2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 4 2 CORINTHIANS 4:1,2 Paul declareth his unwearied zeal and integrity in preaching the gospel, 2 CORINTHIANS 4:3 so that if any see not the truth of it, it must be owing to their corrupt hearts, not to want of clear light. 2 CORINTHIANS 4:7 The weakness and sufferings he was ex... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT HAVE RENOUNCED THE HIDDEN THINGS OF DISHONESTY; though we be exposed to many sorrows and sufferings, it is not for any dishonest or unwarrantable behaviour amongst men; nay, we have not only declined openly dishonest actions, but any secret or hidden dishonest behaviour. Possibly he reflecteth u... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle calls the gospel _his gospel, _ because of his instrumentality in the promoting and publishing of it. His meaning is: If the doctrine of the gospel, which I am an instrument to preach, be hidden, so as there yet be any souls that do not understand, receive, and believe it, the fault is n... [ Continue Reading ]
Though some, by THE GOD OF THIS WORLD, understand the true and living God, the Lord of heaven and earth; yet the notion of the most interpreters, that it is the devil who is here called _the god of this world, _ because he ruleth over the greatest part of the world, and they are his servants and sla... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE PREACH NOT OURSELVES: for a man to preach himself, is to preach the devices and imaginations of his own heart, instead of the revealed will of God; to make his discourses the evomitions of his own lusts and passions; or to make himself the end of his preaching; preaching merely for filthy luc... [ Continue Reading ]
The Holy Ghost in the New Testament often compareth the work of the new creation by Jesus Christ, to the work of God in the old creation; intimating to us, that the latter is as great a work of providence and Divine power, as the former: EPHESIANS 4:24, _the new man, after God, _ is said to be _crea... [ Continue Reading ]
By the TREASURE here mentioned, the apostle meaneth either his ministration, or apostolical office, which he before had proved glorious, more glorious than that of the law; or else, that _light of the knowledge of the glory of God, _ which (as he had before said) God had made to shine into their hea... [ Continue Reading ]
WE ARE TROUBLED ON EVERY SIDE; we are many ways, indeed every way, afflicted, afflicted with all sorts of afflictions; YET NOT DISTRESSED; but yet we are not like persons cooped up into a strait place, so as they are not able to turn them, nor know which way to move (so the word signifies). WE ARE P... [ Continue Reading ]
PERSECUTED; violently pursued and prosecuted by such as are the adversaries of the gospel, and enemies to our Lord Jesus, because of our profession of him, and preaching his gospel; BUT yet NOT FORSAKEN of God, nor wholly of men; God, by the inward influences of his Holy Spirit, supporting, upholdin... [ Continue Reading ]
A Christian beareth about with him THE DYING OF THE LORD JESUS in his mind and soul, while he fetches strength from it to deaden his heart unto sin; being _buried with Christ into death, _ and _planted in the likeness of his death; _ having his _old man crucified with him, that the body of sin might... [ Continue Reading ]
We who are yet alive, as having breath still in our bodies; in another sense we do not live, viz. as life signifies prosperity and happiness; for we ARE ALWAYS DELIVERED UNTO DEATH, that is, under continual threats and dangers of death, so that we have always the sentence of death in ourselves; FOR... [ Continue Reading ]
You see the difference between us and you; either the real difference, or the fancied difference. We are killed all the day long, in deaths often, delivered to death always; you are rich, and full, and want nothing; LIFE, that is, security, happiness, and prosperity, attends you. Or the fancied diff... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SAME SPIRIT OF FAITH signifieth the same faith, or faith proceeding from the same spirit; thus, ISAIAH 11:2, _the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, _ signifieth wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledg... [ Continue Reading ]
Knowing that God the Father, who raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead, as the first-fruits of them that sleep, shall likewise, by the virtue of his resurrection, and by a power flowing from him, as now alive, and sitting at the right hand of God, quicken our mortal bodies; that both our souls and... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THINGS that Christ hath done and suffered, his death, and his resurrection from the dead, and all things that I have done or suffered, all ARE FOR YOUR SAKES; that the greater benefit it be which you receive from God, the greater praise, honour, and glory might redound to him by THE THANKSGIVING... [ Continue Reading ]
Because of this double advantage which accrueth from our sufferings, viz. the furthering of the good of your souls, and the promoting the glory of God from the thanksgivings of many, though we suffer many harsh and bitter things, yet we do not faint nor sink under the burden of our trials; but thoug... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle in these words wonderfully lesseneth his own, and the rest of the apostles, and all other Christians sufferings for the gospel: he calleth them LIGHT, not that they were so in themselves, but with respect to that WEIGHT OF GLORY which he mentioneth in the latter part of the verse: he cal... [ Continue Reading ]
Two things support the spirits of Christians under trials; 1. The eyeing of him who is invisible; this supported Moses, HEBREWS 11:27: _He endured, as seeing him who is invisible._ 2. The seeing by the eye of faith the things which are invisible; the things which God hath prepared in another world... [ Continue Reading ]