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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 2 Corinthians 4:14 - 4:14
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2Co_4:14. Encouraging assurance accompanying this λαλοῦμεν (not its contents); since we are certain that, etc. Comp. Rom_5:3; 1Co_15:58.
ὁ ἐγείρας τ . κ . Ἰησ .] Comp. on 1Co_6:14; Rom_8:11. This designation of God contains the ground of faith for the conviction about to be expresse.
καὶ ἡμᾶς σὺν Ἰησοῦ ἐγερεῖ κ . παραστ . σὺν ὑμῖν ] This is usually understood of the actual resurrection from the dead, and of the presenting before the judgment-seat of Christ. And this view is the right one, partly because it alone is in keeping with the definite expressions, partly because it is in the highest degree suitable to the connection, when Paul here at the close of what he says regarding his sufferings and perils of death expresses the certainty of the last and supreme consummation as the deepest ground of his all-defying courage of faith. This amid all afflictions is his καυχᾶσθαι ἐπʼ ἐλπίδι τῆς δόξης τοῦ θεοῦ , Rom_5:2. Paul, indeed, expected that he himself and most of his readers would live to see the Parousia (1Co_15:51 f., 2Co_1:8, 2Co_11:26; 2Co_1:13 f.); but the possibility of meeting death in the deadly persecutions was always and even now before his mind (1Co_15:31 f.; 2Co_1:8; 2Co_5:18; Php_1:20 f., 2Co_2:17; Act_20:25; Act_20:38); and out of this case conceived as possible, which subsequently he for the time being even posits as a certainty (see on Act_20:25), he expresses here in presence of his eventual death his triumphant consciousness ὅτι ὁ ἐγείρας κ . τ . λ . Hence there is no ground for explaining it, with Beza (who, however, again abandoned this view), Calixtus (“suscitabit a morte sc. illa quotidiana”), Schulz, Rückert, Neander, of the resurrection in a figurative sense, viz. of the overcoming the constant perils of death (2Co_4:10-12), which, it is held, is a resurrection with Jesus, in so far as through it there arises a fellowship of destiny with the risen Christ. This interpretation is not demanded by the correct reading σὺν Ἰησοῦ , as if this σὺν (comp. Rom_6:4; Rom_6:8; Eph_2:5 f.) presupposed the spiritual meaning. It is true that the raising of the dead takes place διὰ Ἰησοῦ , and has its basis ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ (1Co_15:21-22); but Christians may be also conceived and designated as one day becoming raised with Jesus, since they are members of Christ, and Christ is the ἀπαρχή (1Co_15:23) of all who rise from the dead. The believer, in virtue of his connection with the Lord, knows himself already in his temporal life as risen with Christ (see on Col_2:12; Col_3:1), and what he thus knows in faith emerges at the last day into objective completion and outward realit.
καὶ παραστήσει σὺν ὑμῖν ] and will present us together with you. This is taken, according to the previously rejected figurative sense of ἐγερεῖ , to refer to the presentation of the conquerors over deadly perils, or even in the sense: “and will bring us together again with you” (Neander, Rückert). But, according to the context, after the mention of the resurrection, it obviously denotés the presentation before the judgment-seat of Christ (2Co_5:10; Rom_14:10; Col_1:22; Eph_5:27; Luk_21:36), where the righteous receive the eternal δόξα (2Ti_4:8). With Christ they have suffered; with Him they have risen; and now before the throne of the Lord their συνδοξασθῆναι , (Rom_8:15) sets in, which must be the blessed result of their presentation before the Judge. Hence Hofmann is wrong in thinking that there is no allusion to the judgment-seat of Christ in παραστ . Comp. on Col_1:22. In the certainty of this last consummation Paul has the deepest ground of encouragement for his undaunted working, and the presentiment of such a glorious consummation is made still sweeter to him by the glance at the fellowship of love with his Corinthians, together with whom he will reach the blessed goal unto eternal union. Comp. 1Th_2:19. Hence: σὺν ὑμῖν , which is an essential part of the inward certainty expressed by εἰδότες κ . τ . λ ., which gives him high encouragement. We may add that the ὑμεῖς will be partly those risen, partly those changed alive (1Co_15:51 ff.; 1Th_4:14 ff.).