2 Corinthians 4:14 - Printer Friendly

ESV: knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

NIV: because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.

NASB: knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus, and will present us with you.

CSB: For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you.

NLT: We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you.

KJV: Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

NKJV: knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.

Great suffering and persecution were part of Paul's life as a missionary of the gospel. He and his friends endured those hardships for their faith in Christ and their preaching about the truth. Paul has also described how God's great power has kept them from ever being fully crushed or defeated. His suffering has not stopped him from continuing to preach the gospel. In the previous verse, he said that he shared the same faith as the writer of Psalm 116, who wrote that he believed and so he spoke.

Paul now points to his confidence in his own future resurrection as the reason for his boldness to continue preaching about Jesus in the face of so much suffering. Paul is convinced that just as Christ was raised from the dead after the crucifixion, he and his friends would also be raised back to life and into Christ's presence even if they should die for proclaiming Christ to the world.

Resurrection from the dead for all believers was central to Paul's faith. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, in essence, that Christianity without resurrection was pointless. The truth of the resurrection, however, makes anything we suffer in this life worthwhile. The fact that Christians will be raised from the dead gave Paul confidence to keep facing danger and pain. It gave him motivation to keep telling more and more people about God's grace through faith in Jesus.

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.