2 Corinthians 4
Outline:
I. \\#2Corinthians 1:1-5:21\\ Paul’s Explanations
A. \\#2Corinthians 1:1-2\\ Paul’s Introduction
B. \\#2Corinthians 1:3-11\\ Paul’s Suffering
1. \\#1:3-7\\ Truths about All Suffering
2. \\#1:8-11\\ Truths about Paul’s Suffering
C. \\#2Corinthians 1:12-14\\ Paul’s Rejoicing
D. \\#2Corinthians 1:15-2:17\\ Paul’s Itinerary
1. \\#1:15-16\\ Paul’s Purpose
2. \\#2:17\\ The Corinthians’ Charge
3. \\#1:18-2:13\\ Paul’s Answers
4. \\#2:13-17\\ Paul’s Praise
E. \\#2Corinthians 3:1-5:21\\ Paul’s Ministry Facts
1. \\#3:1-5\\ Our Converts Are Our Credentials
2. \\#3:6-18\\ We Are Empowered through the Spirit
3. \\#4:1-18\\ We don’t quit.
4. \\#5:1-11\\ We have heavenly longings.
5. \\#5:12-21\\ We are driven by the love of Christ.
II. \\#2Corinthians 6:1-7:16\\ Paul’s Commands
A. \\#6:1-10\\ Don’t Waste God’s Grace
B. \\#6:11-18\\ Don’t Be Joined to the Lost
C. \\#7:1-16\\ Don’t Reject Us.
III. \\#2Corintihains 8:1-9:15\\ The Collection for the Saints
Paul’s Ministry Facts
III. \\#4:1-18\\ We don’t quit.
A. \\#1-7\\ "we have this ministry"
1. What ministry?
2. \\#2Cor 3:6\\ The glorious ministry of the New Testament.
3. \\#1-6\\ Having such an important ministry, Paul had
determined three things:
a. \\#1\\ "we faint not" - He would not quit. Paul had
many excuses which could have justified his quitting
had ye wanted to use them. He simply would not.
b. \\#2\\ "But (we) have renounced the hidden things of
dishonesty …craftiness… handling the word of God
deceitfully"
(1) Paul refused to allow the ministry to be damaged
by wicked living.
(2) "by manifestation of the truth" - Paul manifested
the truth not merely by what he spoke but by how
he lived.
(3) "commending ourselves to every man’s conscience"
The life Paul lived proved to others and God who
he was.
c. \\#3\\ "if our gospel be hid, it is hid to… lost"
(1) Paul understood that if the gospel were not
delivered, it would be the lost who suffered.
(a) This is what made and makes our lifestyle so
important.
(b) Lost souls hang in the balance of our
message and our message rests on the
platform of our lives.
(2) \\#4\\ "In whom the god of this world"
(a) Paul’s holy living was to counter the
devil’s damage for Satan…
(b) "hath blinded the minds" - One of the
devil’s favorite tools is to inflict
blindness on the mind so that the lost
cannot comprehend their need for Jesus
Christ.
(c) Otherwise "the light of the glorious gospel…
should shine unto them" - If he did not,
they might understand on their own.
(3) \\#5\\ "For we preach… Christ Jesus" - To counter
the devil’s evil, Paul did not preach about
himself but about Jesus Christ.
(4) \\#6\\ And by that preaching, the light shone out
of darkness to give knowledge of Christ and His
salvation.
4. \\#7\\ "we have this treasure in earthen vessels"
a God has given us this treasure (the ministry and the
knowledge) while we are in physical bodies.
b. Why?
c. That the power "may be of God, and not of us." - We
must depend upon God to shine the light. Our part is
to properly live and proclaim the truth. God’s part
is to counterman the devil’s influence and to reveal
the knowledge.
B. \\#8-18\\ Ministry Contrasts - Paul contrasted the suffering
that he and his team had experienced to the blessings they
had received.
1. \\#8\\ "troubled… yet not distressed"
a. By troubled, Paul meant his team felt "the pressures
coming from every side."
b. "distressed" means "to hem in closing." Although
the pressures were constant and from all directions,
Paul never felt as though he was out of options. God
continued to open doors for ministry and results.
2. "perplexed but not in despair"
a. The pressures were not merely physical but also
mental.
b. But at no time did Paul feel as though he had lost the
battle.
3. \\#9\\ "Persecuted but not forsaken"
a. Paul was physically persecuted with regularity.
b. But at no time did he feel that God had left Him.
4. "cast down but not destroyed"
a. Paul often felt As a wrestler thrown to the ground.
b. But he was never defeated.
5. \\#10-18\\ We bear the death but enjoy the life.
a. \\#10\\ "bearing about in the body the dying" - Paul’s
body bore the marks of Jesus’ death as he had
experienced much abuse, but his physical body’s
features were not his focus.
b. "that the LIFE" - Paul was willing to have his body
tortured that he might also have the LIFE of Jesus
flowing through it.
c. \\#11\\ The Explanation
(1) "For we which live are always delivered unto
death for Jesus’ sake"
(a) Paul never fathomed a people who were not
physically persecuted for their faith in
Christ. Indeed, although America may have
granted such liberty to its citizens or a
time, most of the remainder of the world
NEVER has.
(b) Not only does Paul not consider a people who
would not be persecuted for faith in
Christ, he never considered that Christians
would flinch from it.
(c) On a small scale, Christians in the US are
now experiencing some repercusions of
faith.
In an article dated 8/23/2017, high school football coach, Joseph A
Kennedy, lost his appeal to kneel in front of his players and pray
for his team immediately after the game. The ruling stated that as
an employee, he represented the school and thus his actions violated
the constitution.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-football-coach-prayer-20170823-
story.html
(2) "that the life of Jesus might be… manifest"
But in suffering for Jesus, we draw closer to
Him, to the kind of life He lived, and to the
person He desires us to be.
d. \\#12-18\\ "death… in us, but life in you"
(1) \\#12\\ Paul declared that the evangelists were
enduring most of the death (suffering) of Jesus
while the Corinthian church (as well as the
other churches into which the evangelists had
invested) had been enduring most of the life
(blessings) of Jesus.
(2) \\#13\\ Paul quoted from Psalms.
Ps 116:10 I believed, therefore have I spoken: I
was greatly afflicted:
(a) Notice the pattern of life in the original
verse:
i. believe
ii. speak
iii. hurt
(b) No doubt Paul was very familiar with all
three aspects of this verse but here he was
only emphasizing the first two.
i. He believed.
ii. Therefore he had to speak.
(c) Paul was stating that this was the reason he
spoke even though he knew he would be
afflicted.
(d) If we believe in the death, burial, and
resurrection of Jesus, we must speak it
even though pain is the inevitable result.
(3) \\#14\\ "knowing that he… shall present us with
you"
(a) Paul continued to endure the suffering
because he knew that he would stand before
Jesus with those he had helped to lead to
Christ.
(b) Hence, the power of the resurrection makes
it possible to endure the suffering of the
cross.
(4) \\#15\\ "all things" which he suffered "are for
your sakes"
(a) Paul again points out that he will suffer
the death so that the Corinthians can
enjoy the life.
(b) Paul was glad to endure whatever necessary
that the life of Jesus might flow through
others so that they could stand together
before Christ.
(c) In so enduring "the abundant grace…"
redounds "to the glory of God." - With the
great trouble comes greater grace.
(5) \\#16\\ "For which cause we faint not"
(a) Paul restates the thought from \\#4:1-7\\,
but now he has given more reasons for not
quitting.
i. \\#10-11\\ Our dying in Christ produces
life in the lives of others.
ii. \\#14\\ Those who suffer will stand
those who were won before Christ.
iii. \\#15\\ The suffering produces more
grace.
(b) So that, even "though our outward man
perish… the inward man is renewed." Paul
will endure the outward pains because the
inward (spiritual) gains are worth it.
(6) \\#17\\ "…light afflictions… worketh… a far
more exceeding… glory"
(a) The pains afflicted on the body are called
by Paul "light."
(b) Why? Because they do not compare to the
much heavier "weight of glory" that is now
theirs.
(7) \\#18\\ Paul’s Philosophy of Endurance
(a) "we look not at the things which are seen
but… unseen" - Paul’s gaze was fixed not
on the temporal things of this life,
including his body and its wellbeing or
comfort.
(b) "but the things which are… eternal" - But
he focused on the eternal things which can
not be seen or comprehended from this
plain of existence.
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