_Therefore seeing we have this ministry._ The ministry of the New Testament, the excellency of which has been dwelt on in the preceding chapter. To this God in His mercy has called us, His unworthy Apostles. _We faint not._ We do not yield, are not daunted by dangers and difficulties, are not weari... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 4 SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER i. From what was said in the last chapter of the glory and honour belonging to the office of a preacher of the Gospel, S. Paul proceeds to assert that he discharges that office holily, sincerely, and blamelessly. He declares this to be a fact plainly known to all... [ Continue Reading ]
_But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty_. All hidden and disgraceful wickedness. What is vile loves darkness, and those who seek for what is impure have ever in their mouth, "If not chastely, yet cautiously." S. Paul means: I do nothing, not even in secret, with which fault can he found:... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ourselves your servants for Jesus sake._ Supply "we show," or "we preach.... [ Continue Reading ]
_For God... hath shined in our hearts._ In the account of the creation of the world given in Genesis, light is said to have been created first of all, because light is a quality most splendid, pleasant, gladdening, useful, efficacious, and powerful. Cf. Dionysius (_de Divin. Nomin_. c. iv.), who enu... [ Continue Reading ]
_But we have this treasure._ The treasure is the ministry and preaching of the Gospel entrusted to him by God. Cf. ver. 1 and vers. 5 and 6. _In earthen vessels_. (1.) In a body of dust frail and fragile. Our body is as an earthenware vessel; for as an earthen vessel is nothing but clay baked in the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus._ The death of Jesus, according to S. Ambrose, but the Greek is rather dying or mortification. The dying meant is the suffering of death like to the suffering of Jesus Christ, which is the road to and the beginning of death, a long and li... [ Continue Reading ]
_For we which live are alway delivered unto death._ In the midst of a life such as ours, we are exposed to constant danger of death and to every kind of trouble. The thought, then, that in all our tribulation we are made like to Christ in His Passion and resurrection is what animates, comforts, and... [ Continue Reading ]
_So then death worketh in us, but life in you._ Your spiritual life, your salvation is produced through faith and grace, but ours by the death of our body. The passion and death of the Apostles has been the life of the Church. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," says Tertullian. Ch... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall raise up us also._. _. and shall present us with you._ Shall present us with you in glory. He says out of modesty, "shall present us with you," not "you with us," because the Corinthians were the cause and object of his preaching, and so also of his glory.... [ Continue Reading ]
_That the abundant grace might redound to the glory of God. I.e._, through many giving thanks. The Syriac renders it, "that since grace abounds through many, thanksgiving may be proportionately multiplied to the glory of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
_But though our outward man perish._ Though the body be corrupted through persecutions, afflictions, hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness, scourgings, and diseases, yet the spirit within is renewed, and advances in faith, hope, charity, readiness of mind, and, like gold from the fire, comes out stronger... [ Continue Reading ]
_For our light affliction, which is but for a moment._ All our tribulation is light and short-lived when compared with the exceeding weight of eternal glory, and is to it as a single feather is to all the lead in the universe. S. Augustine (_Enarr. in Psalms 70_), when explaining the words of Chris... [ Continue Reading ]