Wasting Away (2 Cor 4:7-17)

Present suffering and future glory (4:7-5:10). Paul's glorious ministry is of the Spirit (2 Cor 3:7-11) with the glory of God shining in his heart (2 Cor 4:6). Next he explains his life in the context of suffering and weakness (2 Cor 4:7-5:10): he has this treasure in a jar of clay.

• He states this as a general principle (2 Cor 4:7), 
• illustrates it (2 Cor 4:8-9), 
• restates it as a principle (2 Cor 4:10- 12), and 
• adds that despite all the difficulties he continues to operate in a 'spirit of faith' (2 Cor 4:13-15). 
• Because of his sufferings he is outwardly wasting away, yet inwardly he is being renewed day by day while he keeps his eyes fixed on 'an eternal glory' (2 Cor 4:16-18). Then he explains what this means (5:1- 10).
• If 'the earthly tent' we now live in is destroyed, God will provide us with 'an eternal house in heaven' (2 Cor 5:1-5).
• He is confident to make it his aim to please God, because 'we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due to us' (2 Cor 5:6-10).

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay" (2 Cor 4:7a). It's in every Ancient Middle Eastern home. They're cheap and easily broken. Unlike metal (can be repaired) or glass vessels (can be melted down and reused), once broken, clay jars are discarded. They had little intrinsic value, like earthenware oil-lamps sold cheaply in the market-places. So, 'the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ' (2 Cor 4:6) is the treasure, while the frail apostles are the earthenware lamps from whom the light shines. If Paul claimed such a glorious ministry, why is his life marked by weakness and suffering? Paul says, "we have this treasure in jars of clay."

The contrast of the treasure and clay jars is "to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" (2 Cor 4:7b). The affliction Paul experienced in Asia taught him 'not to rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead' (2 Cor 1:9), and he thus says, 'our competence comes from God' (2 Cor 3:5). The frail messengers show that the all-surpassing power comes from God not in them. What does this mean? The general principle enunciated 4:7 is here illustrated by 4 paradoxical statements. 

1. "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed" (2 Cor 4:8a) reflects the vulnerability of Paul/his coworkers and the power of God which sustains them. Hard pressed (thlibomenoi) and crushed (stenochoroumenoi) are similar in meaning. So, while God allows him to be hard pressed, by his power at work in Paul's life God saves him from being completely crushed.
2. "Perplexed, but not in despair" (2 Cor 4:8b). Perplexed [aporoumenoi', and in despair [exaporoumenoi] expresses an intensification of the former. So, while he is often perplexed, because of God's power at work in him he doesn't succumb to despair. He may have learnt from past experience (2 Cor 1:8) not to despair completely, as 'this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God' (2 Cor 1:9).
3. "Persecuted, but not abandoned" (2 Cor 4:9a). 'to abandon' (enkataleipo) is used by Paul of Demas who abandoned him when he was in prison (2 Tim. 4:10) and of those who abandoned him at his first defence before Caesar (2 Tim. 4:16). It is also the word Jesus used when abandoned by God on the cross (Matt. 27:46). Paul's point is that, while he was often persecuted in the course of his ministry, he was never abandoned by God.
4. "Struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Cor 4:9b), a military one - a soldier struck down but not killed by his opponent. It may be physical violence he experienced, but even so, God hadn't allowed him to perish (2 Cor 1:10; 11:22-33 Acts 14:19-20).
   

Paul then states in 2 antitheses the theological principle involved. 

1. 1st, "We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body" (2 Cor 4:10). Death (nekrosin) is the process of dying or being dead [as 'dead' with Sarah's infertility--'Without weakening in his faith, he [Abraham] faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead' (Rom 4:19). In 2 Cor 4:10, it's the process of dying: as Paul carries around the dying of Jesus in his body, he also experiences the life of Jesus. The dying of Jesus are all his afflictions that culminated in his death. Thus, Paul's carrying around the dying of Jesus are all his apostolic sufferings that would culminate in his martyrdom. Bearing in our body the death of Jesus indicates that Paul's sufferings (2:8-9) are similar to Christ himself (Col. 1:24), excluding his vicarious death as an atoning sacrifice.
2. 2nd, "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" (2 Cor 4:11). This unpacks the 1st antithesis. They're stylistic rather than substantial. So, "being given over to death for Jesus'sake" (2 Cor 4:11) is to 'carry around in our body the death of Jesus' (2 Cor 4:10), and so that "his life may also be revealed in our [mortal] body" (2 Cor 4:11) parallels 'so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body' (2 Cor 4:10).

Paul "given over to death for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor 4:11), is the same verb (paradidomi) as God handing Christ over to death for us and for our sins (Rom 4:25; 8:32). Those responsible for Paul's suffering and death were those who persecuted him (unbelieving Jews and Gentiles), but just as God handed Christ over to suffering and death for our salvation, so God handed Paul over to the same so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in him, and when death was at work in him, life was at work in them (2 Cor 4:12).

"So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you" (2 Cor 4:12) advances 2 Cor 4:10-11. Daily exposure to death was Paul's experience, but also a the life of Jesus continually. This sustained him, and worked through him to bring life to others. 'Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church' (Col 1:24). It was through Paul's preaching of the gospel in the power of the Spirit, albeit in the midst of persecution and suffering, that Jesus' life was mediated to others.

"It is written: 'I believed; therefore I have spoken'" (2 Cor 4:13a; Ps 116:10). The psalmist trusted in God when in distress and sorrow and that the Lord heard his cry for mercy. So since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak. Despite the difficulties of his ministry, Paul operates with the same spirit of faith as the psalmist did in the midst of his distress, and in this faith Paul speaks--proclaiming God's word (2 Cor 2:17). The "spirit of faith" (2 Cor 4:13b) is like the psalmist, where his faith in God persists despite the sufferings he encounters.

"Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus" (2 Cor 4:14a). Paul's faith was strengthened by the knowledge that, should his sufferings intensify and culminate in death, the God who raised Jesus from the dead would also raise him along with Jesus. 1 Th 4:14: 'For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.' Paul also speaks of Jesus' resurrection as the firstfruits--the sign of the full harvest to follow (1 Cor 15:20-23). God, who raised Jesus as the 'firstfruits' from the dead, shall surely raise us as part of the 'full harvest'. This knowledge encouraged the apostle in the midst of his difficulties (Rom 8:11, 17).

"And present us with you to himself" (2 Cor 4:14b). God who raises us will present us, not to himself, but to Christ as 'a pure virgin' to Christ, their 'one husband' (2 Cor 11:2). Resurrection is not an end but leads to immortality in God's. Paul looks forward to the day when, being raised up, he will be presented along with his converts to Christ in the presence of God (2 Cor 1:14; Phil 2:16; 1 Th 2:19).

Paul says of his apostolic preaching and suffering that "all this is for your benefit" (2 Cor 4:15a) [that they might experience the grace of God made through the gospel]. Additionally, it was "so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God" (2 Cor 4:15b). Here is both the penultimate (for your benefit ) and the ultimate (to the glory of God) purposes of Paul's apostolic ministry.

We do not lose heart (4:16-18). "Therefore we do not lose heart" (2 Cor 4:16a) refers back to 2 Cor 4:14-15--Paul's confidence that the one who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise him on the last day, and in his ministry, accompanied though it was with many afflictions, was the means by which God's grace was reaching more and more people.

"Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16b). Literally: 'But if our outward man wastes away, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.' 1 meaning of 'outer man' and 'inner man' is a dualistic view--the inner nature (soul) is good and destined for immortality, but the outer nature (body) is evil and destined to pass away. But this is not Paul's personal eschatology, not a disembodied soul, but as a whole person with a resurrected body (1 Cor 15:35-38; 2 Cor 5:1-5). Another view is a distinction between the physical body and the soul that would be understood by his Greco-Roman audience. The wasting away of 'the outer man' include being hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, and being given over to death (2 Cor 4:8-11); great pressure beyond his ability to endure, despair of life itself (2 Cor 1:8— 10); imprisonment, floggings, exposure to death, the forty lashes minus one, being beaten with rods, pelted with stones, shipwreck, constant journeying, dangers from rivers, bandits, his fellow Jews, and Gentiles, dangers in the city and the country, at sea, from false believers, hard labour, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, cold and lack of clothing, and besides all this the daily pressure of his concern for all the churches (2 Cor 11:23-28). The afflictions that contributed to the wasting away of Paul's 'outer man' certainly included many which affected his physical body, but also those which affected his mind and spirit. Thus, the 'outer man' is the whole person from the standpoint of one's creaturely mortality, whereas the 'inner man' is the whole person as a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), the renewed being of the believer.

Paul was "inwardly ... renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16b), rather than losing heart because of his outward wasting away. He encounters debilitating afflictions which affect him 'outwardly': he is hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down and being given over to death (2 Cor 4:8-11). Yet he experiences a daily renewal 'inwardly.' What is this inward renewal? It's expressed in Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers: "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Eph 3:16-19).

Why Paul doesn't lose heart in the midst of affliction: "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Cor 4:17). Literally: 'For our temporary lightness of affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is out of all proportion [to the affliction].' Paul's troubles were not light nor momentary, but burdensome. They constantly accompanied his ministry. Yet compared with the weighty eternal glory, they were light and momentary (Rom 8:17-23). The affliction 'is producing' the glory to be revealed. What's the connection between them? The belief was of the messianic age being ushered in by a measure of afflictions to be experienced by the people of God--the birth- pangs of the Messiah (Mk 13:3-8, 17-20, 24-27; Mt 24; Lk 21). It may be God's gracious blessing of believers who suffer for the sake of his Son. Paul says, 'Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us' (Rom 8:17-18; Mt 10:32-33; 2 Tim 2:11-12). It's not that 'by afflictions we can merit the inheritance that comes to us only by the gracious adoption of God' [Calvin].

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Cor 4:18). Though exposed to persecution and is outwardly 'wasting away' (2 Cor 4:16), Paul doesn't lose heart. He's continuously renewed inwardly, as his eyes are fixed not on what is seen but on what is unseen. Paul isn't contrasting things visible with those invisible, but between what is now visible and not yet visible but about to be revealed, i.e., at the revelation of Christ and his kingdom at the 2nd coming (Rom 8:24-25; Col 3:1-4; Heb 11:1-3).

That presently unseen but soon to be revealed strengthens Paul's resolve not to lose heart. Unlike what is now seen, which is transient, what is presently unseen but soon to be revealed is eternal. The present world, including the 'outer nature' of the Christian, is subject to decay or corruption; the world to come, including the glorious resurrection body of believers, is eternal and incorruptible (Rom 8:19-23; Phil 3:20-21).

Reference:

1. Charles Hodge. 1 & 2 Corinthians. A Geneva Series Commentary. The Banner of Truth Trust. 1857, 1859.
2. Colin Kruse. 2 Corinthians. Tyndale NT Commentaries. 1987, 2005.
3. Geoffrey Grogan. 2 Corinthians. The Glories & Responsibilities of Christian Service. 2007.
4. David Garland. 2 Corinthians. The New American Commentary. 1999.
5. Paul Barnett. The Message of 2 Corinthians. 1988.