2 Corinthians 4:11 - Printer Friendly

ESV: For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus ' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

NIV: For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.

NASB: For we who live are constantly being handed over to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh.

CSB: For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that Jesus’s life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh.

NLT: Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.

KJV: For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

NKJV: For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Paul restates here something similar to what he wrote in the previous verse. Believers, especially those who carry the gospel of Jesus to others as Paul and his co-workers did, exist in a kind of truthful paradox. On the one hand, they are fragile human beings always existing on the edge of death, targeted for death by those opposed to the gospel. On the other hand, the fact that they keep going, that they refuse to lose hope (2 Corinthians 4:1), is powerful, physical evidence that Christ is alive and at work in the world today.

Some in Corinth seem to have pointed to Paul's suffering as evidence that he must not have been much of an apostle. After all, wouldn't God intervene to spare a close servant of His from all that pain? This is a common assumption in many false religions: that the true servants of a god are protected from any harm. Even today, this lie persists in those who claim that any Christian who suffers does so because they lack faith.

Paul has said the opposite is true. God has put his body on display for the world to see two things: First, look how weak and close to death he is for the sake of Christ. Second, look how powerful Christ must be to keep a weak body like that going and delivering the gospel to more and more people.

Second Corinthians 4:7–18 explains that the priceless treasure of knowing God's glory through faith in Christ is kept in the fragile containers of human beings. In this case, this refers to Paul and his co-workers who preach the gospel. Their suffering is enormous, but God keeps them from being wiped out. They don't quit because even after they die, they know they will be resurrected, as Christ was. Then they will spend eternity with Him in a glory that will far outweigh and outlast the comparatively lightweight and momentary suffering of this life.

Paul insists that he and his co-workers for Christ would never act in a way that is disgraceful or dishonest, though he knows some are blinded by Satan from believing their message about Jesus. They cannot see the light of knowing Christ as God. That knowledge is a priceless treasure stored in the fragile containers of Paul and his friends. No matter how difficult their suffering in this work, Paul refuses to quit. He is confident that he will be resurrected after his death and then all his pain on this side of eternity won't even be worth comparing with the glory there.

Second Corinthians 4 follows Paul's teaching in the previous chapter about the transformation that happens for those who see God's glory in Christ. Some are blinded to it by sin and by the god of this world. Paul knows that he and his co-workers are fragile containers for the priceless message of God's grace through faith in Jesus. They won't quit, though, because God sustains them and will eventually resurrect them. Once in eternity, all the suffering in this life won't be worth comparing with sharing God's glory forever. Chapter 5 expands on the idea that believers in Christ look forward to something much better than this life.

Second Corinthians returns to similar themes as those Paul mentioned in his first letter to this church. Paul is glad to hear that the church in Corinth has heeded his advice. At the same time, it is necessary for Paul to counter criticisms about his personality and legitimacy. Most of this text involves that subject. The fifth chapter, in contrast, contains comforting words which Christians have quoted often in times of hardship. Paul also details his expectations that the church in Corinth will make good on their promise to contribute to the needs of suffering believers in Jerusalem.