Therefore having this ministry — Spoken of, 2 Corinthians 3:6. As we have received mercy — Have been mercifully supported in all our trials. We faint not — We desist not in any degree from our glorious enterprise.... [ Continue Reading ]
But have renounced — Set at open defiance. The hidden things of shame — All things which men need to hide, or to be ashamed of. Not walking in craftiness — Using no disguise, subtlety, guile. Nor privily corrupting the pure word of God — By any additions or alterations, or by attempting to accommoda... [ Continue Reading ]
But if our gospel also — As well as the law of Moses.... [ Continue Reading ]
The God of this world — What a sublime and horrible description of Satan! He is indeed the god of all that believe not, and works in them with inconceivable energy. Hath blinded — Not only veiled, the eye of their understanding. Illumination — Is properly the reflection or propagation of light, from... [ Continue Reading ]
For — The fault is not in us, neither in the doctrine they hear from us. We preach not ourselves — As able either to enlighten, or pardon, or sanctify you. But Jesus Christ — As your only wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. And ourselves your servants — Ready to do the meanest offices. For Jesus'... [ Continue Reading ]
For God hath shined in our hearts — The hearts of all those whom the god of this world no longer blinds. God who is himself our light; not only the author of light, but also the fountain of it. To enlighten us with the knowledge of the glory of God — Of his glorious love, and of his glorious image.... [ Continue Reading ]
But we — Not only the apostles, but all true believers. Have this treasure — Of divine light, love, glory. In earthen vessels — In frail, feeble, perishing bodies. He proceeds to show, that afflictions, yea, death itself, are so far from hindering the ministration of the Spirit, that they even furth... [ Continue Reading ]
We are troubled, &c. — The four articles in this verse respect inward, the four in the next outward, afflictions. In each clause the former part shows the "earthen vessels;" the latter, "the excellence of the power." Not crushed — Not swallowed up in care and anxiety. Perplexed — What course to take... [ Continue Reading ]
Always — Wherever we go. Bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus — Continually expecting to lay down our lives like him. That the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body — That we may also rise and be glorified like him.... [ Continue Reading ]
For we who yet live — Who are not yet killed for the testimony of Jesus. Are always delivered unto death — Are perpetually in the very jaws of destruction; which we willingly submit to, that we may "obtain a better resurrection.... [ Continue Reading ]
So then death worketh in us, but life in you — You live in peace; we die daily. Yet — Living or dying, so long as we believe, we cannot but speak.... [ Continue Reading ]
Having the same spirit of faith — Which animated the saints of old; David, in particular, when he said, I believed, and therefore have I spoken — That is, I trusted in God, and therefore he hath put this song of praise in my mouth. We also speak — We preach the gospel, even in the midst of afflictio... [ Continue Reading ]
For all things — Whether adverse or prosperous. Are for your sakes — For the profit of all that believe, as well as all that preach. That the overflowing grace — Which continues you alive both in soul and body. Might abound yet more through the thanksgiving of many — For thanksgiving invites more: a... [ Continue Reading ]
Therefore — Because of this grace, we faint not. The outward man — The body. The inward man — The soul.... [ Continue Reading ]
Our light affliction — The beauty and sublimity of St. Paul's expressions here, as descriptive of heavenly glory, opposed to temporal afflictions, surpass all imagination, and cannot be preserved in any translation or paraphrase, which after all must sink infinitely below the astonishing original.... [ Continue Reading ]
The things that are seen — Men, money, things of earth. The things that are not seen — God, grace, heaven.... [ Continue Reading ]