2 Corinthians 4

     4:1.  By we, Paul means all who were involved with him in his apostolic ministry (cf. 1:19; 4:5; 5:20).

     4:2. Those who adulterate the word of God do the work of Satan (4; cf.Gen.3:1, “Indeed, has God said…?”).

     4:3-4.  The unbelieving are perishing because they do not love the truth of God’s word (cf.2 Thess.2:9-12).  Christ glorified is the image of God (4b.; cf.3:18; John 14:9).

     4:5-7.  The same God who planned and caused all things to exist since the dawn of creation (Gen.1:1-3), has caused his light to shine in the hearts of the bond-servants of Jesus.  They preach the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the unveiled face of Christ (cf.3:16,18).

    In his commentary on Judges 7, Matthew Henry makes this gospel analogy: Gideon’s victory by the power of God is “…typifying the destruction of the devil’s kingdom in the world by the preaching of the everlasting gospel, the sound of the trumpet, and the holding forth of the light out of earthen vessels, for such the ministers of the gospel are, in whom the treasure of the light is deposited, 2 Cor.4:6,7.”

     4:8-15.  None of this affliction unto death for Christ would make any sense if Jesus were not a risen savior.  Paul sees the words of Ps.116, where the psalmist throughout speaks of his faith in God’s deliverance from death (13), as prophetically the words of Christ.  And we shall all be raised together with him (14), to the abounding glory of God (15).

     4:16-18.  The afflictions of the life of faith are here weighed in the balance with the eternal weight of glory they produce.