Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 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. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:1–18)

Let’s walk step-by-step through the chapter and see if we can follow the train of Paul’s thought as the argument unfolds. Then we will step back and focus on the main point and the primary supporting arguments. And I promise you that the main point is going to be personally and culturally very relevant for your life and ministry, and the seven supporting arguments are going to be very powerful to help you not to lose heart.

Verses 1–2: ‘Do not lose heart, but refuse to tamper.’

Verse 1: “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.” We are going to see this again in verse 16: “So we do not lose heart.” What is it that, at this point, might make Paul lose heart? In 2 Corinthians 2:15, he had said that his ministry is the aroma of Christ, and to some it is an aroma from death to death. He preaches, and the effect is that the deadness of some is simply confirmed with death. Sometimes the gospel meets with deadness and becomes a sentence of death.

And then, in chapter 3, even though he celebrates the superior glory of the new covenant ministry, in which the Spirit lifts the veil so people can see the glory of God — nevertheless, he says in 3:14–15, “For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.” An aroma of death and an unlifted veil before the preaching of Paul. It can be discouraging. One can easily lose heart. We’ve all tasted it.

But as soon as Paul says that he does not lose heart, he immediately shows us that this is not merely a statement about his emotions, but about his trustworthiness, as a minister of the word. Follow the logic: “We do not lose heart. [Verse 2:] But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word.” What’s the implication of saying it that way — not lose heart but refuse to tamper?

The implication is that a very tempting way to deal with discouragement when your preaching is not producing as much life and is not lifting as many veils as you would like, is to tamper with the message to make it more palatable to the unbelieving mind. Let’s read it all (verses 1–2):

We do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

Our message, our gospel, is an “open statement of the truth.” There’s no cunning. There’s no tampering. There’s nothing underhanded. We’re not slippery. There’s no double-speak. There’s no clever attempt to hide difficult doctrines or tough moral positions. What we believe is open and clear. Everybody can see it for what it is. Our discouragement with results has not driven us to become wishy-washy with God’s truth or turned us into man-pleasers.

Verses 3–6: ‘Only God can save, and he saves through means.’

So, verses 3–4 give the real explanation for why not everybody believes when Paul preaches.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

What’s the point? The point is that the unbelief of those who remain veiled when Paul preaches is not owing to lack of openness and clarity in Paul’s message. He is not responsible for their unbelief. There has been no cunning. No tampering. No subtlety. No half-truths. No concealing of what is utterly important. The ultimately decisive factor if the gospel remains veiled (for the rest of their lives) — having no saving effect — is that God has given them up to their own hardness and to the blinding effects of Satan (verse 4). They are among the perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15–16).

Then, verse 5 adds this argument:

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

In other words, the failure of people to see the glory of Christ in our preaching (verse 4) is not because we don’t preach Christ. It’s not because we’re inserting ourselves in some confusing or obscuring way into the gospel. “What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.” Our message is Jesus Christ and his lordship. Yes, we ourselves, in our bodily existence, are very much a part of this proclamation. But the way we figure in is that we are your servants (douloi), your slaves. Our verbal message and our bodily ministry are not the reason the veil is still over the gospel.

Then Paul completes the argument like this in verse 6:

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In other words, the reason we preach Christ, and embody the servant-like, suffering ministry of Christ, is that when God sovereignly shines with his saving light into the veiled and dead human heart, what he enables people to see in the gospel we preach and the Christ we embody is the glory of God in “the face of Jesus Christ.” Paul and his message are the face of Jesus. He ministers in the double way of verse 5 — proclaiming and serving — because when God lifts the veil, that’s what people see.

So, the point of verses 1–6 is that Paul does not let possible discouragement (verse 1) lead him to tamper with the gospel (verse 2) or to pull back from being a Christlike servant. Rather, he takes his encouragement from the fact that, ultimately, it is God who decides who is being saved and who is perishing (verse 3), and from the fact that, when God sovereignly creates light in a blind heart (verse 6), he does it by means of Paul’s Christ-exalting preaching and his self-sacrificing ministry (verse 5). The fact that Paul has this ministry as a gift of mercy to him (as verse 1 says) is added reason for why he does not lose heart.

Verses 7–12: ‘I, Paul, preach Christ with my afflictions.’

Now, verses 7–12 focus on the sacrificial, suffering, servant-like aspect of Paul’s ministry (from verse 5b). Remember how he said in verse 5 that his ministry has these two dimensions: “[1] For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, [2] with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” First dimension: Paul proclaims Jesus Christ with the authority of heaven. But — second dimension — he also gets down low like a slave, underneath, and serves his people, forgoing rights, forgoing privileges, forgoing remuneration, forgoing sleep and safety and esteem.

“Don’t lose heart in your ministry, and don’t protect yourself from losing heart by tampering with God’s word.”

That second dimension of Paul’s ministry is what verses 7–12 are about. So, he’s carrying forward the argument that he is anything but cunning and manipulative and underhanded and disgraceful. Not only does he not tamper with the word. He doesn’t tamper with the example of Jesus’s sacrificial love. He lives it. He commends his message to our conscience, and he commends his life to our conscience. He speaks a crucified Christ and he lives a crucified Christ. He tells the sacrifice of Christ and he embodies the sacrifice of Christ.

Verses 7–12 show how he does that, and why. Verse 7:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

I take the “treasure” to be the miracle of verse 6 — that God has shone in Paul’s life to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But the main point is that Paul is a clay pot. I don’t think we need to speculate about what that means. It’s spelled out in verses 8–9. This is the form of his slavery (from verse 5).

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

To be a clay pot is to be vulnerable to affliction, perplexity, persecution, and being knocked down. This is what Paul meant in verse 5 when he called himself their “servant.” He’s saying, in essence, “I will endure anything for you.”

And then in verses 10–11 he connects that servant-like suffering to how he reveals Christ:

. . . always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 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.

“Carrying in the body the death of Jesus” is being afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down for Jesus’s sake. Paul is embodying, for the world to see, what Jesus was like in suffering and dying for them. So he says, “The life of Jesus is being manifested in our bodies, our mortal flesh.” This is why, in verse 6, when God shines into veiled, blind hearts, what they see is the face of Jesus Christ. And they see it in the verbal preaching and the bodily sacrifices of Paul.

The effect of Paul’s clay-pot, servant-like weaknesses in being afflicted and crushed and perplexed and struck down, is threefold. (1) The life of Christ is manifested (verses 10–11). (2) This leads to new life in believers. Verse 12: “So death is at work us, but life in you.” And (3) since God is the one who creates that new life through Paul’s clay-pot-weakness, God gets the glory. Verse 7: “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

Verses 13–14: ‘I’m not the first to suffer and stay true.’

And then surprisingly, in verses 13–14, Paul steps back and aligns himself with the psalmist who wrote Psalm 116. It is as though he wants to say, “I’m not the first person who has embraced suffering and stayed true to the message God wants me to speak without tampering with it.” And by aligning himself with the psalmist in Psalm 116, he argues that, just as the psalmist looked to God for life beyond the suffering, “so do I.”

2 Corinthians 4:13–14:

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written [Psalm 116:10 LXX], “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

Here’s Psalm 116:3–10:

The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: . . . You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed [that!], and therefore I spoke [LXX of verse 10].

Paul knew that often in the Old Testament, those who suffered gained strength by believing in fellowship with God after death. “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” And so Paul says, “In the same way, I press on in my painful, often disheartening ministry, because [2 Corinthians 4:14] I know that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and bring us with you into his presence.”

Verse 15: ‘When people get grace, God gets glory.’

Then, in verse 15, Paul adds two more arguments for why he continues to speak and continues to suffer without tampering with the word or tampering with the example of Jesus. He says (verse 15), “For it is all for your sake so that, as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.”

In other words, his ministry of truth and love, word and deed, speaking and suffering, is in fact leading people by grace out of death into life and God-glorifying thankfulness. And since God’s surpassing power (verses 6–7) is what makes it happen, he gets the glory. So, the two added arguments of verse 15 are (1) people are getting grace and (2) God is getting thanks — glory. People get grace; God gets glory.

Verses 16–18: ‘So do not lose heart. Rather, look ahead.’

Therefore, in verse 16, as the final paragraph begins, Paul returns to his first point (from verse 1): “So we do not lose heart.” And he says this knowing full well that his kind of ministry is costing him his life. “Though our outer self is wasting away . . .” I know that’s true for all of us, but if you minister like Paul — he goes faster. If you say, “This ministry is killing me,” that’s not a reason to leave the ministry.

He finishes the chapter by explaining why this wasting away does not cause him to lose heart. First, it’s because he experiences an inner renewal every day. Verse 16b: “our inner self is being renewed day by day.” How does that happen? It happens because he is totally convinced that (verse 17) “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

For Paul to call his countless lifelong afflictions “light and momentary” is astonishing. But it shows how heavenly-minded he was. He always thought of this life in comparison to the next. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Compared to eternity, these afflictions are momentary. Compared to the weight of glory that’s coming, these afflictions are light.

Then he ends by telling us his secret to experiencing daily renewal, namely, verse 18:

We look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen or transient, but the things that are unseen or eternal.

Where was his gaze? What was he looking at? What was unseen?

This chapter (chapter 4) began with the word therefore. Verse 1: “Therefore . . . we do not lose heart.” Which links back to these words in the preceding chapter and verse (3:18): “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

So, when Paul says at the end of chapter 4 that his inner self is being renewed, day by day, by looking at the eternal and the unseen, I think he has in mind (at least) this: “We look to the glory of the Lord, and the effect is that we are being transformed, renewed, strengthened, enabled to go on in the ministry day by day and not to lose heart.

Paul’s Double Main Point

Now, let’s step back and make the main point of this chapter as clear as we can and summarize its supporting arguments. And let’s do all of this now in application to our own souls and our own ministries.

Twice Paul says, “We do not lose heart” (verses 1, 16). I think everything in this chapter is designed by Paul to support that statement. Some of the greatest realities in the world are harnessed to pull that statement into reality. I think if Paul were looking down from heaven right now on this conference, he would say, “As you leave, brothers, preach to yourself, ‘I will not lose heart in my ministry.’”

But I also think that if Paul were looking down from heaven, he would tap me on the shoulder and say, “Be sure to draw attention to the connection between verses 1 and 2.” It’s really a double main point. The double main point is this: “Don’t lose heart in your ministry, and don’t protect yourself from losing heart by tampering with God’s word.”

In other words, be a man of total truthfulness. Put the open Book in front of you, and say with an open and clean conscience, “Thus saith the Lord.” Have an open life of humble service in front of the people and say, “Thus is Christ,” fallible as you are.

Seven Heart-Strengthening Realities

Paul has a particular way to keep us (and himself) from losing heart — namely, with seven arguments, seven realities.

1. Unbelief need not be your fault.

When your gospel remains veiled to people that you know and love, it need not be owing to your tampering with the truth. And if they remain hard and resistant to the gospel till they die, it will not be laid to your account. It will be said under God’s judgment, “It was veiled to those who were perishing” (verse 3).

2. Your afflictions manifest Christ’s life.

When you are afflicted in every way, and perplexed, and persecuted, and struck down, and thus carry in your body the death of Jesus, never forget this is how the life of Jesus is manifested to your people (verses 10–12).

3. People will be saved through your ministry.

In spite of the sorrows of those who don’t believe, many will see the life of Jesus in your message and in your life; they will receive grace; they will live; and they will give thanks. Your ministry will not be wasted (verse 12).

4. Clay pots were made by God for God.

Since you must take the role of a clay pot in your weakness and your afflictions, never forget that there is a design in it “that the surpassing power might belong to God and not to us” (verse 7). Become so God-centered and God-satisfied that his glory through your affliction really is sufficient to keep you from losing heart.

5. The resurrection can and will sustain you.

Never let anybody persuade you that being heavenly-minded makes you no earthly good. Paul’s heavenly-mindedness was precisely what sustained him through the Christlike sacrifices he had to make for his ministry. He believed and spoke and suffered “knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence” (verse 14). Seriously, brothers, if the hope of the resurrection is not a regular, conscious, sustaining power in your sacrifices, how will you survive?

6. The glory to come is incomparable (and accessible now).

God has for each of you a daily renewal for the inner man (verse 16). It comes from the hope of the weight of glory that makes present afflictions light and momentary by comparison. And we taste it every day, do we not, by getting alone with God and beholding the weight of glory, the glory of the Lord (3:18).

7. You are not alone.

Finally, brothers, you’re not alone. The psalmist (verse 13), the prophets, the apostles, all the thousands of saints who have lived and served faithfully, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself have gone before you. They believed, and so they spoke. And so they lived. And so they died. And today they bear the weight of glory, and their final word to you is, “Do not lose heart, and do not tamper with the word of God or the example of Jesus.”