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2 Corinthians

2 Corinthianschapter 4

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Speaks with:Romans 8×52 Corinthians 3×42 Corinthians 5×31 Peter 4×21 Corinthians 15×2Isaiah 40×2

Summary

Chapter summary

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. Troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. Wesley reads this chapter as the apostle's own testimony to dying-yet-living ministry.

Context

Epistle · Paul — 2 Corinthians overview

  • A. 1–6 Light Out of Darkness Against a Blinded World
  • B. 7–12 Treasure in Clay Jars: Struck Down, Not Destroyed
  • C. 13–18 The Outward Man Perishes, the Inward Is Renewed

The outline

  1. A.Light Out of Darkness Against a Blinded Worldvv. 1 to 6

    Read vv. 1 to 6 →

  2. B.Treasure in Clay Jars: Struck Down, Not Destroyedvv. 7 to 12

    Read vv. 7 to 12 →

  3. C.The Outward Man Perishes, the Inward Is Renewedvv. 13 to 18

    Read vv. 13 to 18 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

Strength made perfect in weakness

Pattern

Three times 2 Corinthians sets Paul's weakness beside God's power: the sentence of death in Asia, the treasure in earthen vessels, and the thorn answered with my grace is sufficient for thee.

The letter defends Paul's apostleship by scars rather than credentials. The thread reaches its summit at 12:9, where the Lord himself gives the rule: my strength is made perfect in weakness, and Paul answers, when I am weak, then am I strong.

  1. 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

    The sentence of death

    Pressed out of measure in Asia, Paul despaired even of life, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.

  2. 2 Corinthians 4:7 you are here

    Treasure in earthen vessels

    The excellency of the power is of God, and not of us; the frail vessel is the point, not the problem.

  3. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

    My grace is sufficient for thee

    The thorn stays and the answer stands: my strength is made perfect in weakness; when I am weak, then am I strong.

The world behind this chapter

2 Corinthians 4
When
Written from Macedonia · c. AD 55–56
Where
The frailty of the messenger set against the value of the message.
Who first heard it
Corinthians embarrassed by an apostle who looked beaten down rather than successful.

The history

The "jars of clay" were the cheapest containers in the ancient world — plain unglazed pottery, mass produced, used for grain, oil, water, and household storage, and thrown away when cracked. Broken potsherds litter every excavation in the Near East because nobody bothered to repair them.

Some readers hear a second picture: a small clay lamp, worthless in itself, holding a flame. Either way the point is the mismatch between the container and what is inside it, so that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

The hardship list — afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, struck down but not destroyed — was a recognizable literary form. Philosophers published catalogues of hardships to prove the sage's inner strength. Paul uses the form and inverts its purpose: what it proves is not his toughness but that the life of Jesus is being made visible in a dying body.

The reference to the god of this age blinding minds addresses a real question in a culture of competing revelations: why do intelligent people not see it?

What it meant to them

For a church that valued polish, Paul's insistence that he refused underhanded ways, cunning, and tampering with God's word drew the contrast he wanted with whoever had been impressing them.

And for anyone wearing out, the chapter offered a measurement: the outer self wasting away while the inner self is renewed day by day, and present troubles weighed as light and momentary against an eternal weight of glory.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on 2 Corinthians 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 6 · A picture of Christ

Creation-light over the primeval deep foreshadows the new-creation light of the gospel in the heart (explicit-nt).

Genesis 1:2→

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

2 Cor 4:6; Gen 1:2-3

v. 6 · Quoted here · Quoted, and the whole passage comes with it

Paul reads 'Let there be light' as the pattern of regeneration: the God who commanded light out of darkness 'hath shined in our hearts.'

Genesis 1:3→

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (public domain)Puritan

v. 8 · Written to them

Troubled on every side, yet not distressed

topics/loss→

MannaFest topical index

v. 17 · Written to them

Light affliction, eternal weight of glory

topics/suffering→

MannaFest topical index

This page draws on Charles Hodge, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians; Charles Spurgeon, My Grace Is Sufficient (sermon); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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