2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 4.
The Gospel-Message of Light and Life. 2 Corinthians 4, 1–18
Paul’s bodily weakness: V.7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. V.8. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; v.9. persecuted; but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed ...
Here the great humility of Paul is again evident, since he says that the glorious ministry with which he is identified was entrusted to weak and decaying vessels. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is borne by the ministers in earthen vessels, as the apostle calls their bodies, vessels made of clay, cheap and fragile. The description fits the human body in general, and that of the apostle in particular, as his humility prompts him to write.
It may seem strange that so great a treasure should be kept for distribution in so frail and perishable a vessel as that of the human body, but the fact shows the principle of the divine purpose: That the exceeding greatness of the power (which is exhibited in the work of the gospel) may be God’s and not from ourselves.
“Our hands and tongues are indeed perishable and mortal things, but through these means, through these perishable and earthen vessels, the Son of God wants to exhibit His power” (Luther, 6, 144).
The very fact of the weakness and insignificance of the human vessels of God’s merciful proclamation therefore makes His own glory stand out all the more prominently by contrast.
“Not the excellence of the vessel, but the great value of the treasure; not the person of the preacher, but the name which the preaching proclaims; not natural strength and ability of man, but the grace of God and God’s mighty Word: behold the superabundant power triumphing over the substance of this world, which goes forth from the preachers of the Gospel and elevates them above the sufferings of their calling” (Besser, Bibelstunden, 9, 144).
These sufferings with which the servants of the Lord are obliged to contend are now pictured by the apostle in his usual, effective manner: On all sides hard-pressed, but not hemmed in; bewildered, but not altogether despairing: pursued, but not outstripped; thrown down, but not destroyed.
Paul, in these figures probably has the Isthmian games in mind once more, as in 1 Cor. 9, 24-27. He and his fellow workers, and all Christians, for that matter, are like wrestlers. Their opponents may press in upon them from all sides and threaten to obtain a death-grip, but they never fully succeed in obtaining the fatal hold; they may sometimes become puzzled by the skill exhibited by the adversaries, but they do not give up the struggle, they are not overcome.
They are like runners in a race, with the goal almost before their eyes, whom their opponents try to outdistance and leave behind; but they manage, after all, to come in first.
They are like boxers whom the adversaries might occasionally strike down, but who nevertheless rise with undaunted courage to resume the struggle and to become victors.
All this the ministers of the Gospel experience in rich measure, and all faithful Christians are likewise partakers of like difficulties. In tribulations, in perplexities, in persecutions, in losses and trials of every kind the conflict goes on; defeat seems impending in a thousand circumstances, but the end is always a victory for the Gospel and its adherents.