Bible Commentaries

This ministry; the charge of the new and glorious dispensation referred to in the 2 Corinthians 3:4-18.

Is hid; remains unknown; is not received.

Earthen vessels; it is committed to an obscure and unworthy instrumentality.--May be of God; may appear evidently to be of God.

Bearing about in the body, &c.; continually exemplifying in our lives that endurance of suffering which characterized the life of the Savior. The word dying is put for suffering, in antithesis to the word life. Cases of this kind often occur among the sacred writers, where words are used in one or the other of the parallel clauses of a sentence, with some latitude of meaning, in order to preserve a contrast of expression in the two clauses. For examples, see the word hate, in and in Rom. 9:13.

Delivered unto death; exposed to death.

The meaning is, we give ourselves up to the power and dominion of death, that spiritual life may be bestowed upon you.

The same--according as it is written; that is, the same spirit with that referred to in the passage in which it is written, &c. (Psalms 116:10.)

Of many; of the many saved by it.

We faint not, we are not discouraged.--Our outward man; that which pertains to present and temporal welfare.--The inward man; the soul, in respect to its spiritual interests.

Light affliction; light in comparison with the glory which shall follow.

We look not at; we do not regard.--The things which are seen; the things relating to this life, that is, the sufferings of which he had been speaking.