2 Corinthians chapter 4

vs 1

That's the ministry of glowing faces that we just read about. This ministry of shining the glory around. Paul is suggesting that beacuse it comes from God's mercy, rather than, say, from a visual experience of God or from the giving of Law, he gets courage from that.

Also worth noting that his ministry doesn't come from made up words, or from a desire to make money.

vs 2

When Paul says he renounces it, does it mean he is personally repenting of it? I wonder. I mean, if he means that he's speaking out against it, I would have used the term 'denounce' - but all three translations I'm looking at use the same word.

Anyway, while I look up the greek, the rest of the verse seems to make it clear that in Paul's opinion, clear and open truth is a much more worthy thing - it commends you to the people you're talking to (most people respect honesty and openness as against to deception - at least in that culture I guess). And this is going on in the sight of God, which I suppose keeps you honest.

Ok, apeipomen, apparently, can mean to declare, to forbid, or to give up (renounce). It's used in the NT all of... once. Here. The fact that they've gone with 'renounce' seems significant to me. Even Marshall, who translated my interlinear and is known to disagree at times, uses the word renounce. Is there something you're not telling us, Paul? Something about your former Pharisaical life?

vs 3

Not everyone sees Paul's ministry as all glory and sunshine. But that's not his problem. They're going to die from their lack of glory and sunshine. Spiritual vitamin E deficiency.

vs 4

Satan is just as powerful a lower-case-g-god as that carving of a buddha you have in your cupboard. Oooooh, boogie boogie boogie! Nevertheless, he has managed to cloud the eyes of unbelievers enough (probably through them not wanting to see, mind) that even when a spiritual shiny like Paul radiates some glory onto them, they don't see it. So here Paul isn't talking about the inability of his feeble human frame to adequately shine God's glory without him screwing it up with sin or whatever - no, it's the fault of Satan (and in my opinion, their own stubbornness) that the gospel passes them by, even when you wave it at them as eloquently as Paul did.

Take some comfort - even Paul reckons that people aren't taking up the gospel. This verse sounds like it was written yesterday, but it was in fact written in the hallowed times of the first century too.

vs 5

Paul's message is that Jesus is Lord, that Paul isn't, and that Paul is the servant of Christ and the church. I'm good at the "Jesus is Lord, I'm not" bit. It's the "And if you're a church, then I'm your servant" that gets me. Sure, I'm a member of the leadership (which, when you're not getting paid, there's no recognised heirarchy and people don't treat you with a whole lot of respect or deference, I assure you is a pretty underfoot role sometimes) but I still have a problem thinking of myself as being a servant to the church. Is what I'm doing best for the church, or is it just how I want the church to be? Is what I want for the church the best thing for the church?

vs 6

So the light that Paul is talking about is well defined - the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. And Paul links this back to creation - not for any theological reason I don't think - just to round out the character of God a bit.

vs 7

Or perhaps it is to bring in this point. After all, God made us out of clay, or dirt or dust. The idea that God would use such things as instruments is incredibly humbling to us, as those instruments, because as Paul says, it shows that God's the one doing the things, not the clay jars. But it is also extremely exalting of us, that he uses us and not, say, real clay jars.

vs 8-9

In one sense, all of these things would happen to a human, and they'd just turn out crushed, despaired, abandoned and destroyed. Because we're just jars of clay. But God is the one with the power here, and he doesn't let them happen. He does, though, let the other stuff happen. Worth remembering that.