (Joh_3:19-20), and for being so much devoted to earthly things, that all the blessings of heaven offered in the Gospel, are rejected with scorn. The blindness itself is effected by covering up the Gospel, by mystifying God’s clear word, by misconstruing the obvious meaning of what God has done, and by closing the eyes against the truth as it is dispensed in the Church.
2Co_4:6. The very central point of man’s nature, his heart’s treasure (Mat_12:35), has been darkened ever since he became a sinner; the Spirit of God, the light of his life has been put out. It is indeed true that the heart (where the conscience has its laboratory) is always aware to some extent, that its life and rest should be in God, but this light of conscience cannot give life; it is rather a deadly lightning (Rom_1:32) to those who have fallen from Divine fellowship. If in our hearts there ever springs up a spiritual light by which we recognize spiritual things, just as we behold the works of creation by the natural light, it must be by the act of that same God who in the beginning commanded the light to shine out of darkness (Psa_18:29). This work of the Almighty Creator, in which He irradiates man’s darkened heart, is just the counterpart of that work of this world’s god in which the mind of the unbeliever is blinded.
[“The Christian ministry: I. As a ministry of Light. It does not make the objects of faith; it only unveils or manifests them as they are. To live in sin is to live a false life—a life of lies—in which a man is untrue to his own nature. The Gospel does not make God our Father; it only reveals Him as He had ever been, is, and ever shall be; not a tyrant but a Father; not a chance or a necessary thing but a Person; and in the life of Christ the love of God has become intelligible to us. So it throws light on man’s nature; shows him with God-like aspirations and animal cravings; a glorious temple in ruins, to be re-built into a habitation of God through the Spirit. It throws light upon the grave and the things of that undiscovered land beyond. Hence our life is to be a perpetual manifestation of the Gospel, and a diffusion of the light of the Gospel; while the evil and worldly heart is ever hiding the truth. This light is the true evidence of Christianity. II. As a reflection, in wor
