2 Corinthians 4:6

"Seeing it is God that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in your hearts." Seest thou how again to those who were desirous of seeing that surpassing glory, I mean that of Moses, he shows it flashing with added lustre? 'As upon the face of Moses, so also hath it shined unto your hearts,' he saith. And first, he puts them in mind of what was made in the beginning of the Creation, sensible light and darkness sensible, showing that this creation is greater. And where commanded He light to shine out of darkness? In the beginning and in prelude to the Creation; for, saith he, "Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light." Howbeit then indeed He said, "Let it be, and it was:" but now He said nothing, but Himself became Light for us. For he said not, 'hath also now commanded,' but "hath" Himself "shined." Therefore neither do we see sensible objects by the shining of this Light, but God Himself through Christ. Seest thou the invariableness in the Trinity? For of the Spirit, he says, "But we all with unveiled face reflecting in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as from the Lord the Spirit." And of the Son; "That the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, Who is the Image of God, should not dawn upon them." And of the Father; "He that said Light shall shine out of darkness shined in your hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." For as when he had said, "Of the Gospel of the glory of Christ," he added, "Who is the Image of God," showing that they were deprived of His glory also; So after saying, "the knowledge of God," he added, "in the face of Christ,' to show that through Him we know the Father, even as through the Spirit also we are brought unto Him.

This word is written in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, in which the Apostle Paul, the great doctor, explains the gift of knowledge itself; and he explains the gift itself with respect to its antecedents and consequents. Two things precede the gift of knowledge: …

"He has shone in our hearts for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God." However much a man may have a good natural judgment and along with this frequency of experience, they do not suffice unless there be illumination through divine influence. …

Our hearts had been submerged in darkness.

Then when he says, For it is the God who said, he shows the source of his Gospel's power to enlighten. Here we should note the order of the Apostle's procedure. It is this: at one time, namely, before being converted to Christ, we were …

When the apostle said, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts," he referred to the resurrection. He showed this resurrection to be the exodus from the old state which in the likeness of Sheol incarcerates a …

We should accordingly worship and glorify him who raised our dust to such state, recounting ceaselessly the holiness of him who mingled our spirit with his Spirit and mixed into our bodies the gift of his grace, causing the fire of his Holy Spirit to …

Why, he says, do we not preach ourselves? Because God has shone in our hearts, as in ancient times upon the face of Moses, so now upon us. As at the first creation He spoke, and light appeared out of darkness, so now too He …

Illumination - Is properly the reflection or propagation of light, from those who are already enlightened, to others. Who is the image of God - Hence also we may understand how great is the glory of Christ. He that sees the Son, sees the Father in the face of Christ.

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. In the face of Jesus Christ - Which reflects his glory in another manner than the face of Moses did.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,....

And the light of this Sun of righteousness is more glorious than that light which God commanded to shine out of darkness. It is a pleasant thing for the eye to behold the sun in the firmament; but it is more pleasant and profitable when the gospel shines in the heart.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness - The apostle refers here to Gen 1:3. For when God created the heavens and the earth Darkness was on the face of the deep; and God said, Let There Be Light; and there was light. Thus he caused the light to shine out of darkness. Hath shined in our hearts - He has given our hearts the glorious light of the Gospel, as he has given the world the glorious light of the sun.

The physical world answers to the spiritual. in our hearts--in themselves dark. to give the light--that is, to propagate to others the light, &c., which is in us (compare Note, see on 2Co 4:4). the glory of God--answering to "the glory of Christ" (see on 2Co 4:4). in the face of Jesus Christ--Some of the oldest manuscripts retain "Jesus." Others omit it.

THE Apostle is explaining the reason for his preaching Christ with so much earnestness—he had received Divine light and he felt bound to spread it. One great motive power of a true ministry is trusteeship. The Lord has put us in trust with the Gospel; He has filled us with a treasure with which we are to enrich the world.

THE Apostle is explaining the reason for his preaching Christ with so much earnestness—he had received Divine light and he felt bound to spread it. One great motive power of a true ministry is trusteeship. The Lord has put us in trust with the Gospel; He has filled us with a treasure with which we are to enrich the world. The text explains in full what it is with which the Lord has entrusted us—He has bestowed upon us the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and it is ours to reflect the light, to impart the knowledge, to manifest the Glory, to point to the Savior's face and to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Having such a work before us, we faint not, but press onward with our whole heart. I. With no other preface than this we shall ask your attention this morning, first, TO THE SUBJECT OF THAT KNOWLEDGE in which Paul delighted so much. What was this knowledge which, to his mind, was the chief of all and the most worthy to be spread? It was the knowledge of God—truly a most necessary and proper knowledge for all God's creatures! For a man not to know his Maker and Ruler is deplorable ignorance, indeed! The proper study of mankind is God. Paul not only knew that there is a God, for he had known that before his conversion—none could have more surely believed in the Godhead than did Paul as a Jew. Nor does he merely intend that he had learned somewhat of the Character of God, for that, also, he had known from the Old Testament Scriptures before he was met with on the way to Damascus. Now he had come to know God in a closer, clearer and surer way, for he had seen Him, Incarnate, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle had also received the knowledge of "the Glory of God" Never had the God of Abraham appeared so glorious as now! God in Christ Jesus had won the adoring wonder of the Apostle's instructed mind.

For God, who commanded ... - The design of this verse seems to be, to give a reason why Paul and his fellow-apostles did not preach themselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord, 2Co 4:5. That reason was, that their minds had been so illuminated by that God who had commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that they had discerned the glory of the divine perfections shining in and through the Redeemer, and they therefore gave themselves. to the work of making him known among people. The doctrines which they preached they had not derived from people in any form. They had not been elaborated by human reasoning or science, nor had they been imparted by tradition. They had been communicated directly by the source of all light - the true God - who had shined into the hearts that were once benighted by sin. Having been thus illuminated, they had felt themselves bound to go and make known to others the truths which God had imparted to them. Who commanded the light ... - Gen 1:3. God caused it to shine by his simple command. He said, “let there be light, and there was light.” The fact that it was produced by “his saying so” is referred to here by Paul by his use of the phrase (ὁ εἰπὼν ho eipōn) “Who saying,” or speaking the light to shine from darkness. The passage in Genesis is adduced by Longinus as a striking instance of the sublime. Hath shined in our hearts - Margin, “It is he who hath.” This is more in accordance with the Greek, and the sense is, “The God who at the creation bade the light to shine out of darkness, is he who has shined into our hearts; or it is the same God who has illuminated us, who commanded the light to shine at the creation.” “Light” is every where in the Bible the emblem of knowledge, purity, and truth; as darkness is the emblem of ignorance, error, sin, and wretchedness. See note, Joh 1:4-5. […]