Paul proceeded to explain further the nature of ministry under the New Covenant so his readers would understand his ministry and theirs better. The nature of Christianity is paradoxical. Second Corinthians explains more of these paradoxes than any other New Testament book.
In writing this epistle Paul wanted his readers to realize that his ministry was not faulty, as his critics charged, but that it was solidly within the will of God. To do this he described his own ministry as a projection or extension of Jesus' ministry. As Jesus had died and been raised, Paul was similarly dying, but he was also experiencing the benefits of resurrection. He used the death and resurrection of Jesus metaphorically to describe his own ministry. This becomes most evident in 4:7-15, but also in 5:14-21 and in chapters 8-9 where the metaphor describes the ministry of giving.146
Paul presented many paradoxical contrasts involved in the sufferings and supports of the Christian to clarify for his readers the real issues involved in serving Jesus Christ.
"This passage, which is about suffering and death (vv. 7-12), stands in stark contrast with the theme of glory' so brilliantly developed by Paul in 3:7-4:6, to which he also will return in vv. 16-18."147
4:7 The treasure that every Christian possesses is "the knowledge of the glory of God"(v. 6, i.e., the gospel). Even though it is what dispels spiritual darkness God has deposited this precious gift in every clay Christian. This is a paradox, consequently the "but."
"A vessel's worth comes from what it holds, not from what it is."148
God has done this so all may see that the transforming power of the gospel is supernatural and not just human (cf. Judg. 7:19-20).
"The pottery lamps which could be bought for a copper or two in the Corinthian market-place provided a sufficient analogy; it did not matter how cheap or fragile they were so long as they showed the light."149
Paul was not disparaging the human body by calling it an earthen vessel nor was he saying that it is only a vehicle for the soul. Paul viewed man as a unity of material and immaterial parts (monism) rather than as having higher and lower elements (dualism).150He was contrasting the relative insignificance and unattractiveness of the light-bearers with the surpassing worth and beauty of the light (i.e., God's glory) itself.151
"It is precisely the Christian's utter frailty which lays him open to the experience of the all-sufficiency of God's grace, so that he is able even to rejoice because of his weakness (12:9f.)--something that astonishes and baffles the world, which thinks only in terms of human ability."152
4:8-9 Paul pointed out four specific ways in which the weakness of his earthen vessel contrasted with God's power (cf. 1:5, 10). He may have been thinking of himself as a gladiator or soldier in view of what he wrote. He had been on the ropes but not trapped in a corner. He was without proper provision but not completely without resources. He was a hunted man but not totally forsaken. Finally he felt beaten down but not destroyed. In these respects his life, representing all believers who herald the gospel, was very like our Lord's. Paul's numerous escapes from defeat and death were signs of Christ's power at work in him.
"To be at the end of man's resources is not to be at the end of God's resources; on the contrary, it is to be precisely in the position best suited to prove and benefit from them, and to experience the surplus of the power of God breaking through and resolving the human dilemma.
"As death is the culminating moment of the Christian's weakness, so also it is the point at which the all-transcending power of God is most marvellously [sic] displayed."153
"Verses 8-9 represent the first of the tribulation lists' (peristaseis) found within 2 Corinthians (see also 6:3-10; 11:23b-33; 12:7-10; cf. 1:5-11; 2:14-17)."154
4:10 Paul summarized the four preceding contrasts with another paradox. He was in one sense always dying but in another sense never lifeless. Paul's use of nekrosis("dying,"v. 10) rather than thanatos("death") shows that what he had in mind was not our identification with Jesus in His death. It was rather our sharing in His sufferings by being exposed to danger and death for His sake daily (cf. 1:5-6; 1 Cor. 15:31; Phil. 3:10). The next verse makes this clearer.
4:11 Paul faced threats to his life daily for his witness to Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 15:30-31). This seems clearly to be what he meant by "the dying of Jesus."There are three other ways that the New Testament associates us with Jesus' death, but these are not in view here. They are our identification with His death in baptism (Rom. 6:3-5), our daily mortification of the flesh (Gal. 5:24), and our physical debilitation as we serve Christ.
Paradoxically the death and the life of Jesus were simultaneously obvious in Paul's experience (cf. 1:4-5). Though living, Paul was always in danger of dying because enemies of Jesus rejected him and tried to kill him. However even though his body was in the process of aging and dying God kept giving him life, as He provided resurrection life to Jesus, so Paul could continue to serve Him.
4:12 There is another paradox. While Christ's ministers suffer because of their testimony for the Savior, those to whom they minister experience new and greater spiritual life because of those ministers' faithfulness (cf. 1:3-7). The more faithful Paul and his companions remained to God's will the more they suffered and the more the Corinthians prospered spiritually.
4:13-14 Why did Paul continue to serve God faithfully even though it meant suffering for him? First, Paul believed, as the psalmist did, that inner conviction about the truth must result in outward confession of that truth (cf. 1 Cor. 9:16).155Second, Paul believed that physical death was not the end of existence but that the power of God presently at work in him would continue working in him after death. When the apostle could serve God no longer due to death, God's power would raise him from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus guarantees the resurrection of believers in Jesus (1 Cor. 15:23). God's power would unite Paul with his readers whom God would also resurrect (cf. Eph. 5:27; Col. 1:22; 1 Thess. 4:14). Paul's reference to reunion with the Corinthians in heaven probably implies his genuine love for them.
4:15 This concluding statement also reflects the apostle's sincere desire for the Corinthians' welfare. All Paul had been experiencing would result in the Corinthians' good and God's glory. He gladly endured suffering for the gospel in view of this prospect. Paul had brought God's grace to Corinth, and now the Corinthians were taking that grace to other people in other places. Gratitude is always the proper response to God's grace.
"As God's grace expanded in their hearts and through them reached ever-increasing numbers, so too, the volume of thanksgiving to God for the receipt of illumination (cf. 4:6) would increase and promote the glory of God."156
So far Paul gave three reasons for his refusal to become discouraged as he served the Lord. In the past he had received a divine commission to proclaim a new and better covenant (v. 1). In the future he looked forward to sharing Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead (v. 14). In the present he had the opportunity to promote the Corinthians' spiritual welfare and the glory of God (v. 16).
4:16 In view of the reasons just sited, the apostle restated that he did not lose heart (cf. v. 1). However, Paul's sufferings, while not fatal, were destroying his body. Nevertheless even this did not discourage him for even though physically he was decaying spiritually he was still developing (cf. Eph. 3:16). In this verse Paul resumed the thought he began in verse 1.
"We are, in fact, on the threshold of one of the most important eschatological passages of the New Testament."157
4:17 Paul introduced another paradox. Suffering now will result in glory later. He could consider the afflictions he had undergone as a servant of Christ as "light"only in comparison with the heavy weight of glory he would receive at Christ's judgment seat (cf. 11:23-27).
"His choice of the expression the weight of glory' may be influenced by the fact that in Hebrew weight' and glory' come from the same root kbd. It is because the coming glory' is so weighty' that the present affliction' seems so slight' (Gk elaphron, light'), just as the eternity of the coming glory' makes the affliction' seem momentary.' It is not simply that the glory' is the compensation for the affliction' [cf. Rom. 8:18] . . . rather, the glory' is the product of the affliction,' produced in measure beyond all comparison' . . ."158
Paul spoke of the glory as something that he could increase by continuing to suffer, the result of following God faithfully. He was referring to his eternal reward.
"No more [i.e., neither] does the Apostle mean that all suffering is productive of glory, as though it were an infallible means to this end. The history of the Church has shown that such a concept leads to an unscriptural self-interest and to a misconception of the true character of Christian suffering. Paul is concerned here with suffering for Jesus' sake(v. 11; cf. Acts 9:16), which means suffering in which there cannot possibly be any self-interest. It is precisely as the I' decreases that Christ increases (Jn. 3:30)."159
4:18 Another irony is that the physical things that we see now appear to be permanent, but really the spiritual things that we cannot see are permanent (cf. Heb. 11:1). What we can see now is only temporary. The present momentary visible things of life paled for the apostle as he considered the future eternal invisible things on ahead. These things included his fullness of joy, his completed salvation, and his heavenly inheritance. By keeping these unseen realities in view he could avoid discouragement when what he could see tempted him to feel discouraged (cf. Col. 3:1-2).
Paul continued to give reasons why we need not lose heart. The themes of life in the midst of death and glory following as a result of present suffering also continue.
What about the believer who dies before he or she has followed God faithfully for very long? Will such a person experience no glory in the future? Paul explained that there are three bases for comfort in such a case. All Christians who die will receive an immortal body (v. 1). This is by itself a substantial gift of glory. Second, all Christians, including those who die soon after becoming believers, presently possess the Holy Spirit who is God's pledge of our future complete glorification (vv. 4-5). Third, death begins a new phase of existence for all believers that will be far superior to what we experience now (vv. 7-8).
5:1 "For"(NASB) or "Now"(NIV, Gr. gar) continues the contrast between things presently seen and things not yet seen (4:18). Here Paul contrasted our present and future bodies.
"The clothed upon' and swallowed up by life' imagery (vv. 2-4), when read alongside 1 Cor 15:53-54, leaves little doubt that this house' is the individual's resurrection body."160
As a tentmaker, Paul compared the human body to a tent.161In ancient times a tent was a familiar symbol of what was transitory.162Our physical bodies are only temporary structures, but God is preparing new bodies for us that are superior to anything that human hands can produce and maintain.
Paul earlier indicated that he expected that the Lord would probably return before he died (1 Thess. 4:15, 17; 1 Cor. 15:51). Here he said that he might die before Jesus Christ returns for His own. Perhaps his recent brush with death in Ephesus made this possibility fresh in his mind (1:8-11). No Christian can ever be sure which will come first, the Rapture or death. These statements indicate that Paul believed in Jesus' imminent return to take Christians to heaven (John 14:1-3).163
5:2-3 Paul changed his figure slightly. God will clothe us with a new and better garment. Until then we groan because we feel the pains associated with mortality, namely our physical limitations, sickness, and the increasing disability that accompanies advancing age. This new covering apparently awaits us immediately after death and before our resurrection. It is therefore probably an intermediate body.
Even though there is no specific instruction concerning an intermediate body and its characteristics in Scripture, its existence seems beyond doubt. References to believers after death and before resurrection suggest that they have bodies (cf. Lazarus, Luke 16:19-25; Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, Matt. 17:1-3, et al; the martyred dead in heaven, Rev. 6:9-11 and 7:13-17). These bodies evidently will not be suitable for eternal existence since God will replace them with resurrection bodies.164Another view sees this "building"or "dwelling"as our heavenly home.165
Verse 3 is parenthetic. Paul clarified that believers who die are not disembodied spirits until the resurrection of their bodies. Another interpretation sees believers as unclothed (without an intermediate body) between their death and resurrection.166Those who hold this view understand Paul to be saying that he did not look forward to his disembodied condition. He anticipated the time when God would clothe him with an immortal body (at his resurrection).
I believe that one of the strongest arguments that we will never be disembodied spirits is that the Bible consistently views humans as unified beings. It does not describe the body as merely the house that the real person lives in. That is a Platonic concept that the early Gnostics and other anthropological dualists held. Rather, the Bible describes people as consisting of material and immaterial parts. If we were to lack material substance (either mortal or immortal), we would seemingly be less than human beings.
5:4 This verse expands verse 2. The Christian does not groan in his or her present body because he or she wants to get rid of it. At least that was not what Paul meant here. We groan because we long to receive the immortal bodies that God will give us. God's promises of something better make us dissatisfied with what we have now. We long for the time when immortal life will in a sense consume what is mortal and dies. This is another paradox. Paul was confident that if death would destroy his present body he would certainly receive a glorious future body that God would provide.
5:5 The hope of an immortal body is not just wishful thinking. We already have the down payment of our inheritance in the Holy Spirit. In modern Greek the word translated "pledge"(NASB) or "deposit"(NIV) here, arrhabona, elsewhere describes an engagement ring (cf. 1:22). Our present possession of the Holy Spirit is God's guarantee that He will provide all that we need in the future.
The Spirit may not seem like a very convincing guarantee since we cannot see Him. However, we can see what His presence in us produces, namely our character transformation. This should give us confidence that God will transform us completely in the future.
5:6-8 Verses 6-8 bear the same relation to each other as do verses 2-4. Verses 2 and 6 make a statement. Verses 3 and 7 are parenthetical, and verses 4 and 8 expand verses 2 and 6 respectively.
Since we have the promise that we will obtain a glorified body (v. 1), and since we have a pledge of that promise in our present transformation (v. 5), we can feel consistently confident.
However because we are absent from the Lord while we are living in our mortal bodies we desire to leave these bodies and take up our new residence in the Lord's presence. Note that there are no other alternatives for the believer. We are either in our mortal bodies and absent from the Lord or we are with the Lord and absent from our mortal bodies. This is a strong guarantee that when we leave our mortal bodies we will go immediately into the Lord's presence. Being "at home with the Lord"implies a closer fellowship with Christ than we experience now as well as closer proximity to Him (cf. 1 Thess. 4:17; Phil. 1:23).
We need never despair, therefore, when we walk by faith believing what God has revealed He has in store for us. Nevertheless the fact that we now walk by faith and not by sight reminds us that the fellowship that we enjoy with the Lord now, while genuine, is inferior to what we will experience.
5:9 As we look forward to the realization of these good things our ambition must be to please God come life or death. The prospect of face-to-face fellowship with Jesus Christ should motivate us to please Him out of love (cf. Gal. 1:10; Phil. 1:20; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 4:1). Paul did not mean that we can perform acts after we die that will please God (cf. v. 10), though we can. "At home or absent"is a figure of speech (merism) for always.167
"To be well-pleasing to Christ is, indeed, the sum of all ambition which is truly Christian."168
". . . one always wishes to please the one he or she loves."169
5:10 It is not only the hope of God's positive provisions that should motivate the Christian, however. We must also bear in mind that we will have to account for our works when we meet the Lord. Then He will reward His children on the basis of their deeds. This is not a judgment to determine whether we will enter heaven but one to determine to what extent He will reward us who enter heaven.170
"The imagery used here for the future moment of eschatological revelation is that of the forensic process whereby the Roman governor sat on his tribunal to hear accusation and defense of an accused person standing before him. If he judged the accused guilty, the governor would order immediate punishment. Paul's use of this language to the Corinthians may have been calculated; he himself had stood accused before the Roman governor Gallio in the Corinthian agorasome years earlier (Acts 18:12, 16-17), as the original members of the Corinthian church doubtless remembered."171
The Greek word translated "bad"(phaulos) really means worthless. The idea is not that God will reward us for the good things we did and punish us for the bad things we did. He will rather reward us for the worthwhile things we did and not reward us for the worthless things we did (cf. Matt. 6:19-21; 1 Cor. 9:24-27). The worthwhile things are those that contribute to the advancement of God's mission and glory in the world. Worthless deeds are those that make no contribution to the fulfillment of God's good purposes (cf. Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27).
"The bad works are discarded as unworthy of reward but good works are rewarded. The penalty is limited to the loss of reward."172
". . . believers do not face condemnation at Christ's tribunal (see Rom 5:16, 18; 8:1) but rather evaluationwith a view to the Master's commendation given or withheld (1 Cor 3:10-15)."173
"Judgment on the basis of works is not opposed to justification on the basis of faith. . . . Yet not all verdicts will be comforting. The believer may suffer loss' (1 Cor. 3:15) by forfeiting Christ's praise or losing a reward that might have been his."174
"The judgment seat of Christ might be compared to a commencement ceremony. At graduation there is some measure of disappointment and remorse that one did not do better and work harder. However, at such an event the overwhelming emotion is joy, not remorse. The graduates do not leave the auditorium weeping because they did not earn better grades. Rather, they are thankful that they have been graduated, and they are grateful for what they did achieve. To overdo the sorrow aspect of the judgment seat of Christ is to make heaven hell. To underdo the sorrow aspect is to make faithfulness inconsequential."175
". . . because much is required of those to whom much has been given, the thought of the judgment seat of Christ has for the Christian a peculiar solemnity. It is not meant to cloud his prospect of future blessedness, but to act as a stimulus, as strong a stimulus as the most imperious of human ambitions; for the word philotimoumetha, translated we labour(RV we make it our aim'), means literally we are ambitious'."176
Throughout this section contrasts between the Spirit-imparted viewpoint on life and the natural viewpoint stand out. Some of the Corinthians were criticizing Paul because they were looking at his activities from the human viewpoint and were projecting that point of view onto him. They were concluding that he viewed life as they did. For their benefit he drew these contrasting views of life clearly.
The extent to which we view life from Paul's spiritual viewpoint will be the extent to which we do not lose heart in our ministry.
