# 587
The Easter Witness of 2 Corinthians
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us (4:6-7 NIV).
Introduction
I have spent the much of the last four years writing a commentary on 2 Corinthians for The New Beacon Bible Commentary series due to appear in June 2009 (William Greathouse: “Frank, you have to do it!”). One of the very last things I did was write a final essay on Paul’s theology in the letter with which he bears witness to his gospel to a troubled church. This task was a profoundly moving experience—along with the impact of Mother Teresa’s Come Be My Light. I sought to let them interpret each other. As I read them both I felt that
Mother Teresa surely tapped into theological dynamic of 2 Corinthians. Her spiritual power was grounded in her unique faith-identification with Christ crucified and risen. In Mother Teresa’s devotion to the passion of Christ, suffering was taken by her as a means in her vocation. Her career-long experience of interior “darkness” appears related. In the poor, the sick, and the dying to whom she ministered in the slums of India, she met Christ. She “grasped the depth of Jesus’ identification with each sufferer and understood the mystical connection between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of the poor.” In her words, “Suffering in itself is nothing; but suffering shared with Christ’s Passion is a wonderful gift.” (Kolodiejchuk 2007, 146).
So I want to share with you a few excerpts from that final essay in biblical theololgy—eight pages reduced to four—that is perhaps a little heavy, but so was Paul at times! As an academician I read honestly, not through a politician’s teleprompter, deceiving you into thinking they are looking right at you! Academicians are more honest than politicians!
So share with me in Paul’s witness to us about the Christ of the Easter season!
Paul’s theology imbedded in 2 Cor is simply Christology, that is, it is all about the mysterious and profound deed of Christ crucified and risen. Christology functions for Paul both as a telescope and a microscope for he looks through the lens of Christ crucified and risen at everything involved in his apostolic calling. Whether his gaze is lifted up to God the Father or brought down to the humiliations, hardships, and dangers he encounters in the course of his ministry, this is true. Every aspect of his ministry takes on meaning only in relation to Jesus the Christ. Whether Paul is probing the grandeur of the work of the Holy Spirit or defining his ministry to those who look upon it with disdain, the key to each is the person and ministry of the Christ.
Real to Paul’s life and thought with implications for the gospel he preaches, for the nature of the church, and for the life of the Christian, is the dying of the Jesus who yet lives by the power of God. Such a Christology radically transforms all it touches. . . . From Paul’s Christological perspective we look briefly then at the themes of God, the gospel, and the ministry to hear his witness to our faith. . . .
1. God
By definition theology begins with God. To say (logos) anything about God (theos) is to do theology. And for Paul thinking about “the living God” (3:3), requires looking first into “the face of Christ,” where “a human face [is] united with the being of God.” There one sees fully “the glory of God.” In “the face of Christ,” the Creator-God who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” shines into our human minds and hearts to give the “light of the knowledge” of himself. What did Paul understand about his Theos? What kind of God revealed himself to Paul in the face of his Lord? . . .
Central to Paul’s faith in God is the God “who raises the dead” (1:9). Spoken from within the throes of a deadly trial from which he was delivered, this phrase reaches to the height of NT faith. For the God “who raises the dead” is precisely the God “who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead” (4:14). Had Paul not written to the Corinthians earlier that “if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17)? It is this very life-giving character of God that allows Paul to affirm that God “will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence” (4:14). Such a God is our guarantee that “we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven” (5:1) in which “to appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (5:10).
The God “who raises the dead” (1:9) is the kind of God who is at work in our ministries as his servants. With Christ, who now “lives by God’s power” also, writes Paul, “by God’s power we will live with him to serve you” (13:4). Paul conducts his ministry in a manner that shows that “this all surpassing power is from God and not from us” (4:7; see 6:7). The resurrection power of God in Christ applies not only to our deaths, but also to our lives and to our ministries (7:3). God is the God of the Resurrection, an essential dimension of the story of God. . . .
A most fascinating feature in the theology of 2 Cor is the expression “the glory of God” (1:20; 4:6, 15). Penetrating Paul’s entire presentation, this characterization of God focuses on “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” and in whose face God has shown “the light of the knowledge” of his glory (4:6). This is the God whom Paul defines in the proclamation of his gospel.
2. The Gospel
Paul’s gospel is supremely “the gospel of Christ” (2:12). Its content is superbly Christ (2:12; 4:4; 9:13; 10:14), its source is God alone (11:7), and as such it is opposed to the “different gospel” (11:4) that prevailed in Corinth—a gospel, by the way that we still hear!. For him and for us “the gospel of Christ” (2:12) is grandly and simply “the gospel” (8:18)! . . .
All important and all consuming for the apostle Paul and therefore for us in this Easter season is the death and resurrection of Christ viewed as one continually present event. The risen Christ remains the crucified One and the crucified Christ remains the risen One. Integral . . . are “the sufferings of Christ” (1:5) in his life and death, and in his risen life!
The basic and first consequence is that Christ “died for all” so that all humans may “live . . . for him who died for them and was raised again” (5:15). . . . The redemptive core of Christ’s death “for all” is that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (5:21). In that act, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ” (5:19). The redemptive, saving, action and presence of God in his world are in the deed of the glorified Cross, in Christ’s death and resurrection. . . .
In union with this Christ, the crucified and risen One, we as God’s servants are entrusted with “the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18); we are his “ambassadors” (5:20). We possess this “treasure in jars of clay”—as lowly human instruments, for the “all-surpassing power” of the gospel is “from God,” not from his messengers (4:7). . . . In Paul’s language, it is the relation of power to weakness that constitutes the ministry of Jesus, the ministry of his apostles, and in turn, our ministries: “For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you” (13:4). Thus we arrive at the all-permeating theme of the Christian ministry given to Paul by his risen Lord, “power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9).
3. The Ministry
At a significant transition point in his letter, Paul asserts for himself and his co-workers that “we have this ministry” (4:1). This ministry he first defines as “the ministry of the Spirit” (3:8) and later sums up grandly as “the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18). In between these Paul describe “a ministry of suffering.” We have already spoken of “the ministry of reconciliation” so let us conclude with the words of Scripture itself, as the great apostle opens up his heart to his Corinthian readers and describes for us the Christian ministry. In the words of holy writ our ministry is first that of A ministry of the Spirit (3:1-18 NRSV) We simply read the biblical text for we are convinced that the very nature of God’s gift to us of the Holy Scriptures is such that when we read the biblical text or listen to it read with an attentive mind and an open heart the Spirit of God is at work in our hearts and lives! We know what is means! 3Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; 3and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, 6who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. . . . 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. A ministry of suffering (4:1-18 NRSV) 4Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. . . . we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death (dying) of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke” —we also believe, and so we speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. . . . 16So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. Amen, the Word of the Lord! 4/16/09 Sun City Church of the Nazarene, “Saints Alive” dinner.
# 587
The Witness of 2 Corinthians
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us (4:6-7 NIV).
Introduction
Commentary on 2 Corinthians (4 years June 1), final essay on Paul’s theology with which he bears witness to his gospel to a troubled church.
Profound impact—along with Mother Teresa’s Come Be My Light
Mother Teresa surely tapped into theological dynamic of 2 Corinthians. Her spiritual power was grounded in her unique faith-identification with Christ crucified and risen. In Mother Teresa’s devotion to the passion of Christ, suffering was taken by her as a means in her vocation. Her career-long experience of interior “darkness” appears related. In the poor, the sick, and the dying to whom she ministered in the slums, she met Christ. She “grasped the depth of Jesus’ identification with each sufferer and understood the mystical connection between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of the poor.” In her words, “Suffering in itself is nothing; but suffering shared with Christ’s Passion is a wonderful gift.” (Kolodiejchuk 2007, 146).
Excerpts: Changed a little to address us--“Paul” to “we”--perhaps a little heavy, but Paul can be heavy! An essay in biblical theology (politicians’ teleprompter—less honest!)
So Paul’s witness to us about our Christ at Easter time!
Paul’s theology imbedded in 2 Cor is simply Christology, that is, it is all about the mysterious and profound deed of Christ crucified and risen. Christology functions for Paul both as a telescope and a microscope for he looks through the lens of Christ crucified and risen at everything involved in his apostolic calling. Whether his gaze is lifted up to God the Father or brought down to the humiliations, hardships, and dangers he encounters in the course of his ministry, this is true. Every aspect of his ministry takes on meaning only in relation to Jesus the Christ. Whether Paul is probing the grandeur of the work of the Holy Spirit or defining his ministry to those who look upon it with disdain, the key to each is the person of the Christ.
Real to his life and thought with implications for the gospel he preaches, for the nature of the church, and for the life of the Christian, is the dying of the Jesus who yet lives by the power of God. Such a Christology radically transforms all it touches. . . . From Paul’s Christological perspective we look briefly the themes of God, the gospel, and the ministry. . . .
1. God
By definition theology begins with God. To say (logos) anything about God (theos) is to do theology. And for Paul thinking about “the living God” (3:3), requires looking first into “the face of Christ,” where “a human face [is] united with the being of God.” There one sees fully “the glory of God.” In “the face of Christ,” the Creator-God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” shines into our human minds and hearts to give the “light of the knowledge” of himself. What did Paul understand about his Theos? What kind of God revealed himself to Paul in the face of his Lord? . . .
Central to Paul’s faith in God is the God “who raises the dead” (1:9). Spoken from within the throes of a deadly trial from which he was delivered, this phrase reaches to the height of NT faith. For the God “who raises the dead” is precisely the God “who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead” (4:14). Had Paul not written to the Corinthians earlier that “if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17)? It is this very life-giving character of God that allows Paul to affirm that God “will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence” (4:14). Such a God is our guarantee that “we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven” (5:1) in which “to appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (5:10).
The God “who raises the dead” (1:9) is the kind of God who is at work in our ministries as his servants. With Christ, who now “lives by God’s power” also, writes Paul, “by God’s power we will live with him to serve you” (13:4). Paul conducts his ministry in a manner that shows that “this all surpassing power is from God and not from us” (4:7; see 6:7). The resurrection power of God in Christ applies not only to our deaths, but also to our lives and to our ministries (7:3). God is the God of the Resurrection, an essential dimension of the story of God.
With us as for Paul, God is the one whose “grace” thoroughly characterizes our ministries (1:12). . . , for he attributes his ministry directly to God. It is God, he says, “who always leads us in triumphal procession” (2:1); and it is “the word of God” (ton tou logon theou 2:17; 4:20; see 5:19) that we proclaim. Yet this apostolic triumph is only and comprehensively “in Christ” (2:14; 5:19). That is, we triumph by identifying with Christ’s suffering and death, and by or in the power of his resurrected life. In this manner we with Paul are “to God the aroma of Christ” to all who came in contact with our ministries, to both “those who are being saved” and to “those who are perishing” (2:15). . . .
The God of grace is the author and foundation of the reconciliation “through Christ.” As recipients of this reconciliation, we with Paul, his co-workers, and the Corinthians, are given by God “the ministry of reconciliation.” This ministry consists of “the message of reconciliation,” the revealing word (logon) that “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ.” God made Christ, “who had no sin to be sin,” so that “the righteousness of God” might be extended to all who will receive it. With this ministry we along with the apostles are “God’s ambassadors,” spokespersons through whom Christ is making his reconciling appeal to the world (5:18-21). . . .
A most fascinating feature in the theology of 2 Cor is the expression “the glory of God” (1:20; 4:6, 15). Penetrating Paul’s entire presentation, this characterization of God focuses on “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” and in whose face God has shown “the light of the knowledge” of his glory (4:6). This is the God whom Paul defines in the proclamation of his gospel.
2. The Gospel
Paul’s gospel is supremely “the gospel of Christ” (2:12). Its content is superbly Christ (2:12; 4:4; 9:13; 10:14), its source is God alone (11:7), and as such it is opposed to the “different gospel” (11:4) that prevailed in Corinth. For him and for us “the gospel of Christ” (2:12) is simply and grandly of simply “the gospel” (8:18)!
“Christ” as the content of Paul’s gospel is expressed as “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (4:4). Interestingly, this is the “light of the gospel” that he defines in as “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:6 ). With Christ as “the image of God,” Paul means that it is “in the face [prosōpō, person] of Christ” that God makes his glory known to us.
This “glory” belongs uniquely to God, and as such transcends human comprehension. Paul’s use of the terminology of “glory” throughout 2 Corinthians, especially in 3:7-18, has the fiery blinding presence of God on Sinai as its background.
Yet this “glory” can be known! God can be known, and the most that can be known of him is seen in the human face of Jesus—in his person and work. It is in Christ, in his life, death, and resurrection that God comes to you and I in the fullness of his revealing and saving presence. Christ is the “Yes” to the many promises of God, for through him is the “Amen” to God for glory through the ministry of the apostles (1:20) and all of us who follow in their train. The content of our gospel is ultimately “the glory of God.” Our “gospel” is God’s hidden mystery and God’s revealed holiness, as we share in the Fourth Gospel’s witness to Jesus the Christ (see John 1:14, 18).
All important and all consuming for the apostle Paul and therefore for us in this Easter season is the death and resurrection of Christ viewed as one continually present event. The risen Christ remains the crucified One and the crucified Christ remains the risen One (McCant 1999, 162) Integral . . . are “the sufferings of Christ” (1:5) in his life and death, and in his risen life!
The basic and first consequence is that Christ “died for all” so that all humans may “live . . . for him who died for them and was raised again” (5:15). Guaranteed with Christ’s resurrection is that the God who “raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us . . . in his presence” (4:14). Further, the redemptive core of Christ’s death “for all” is that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (5:21). In that act, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ” (5:19). The redemptive, saving, action and presence of God in his world is in the deed of the glorified Cross, in Christ’s death and resurrection. . . .
In union with this Christ, the crucified and risen One, we as God’s servants are entrusted with “the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18); we are his “ambassadors” (5:20). We possess this “treasure in jars of clay”—as lowly human instruments, for the “all-surpassing power” of the gospel is “from God,” not from his messengers (4:7). . . . In Paul’s language, it is the relation of power to weakness that constitutes the ministry of Jesus, the ministry of his apostles, and in turn, our ministries: “For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you” (13:4). Thus we arrive at the all-permeating theme of the Christian ministry given to Paul by his risen Lord, “power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9).
3. The Ministry
At a significant transition point in his letter, Paul asserts for himself and his co-workers that “we have this ministry” (4:1). This ministry he first defines as “the ministry of the Spirit” (3:8) and later sums up grandly as “the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18). We have already spoken of “the ministry of reconciliation” so let us conclude with the words of Scripture itself, as the great apostle opens up his heart to his Corinthian readers and describes for us the Christian ministry. In the words of holy writ our ministry is first that of
A ministry of the Spirit (3:1-18 NRSV) 3Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; 3and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, 6who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, 8how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? 9For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory! 10Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory; 11for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory! 12Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, 13not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. 14But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. 15Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; 16but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit (see ). A ministry of suffering (4:1-18 NRSV) 4Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. 3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4In 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. 5For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke” —we also believe, and so we speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. 15Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
A ministry of the Spirit
The first specific characterization of Paul’s apostolic and Christian ministry is “the ministry of the Spirit” (3:8). Constituting this ministry is the fact that God “has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant” in which “the Spirit gives life” (3:6). The new covenant is in contrast to the old Mosaic covenant. The old covenant was made with Israel through Moses in the majestic thunder and lightening of Mount Sinai (Exod 18—20). It “came with glory” (3:7). But it was “engraved in letters on stone;” and, as such, it was a “ministry that brought death” (3:7).
In contrast, Paul’s new covenant ministry is “written . . . with the Spirit of the living God . . . on tablets of human hearts” (3:3). The apostle’s prime example was the Corinthians themselves. They were Paul’s letter of recommendation, which Christ wrote by the Spirit (3:2-3). That is, the Spirit of Christ made them the new persons they became when they accepted Paul’s gospel message. . . .
The Spirit as the dynamic of this ministry is given to the apostles and to all believers “as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (1:22; 5:5). With this hope, comes a boldness, a new openness (3:12). The difference, the superiority, the “surpassing glory,” is that now the old veil over human hearts is taken away in the person and work of Christ (3:14-16). Christ, by his death and resurrection, is of the essence of “the ministry of the Spirit.” For “the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (3:17). Therefore, Paul’s ministry is “in the Holy Spirit” (6:6).
The resultant character of this ministry of the Spirit for individual believers and the corporate church cannot be described in any better way than Paul does: We all with unveiled face, seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord who is the Spirit (3:18; see the commentary on 3:17-18). . . .
So Paul can say, “since through God’s mercy, we have this ministry, we do not lose heart” (4:1). How does this ministry work? Since Christian ministry is “the ministry of reconciliation,” the redemptive work of God in Christ is its starting point. We have noted that Paul’s theology of suffering (1:3-11) is grounded in “the sufferings of Christ.” He applies this as a “treasure in jars of clay” (4:7) to his own ministry of the gospel of Christ in a penetrating paradox (4:8-12).
A ministry of suffering
Paul in his ministry is “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (4:8-9). Theologically put, Paul sees his apostolic life as one of carrying about the dying of Jesus in order that “the life of Jesus” might be revealed in and through it (4:10). In his words, “For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body” (4:11). This is the theological heart of a Christian ministry, “death is at work in us, but life in you” (4:12, NRSV). This “death” is sharing in the “sufferings of Christ.” And this “life” is sharing in sustaining and empowering presence of of the resurrected and living Christ.
The evident anointing of God on the ministry of Mother Teresa surely tapped into this theological dynamic. Her spiritual power was grounded in her unique faith-identification with Christ crucified and risen. In Mother Teresa’s devotion to the passion of Christ, suffering was taken by her as a means in her vocation. Her career-long experience of interior “darkness” appears related. In the poor, the sick, and the dying to whom she ministered in the slums, she met Christ. She “grasped the depth of Jesus’ identification with each sufferer and understood the mystical connection between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of the poor (Kolodiejchuk 2007, 43). In her words, “Suffering in itself is nothing; but suffering shared with Christ’s Passion is a wonderful gift” (Kolodiejchuk 2007, 146).
What Paul identifies as “the sufferings of Christ” in his ministry he describes in a second paradoxical list in 6:4-10. This list, commending himself that his “ministry will not be discredited” (6:3), comes to an ironic summary climax: “having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (6:10). In 11:23-29, in the context of his boasting as a fool (11:1-21), comes a final list (but not the final mention) of his apostolic sufferings. This list, set against the boast of his rivals in pedigree, in trouble-free triumphal ministry, and in ecstatic experiences, concludes with a vivid expression of the theme of power through weakness. This theme has woven itself throughout the entire letter. If Paul has to boast in defense of his ministry, he will only boast, he writes, “of the things that show my weakness” (11:30).
The apostle’s Christological understanding of specifically “Christian” ministry comes to profound clarity as he speaks of “visions and revelations from the Lord” (12:1 in 12:1-10). Of no value to anyone but himself are Paul’s ecstatic or high spiritual moments (12:2-6). Rather, he was graced with “a thorn in my flesh . . . to torment me” (12:7). His plea for deliverance from it was refused. Then came the revelation from the Lord that forever defines his apostolic ministry and all future truly Christian ministry: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9, NRSV). This is how Paul’s ministry takes place “in the power of God” (6:7). In his suffering, he is nonetheless sustained.
Here is where the apostle most deeply saw “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (4:4). For he concludes: “therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. . . , for when I am weak, then I am strong” (12:9). Paul indeed saw “the glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:6). So can we! No wonder he declares that God leads Christian ministers “in triumphal procession in Christ” and makes them “to God the aroma of Christ” everywhere (2:14-15). But the sobering fact is that Christian ministers are at once “the smell of death” to some, and “the fragrance of life” to others (2:16). With Paul, we must ask, “who is equal to such a task?”
Yet on this somber note, can we not conclude from 2 Cor that the ultimate expression of the glory of God is in the Christian ministry? Is it not in the witness of his people, the leaven of Christ’s church in the world? Paul’s language suggests as much. In the administration of the collection for the saints in Jerusalem, “administration” translates the cognate verb for doing ministry, diakonoumenēi (8:19). The offering is being administrated “for the glory [doxan] of the Lord himself” (NRSV). In 8:23, those who administer the offering are “the glory [doxa] of Christ” (NRSV). And in 9:13, people will glorify [doxazontes] God for the Corinthians’ ministry (diakonias) of “generosity of sharing with them and everyone else.”
In the ministry of the gospel of Christ we “are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory,” into “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (3:18; 4:4). As we serve with our eyes fixed on “the face of Christ” (see Heb 12:2), we witness in our hearts “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (4:6). The theology of 2 Cor is brought to a succinct yet comprehensive summary in Paul’s unique Trinitarian benediction (13:14):
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
[Eliminate?] Following the order of Christian experience: First, “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” In his life, death, and resurrection, Christ brought into being the gospel and its ministry. These are inseparably intertwined. Both take the shape of his cross and resurrection life. Second, “the love of God.” Paul knows God the Father as the source of all life and hope. Third, “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” The common sharing in the divine life that constitutes the church is the divine gift that is the Spirit. He transforms every life, and empowers the ministry of the people of God.
E. Theological Themes
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us (4:6-7).
The theology imbedded in 2 Cor is simply Christology, the mysterious and profound deed of Christ crucified and risen. Christology functions for Paul both as a telescope and a microscope. He looks through them at everything involved in his apostolic calling. This is true whether his gaze is lifted up to God the Father or brought down to the humiliations, hardships, and dangers he encounters in the course of his ministry. Every aspect of his ministry takes on the meaning only in relation to Jesus the Christ. Whether Paul is probing the grandeur of the work of the Holy Spirit or defining his ministry to those who look upon it with disdain, the key to each is the person of the Christ.
Real to his life and thought with implications for the gospel he preaches, for the nature of the church, and for the life of the Christian is the dying of the Jesus who yet lives by the power of God. Such a Christology radically transforms all it touches. This is the distinctive contribution of 2 Cor to the theology of the NT. From Paul’s Christological perspective we will examine briefly the themes of God, the gospel, and the ministry. We presuppose the interpretation of the texts employed as set forth in the commentary.
God
By definition theology begins with God. To say (logos) anything about God (theos) is to do theology. And for Paul thinking about “the living God” (3:3), requires looking first into “the face of Christ,” where “a human face [is] united with the being of God” (Young and Ford 1987, 255). There one sees fully “the glory of God.” In “the face of Christ,” the Creator-God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” shines into human minds and hearts to give the “light of the knowledge” of himself. What did Paul understand about his Theos? What kind of God revealed himself to Paul in the face of his Lord?
Paul attributes his calling to be an apostle of Christ Jesus to the “will of God” (1:1). For him God is the one, above all, who actively determines his life in Christ. It is just as the Macedonians first gave themselves to the Lord and then to the apostles—”in keeping with God’s will” (8:5).
Thus, all believers and all Christian communities belong to God as “the church of God” (1:1). To all these the apostle sends his greeting of “grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:2). The greeting originates from God and Jesus, as both are inherent to the very being of the church and its apostle.
Paul’s first description of God to the church at Corinth is as “our Father” (1:2). Understood in the context of his Jewish background and the traditions of the earthly Jesus, God is first a Father (1:2, 3). It was Jesus first who taught his disciples to pray “Father” (Luke 11:3; Matt 6:9; see Matt 11:25-27). With this heritage, God became for the apostle primarily and preeminently the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:30; 11:31).
Paul can speak of “the Son of God, Jesus Christ” (1:19; see 1 Cor 1:9; only here in the Cor letters, but frequently in Romans). As Father and Son, each defines the other. They are the single source of all that Paul sees and receives from God. Thus, God and Christ are to be blessed or praised (1:3). To God, both thanks (2:14; 8:16; 9:11-12, 15) and prayers (13:7, 9; see 1:11; 9:14) are to be directed.
In 2 Cor, Paul identifies God’s character, first, as “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (1:3). Paul uses the attribute “compassion” (oiktirmōn), literally “mercies” (NRSV), elsewhere both of God (Rom 12:1) and of Christ (Phil 2:1). Divine blessing, salvation, calling, and life all flow out from them. As “the God of all comfort” (parklēseōs) or “encouragement” (Young and Ford 1987, 262), God (1:4) and Christ (1:5) are the source of the apostles’ comfort in all their troubles (see also 7:6).
On this basis, the apostles can comfort / encourage the Corinthians with “the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (1:4). Significantly their ability to comfort others with the comfort of God is due to “the sufferings of Christ” (1:5) overflowing into their ministries (1:7). With such a source, the theme of mutual comfort flows through the entire letter (parklēseōs—1:5, 6, 7; 7:4, 13; parakaleō—1:4, 6; 2:7; 7:7, 13). Central to Paul’s faith in God is the God “who raises the dead” (1:9). Spoken in the throes of a deadly trial from which he was delivered, the phrase reaches to the height of NT faith. For the God “who raises the dead” is precisely the God “who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead” (4:14). Had Paul not written to the Corinthians earlier that “if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17)? It is this very life-giving character of God that allows Paul to affirm that God “will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence” (4:14). Such a God is the guarantee that “we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven” (5:1) in which “to appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (5:10).
The God who raises the dead (1:9) is the kind of God who is at work in the ministries of his servants. With Christ, who now “lives by God’s power,” Paul writes, also “by God’s power we will live with him to serve you” (13:4). Paul conducts his ministry in a manner that shows that “this all surpassing power is from God and not from us” (4:7; see 6:7). The resurrection power of God in Christ applies not only to our deaths, but also to our lives and ministries (7:3). God is the God of the Resurrection, an essential dimension of the story of God.
For Paul, God is the one whose “grace” thoroughly characterizes his ministry (1:12). The “holiness and sincerity” that rules his conduct in the world and with the Corinthians are from God (1:12). His message to them is a “Yes” (1:19), precisely because “God is faithful” to him (1:18). God is known to be faithful because “the Son of God, Jesus Christ” (1:19) whom Paul and his companions preached in Corinth is a “Yes” to the “many promises of God” (1:20). “In Christ” God has made them all “stand firm,” for he has “anointed” those who believe, “set his seal of ownership” on them, “and put his Spirit” in their “hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (1:21-22; see 5:5). God’s action by his Spirit in the ministry of his apostles is in and through his Son, Jesus.
As is already obvious, Paul attributes his ministry directly to God. It is God “who always leads us in triumphal procession” (2:1); and it is “the word of God” (ton tou logon theou 2:17; 4:20; see 5:19) that he proclaims. Yet his apostolic triumph is only and comprehensively “in Christ” (2:14; 5:19). That is, he triumphs by identifying with Christ’s suffering and death, and in the power of his resurrected life. In this manner Paul was “to God the aroma of Christ” to all who came in contact with his ministry, to both “those who are being saved” and to “those who are perishing” (2:15).
It was “to God” to whom Paul was supremely accountable, for it was in Christ that he and his co-workers spoke “before God with sincerity, like men sent from God” (2:17; see 5:10). Their “confidence” as apostles was “through Christ to God” (3:4). Their “competence” as “ministers of a new covenant” came “from God” (6:6). In a real sense “through Christ to God” was their core definition, as self-acclaimed “servants of God” (6:4). As such Paul limits his ministerial activities “to the field God has assigned to us” (10:13), which included Corinth.
With the term “grace” (charis) central to his theological vocabulary, God was for Paul supremely a God of grace. Grace came, wrote Paul, “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:2). It comprehended God’s “unsought and unmerited benevolence” (Harris 2005, 192), which expresses itself in no longer counting “men’s sins against them” (5:19). God extends this grace to all humanity in the person and work of Christ: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (8:9; see 12:9; 13:14).
This grace of God determined Paul’s conduct in ministry (1:12). Through his ministry and that of his co-workers, God’s grace reached out to “more and more people” (4:15), including the response of the Macedonians to the collection out of their severe trials and “extreme poverty” (8:1). As a “surpassing grace” (9:14), God caused it to abound to the Corinthians so that they, having all that they need, “will abound in every good work” (9:8). For all these reasons and more, Paul urged them “not to receive God’s grace in vain” (6:10).
The God of grace was the author and the foundational source of the reconciliation “through Christ.” As recipients of this reconciliation, Paul, his co-workers, and the Corinthians were given by God “the ministry of reconciliation.” It consisted of “the message of reconciliation,” the revealing word (logon) that “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ.” God made Christ, “who had no sin to be sin,” so that “the righteousness of God” might be extended to all who will receive it. In this ministry the apostles were “God’s ambassadors,” spokespersons through whom Christ was making his reconciling appeal to the world (5:18-21).
God is one who loves the church and its people. The apostle expresses this grand assumption in benedictory terms: “the God of love and peace will be with you” (13:11) and “the love of God . . . [will] be with you all” (13:14; see 5:14). An inherent part of God’s love in this final benediction is “the grace of . . . Christ” and “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” This forms “the most developed trinitarian affirmation in the NT” (Harris 2005, 116). When theology is applied to the more mundane context, Paul seeks to motivate meaningfully the church with the reminder that “God loves a cheerful giver” (9:7). The benedictory “God of . . . peace” along with the salutary “peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:2) conveys the comprehensive biblical shalom in a familiar Pauline characterization of God (Rom 15:13; Phil 4:9; 1 Thess 5:23; see 2 Thess 16; Heb 13:20).
One fascinating feature of theology in 2 Cor is the expression “the glory of God” (1:20; 4:6, 15). Its implications penetrate Paul’s entire presentation. For now we note only that this characterization of God focuses on “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” and in whose face God has shown “the light of the knowledge” of his glory (4:6). This is the God whom Paul defines in the proclamation of his gospel.
2. The Gospel
Paul’s gospel is supremely “the gospel of Christ” (2:12). Four of the eight appearances of the term “gospel” (euangelion) in 2 Cor identify “Christ” as its content (2:12; 4:4; 9:13; 10:14; see the commentary on 2:12). Once in the phrase “the gospel of God” (11:7; the cognate verb euēngelisamēn occurs here as well as in 10:16), Paul names God as the source of the gospel that is Christ. In 4:3, “our gospel” is the gospel Paul preaches. And in 11:4, “a different gospel” is an ironic reference to the message preached by Paul’s rivals in Corinth. Paul can also speak simply and grandly of simply “the Gospel” (8:18).
The crucial question is: What is the content of Paul’s gospel? For Paul that content is not only Christ, but is expressed also as “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (4:4). Interestingly, this is the “light of the gospel” that he defines in 4:6 as “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” With Christ as “the image of God,” Paul means that it is “in the face [prosōpōi, person] of Christ” that God makes known his glory (see the commentary on 4:4-6).
“Glory” belongs uniquely to God, and ultimately transcends human comprehension. The extensive use of the terminology of “glory” (both noun and verb) in 3:7-18 has the fiery blinding presence of God on Sinai as its background.
Yet the “glory” can be known! God can be known and the most that can be known of him is seen in the human face of Jesus—in his person and work. It is in Christ, in his life, death, and resurrection that God comes to humankind in the fullness of his revealing and saving presence. Christ is the “Yes” to the many promises of God, for through him is the “Amen” to God for glory through the ministry of the apostles (1:20; see the commentary on this verse). The content of Paul’s gospel is ultimately “the glory of God.” It is his hidden mystery and his revealed holiness, as he shares in John’s witness to Jesus the Christ (see John 1:14, 18).
Given the unity of the Son with the Father Paul takes for granted, we may further explore Paul’s gospel in his presentation of the one he calls the Christ. All important and all consuming is the death and resurrection of Christ viewed as one continually present event. The risen Christ remains the crucified one and the crucified Christ remains the risen one (McCant 1999, 162) Integral to this presentation are “the sufferings of Christ” (1:5) in his life and death.
The first and basic consequence is that Christ “died for all” so that all humans may “live . . . for him who died for them and was raised again” (5:15). Guaranteed with Christ’s resurrection is that the God who “raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us . . . in his presence” (4:14). Further, the redemptive core of Christ’s death “for all” is that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (5:21). In that act, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ” (5:19). The redemptive, saving, action and presence of God in his world is in the deed of the glorified Cross, in Christ’s death and resurrection.
This redemptive event is the content of Paul’s gospel. At its heart is the “message of reconciliation” (5:19), which is then the very “word [logon] of God” (2:17; 4:2). To receive this message as true for oneself is to be “in Christ . . . a new creation” (5:17), to be with him who is “the image of God” (4:4). In union with this Christ, crucified and risen, God’s servants are entrusted with “the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18) as his “ambassadors” (5:20). They possess this “treasure in jars of clay”—as lowly human instruments, for the “all-surpassing power” of the gospel is “from God,” not from his messengers (4:7).
This leads to a second and equally important consequence of the significance of “the sufferings of Christ” (1:5) in the theology of this letter. We will consider this under the heading, “The Ministry,” below. Paul’s gospel and his ministry are so intimately interrelated that it is difficult to discuss the two separately. Just as Paul’s gospel determines his ministry, so his ministry reveals his gospel. Accordingly, some themes treated below could just as appropriately have been considered under the heading, “The Gospel.”
For example, Paul accuses some Corinthians of receiving from his rivals “another Jesus,” a “different spirit,” and a “different gospel” (11:4, NRSV) than those on which the church at Corinth was founded. At issue in the three closely related charges is the person and work of Christ and the relation of his sufferings / death to his resurrection. Put in Pauline terminology, it is the relation of power to weakness that constitutes the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of his apostles: “For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you” (13:4). Thus we arrive at the all-permeating theme of the ministry of Paul given to him by his risen Lord, “power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9).
3. The Ministry
At a significant transition point in his argument, Paul asserts for himself and his co-workers that “we have this ministry” (4:1). This ministry, which he first defines as “the ministry of the Spirit” (3:8), he later sums up grandly as “the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18), as has already been noted.
The apostle’s concern for the apostolic and Christian ministry is seen in his frequent use of the terminology of ministry throughout 2 Cor. This is translated by NIV as either “ministry” (7 times) or “service” (5 times, including 11:8: “to serve”). The Greek noun diakonia occurs twelve times (3:6, 7, 8, 9; 4:1; 5:18; 6:3; 8:4; 9:1, 12, 13; 11:8). The verb form diakoneō, which appears twice, is rendered by NIV as “the result of our ministry” (3:3) and “we administer” (8:18) in reference to the collection. The abstract noun diakonia, ministry, is similarly treated in 8:4; 9:1, 12, 13; 11:8. The cognate noun form diakonos, servant or minister, is translated four times as “ministers” (3:6; 11:15 [twice], 23) and once as “servants” (6:4) by the NRSV. Both the NRSV and NIV use “ministers of a new covenant” for diakonous kainēs diathēkēs in 3:6.
A ministry of the Spirit. The first specific characterization of Paul’s apostolic and Christian ministry is “the ministry of the Spirit” (3:8). Constituting this ministry is the fact that God “has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant” in which “the Spirit gives life” (3:6). The new covenant is in contrast to the old Mosaic covenant. The old covenant was made with Israel through Moses in the majestic thunder and lightening of Mount Sinai (Exod 18—20). It “came with glory” (3:7). But it was “engraved in letters on stone;” and, as such, it was a “ministry that brought death” (3:7).
In contrast, Paul’s new covenant ministry is “written . . . with the Spirit of the living God . . . on tablets of human hearts” (3:3). The apostle’s prime example was the Corinthians themselves. They were Paul’s letter of recommendation, which Christ wrote by the Spirit (3:2-3). That is, the Spirit of Christ made them the new persons they became when they accepted Paul’s gospel message. The old covenant of “the letter kills;” but the new covenant of “the Spirit gives life” (3:6). The new possesses the glory of “the ministry that brings righteousness” (3:9).
The face of Moses as he descended from Sinai illustrates the glory of the old covenant. His face was so radiant “that the Israelites could not look steadily at” his face, “because of its glory, fading though it was” (3:7). The old was indeed “glorious” (3:9), but it was fading away in comparison to “the surpassing . . . glory of that which lasts” (3:10). The new ministry of life rather than death, of righteousness rather than condemnation (3:9)—”the ministry of the Spirit”—has come to stay! It possesses “an eternal glory” (4:17).
The Spirit as the dynamic of this ministry is given to the apostles and to all believers “as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (1:22; 5:5). With this hope, comes a boldness, a new openness (3:12). The difference, the superiority, the “surpassing glory,” is that now the old veil over human hearts is taken away in the person and work of Christ (3:14-16). Christ, by his death and resurrection, is of the essence of “the ministry of the Spirit.” For “the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (3:17). Therefore, Paul’s ministry is “in the Holy Spirit” (6:6).
The resultant character of this ministry of the Spirit for individual believers and the corporate church cannot be described in any better way than Paul does: We all with unveiled face, seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord who is the Spirit (3:18; see the commentary on 3:17-18). The ministry of the Spirit is the power of the resurrected Christ, who brings the glory of God into human lives. This is the God proclaimed in 2 Cor; this is Paul’s “gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (4:6; emphasis added); this is our glorious privilege in ministry.
So Paul can say, “since through God’s mercy, we have this ministry, we do not lose heart” (4:1). How does this ministry work? Since Christian ministry is “the ministry of reconciliation,” the redemptive work of God in Christ is its starting point. We have noted that Paul’s theology of suffering (1:3-11) is grounded in “the sufferings of Christ.” He applies this as a “treasure in jars of clay” (4:7) to his own ministry of the gospel of Christ in a penetrating paradox (4:8-12).
A ministry of suffering. Paul in his ministry is “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (4:8-9). Theologically put, Paul sees his apostolic life as one of carrying about the dying of Jesus in order that “the life of Jesus” might be revealed in and through it (4:10). In his words, “For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body” (4:11). This is the theological heart of a Christian ministry, “death is at work in us, but life in you” (4:12, NRSV). This “death” is sharing in the “sufferings of Christ.” And this “life” is sharing in sustaining and empowering presence of of the resurrected and living Christ.
The evident anointing of God on the ministry of Mother Teresa surely tapped into this theological dynamic. Her spiritual power was grounded in her unique faith-identification with Christ crucified and risen. In Mother Teresa’s devotion to the passion of Christ, suffering was taken by her as a means in her vocation. Her career-long experience of interior “darkness” appears related. In the poor, the sick, and the dying to whom she ministered in the slums, she met Christ. She “grasped the depth of Jesus’ identification with each sufferer and understood the mystical connection between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of the poor (Kolodiejchuk 2007, 43). In her words, “Suffering in itself is nothing; but suffering shared with Christ’s Passion is a wonderful gift” (Kolodiejchuk 2007, 146).
What Paul identifies as “the sufferings of Christ” in his ministry he describes in a second paradoxical list in 6:4-10. This list, commending himself that his “ministry will not be discredited” (6:3), comes to an ironic summary climax: “having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (6:10). In 11:23-29, in the context of his boasting as a fool (11:1-21), comes a final list (but not the final mention) of his apostolic sufferings. This list, set against the boast of his rivals in pedigree, in trouble-free triumphal ministry, and in ecstatic experiences, concludes with a vivid expression of the theme of power through weakness. This theme has woven itself throughout the entire letter. If Paul has to boast in defense of his ministry, he will only boast, he writes, “of the things that show my weakness” (11:30).
The apostle’s Christological understanding of specifically “Christian” ministry comes to profound clarity as he speaks of “visions and revelations from the Lord” (12:1 in 12:1-10). Of no value to anyone but himself are Paul’s ecstatic or high spiritual moments (12:2-6). Rather, he was graced with “a thorn in my flesh . . . to torment me” (12:7). His plea for deliverance from it was refused. Then came the revelation from the Lord that forever defines his apostolic ministry and all future truly Christian ministry: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9, NRSV). This is how Paul’s ministry takes place “in the power of God” (6:7). In his suffering, he is nonetheless sustained.
Here is where the apostle most deeply saw “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (4:4). For he concludes: “therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. . . , for when I am weak, then I am strong” (12:9). Paul indeed saw “the glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:6). So can we! No wonder he declares that God leads Christian ministers “in triumphal procession in Christ” and makes them “to God the aroma of Christ” everywhere (2:14-15). But the sobering fact is that Christian ministers are at once “the smell of death” to some, and “the fragrance of life” to others (2:16). With Paul, we must ask, “who is equal to such a task?” Yet on this somber note, can we not conclude from 2 Cor that the ultimate expression of the glory of God is in the Christian ministry? Is it not in the witness of his people, the leaven of Christ’s church in the world? Paul’s language suggests as much. In the administration of the collection for the saints in Jerusalem, “administration” translates the cognate verb for doing ministry, diakonoumenēi (8:19). The offering is being administrated “for the glory [doxan] of the Lord himself” (NRSV). In 8:23, those who administer the offering are “the glory [doxa] of Christ” (NRSV). And in 9:13, people will glorify [doxazontes] God for the Corinthians’ ministry (diakonias) of “generosity of sharing with them and everyone else.”
In the ministry of the gospel of Christ we “are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory,” into “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (3:18; 4:4). As we serve with our eyes fixed on “the face of Christ” (see Heb 12:2), we witness in our hearts “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (4:6). The theology of 2 Cor is brought to a succinct yet comprehensive summary in Paul’s unique Trinitarian benediction (13:14):
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Following the order of Christian experience: First, “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” In his life, death, and resurrection, Christ brought into being the gospel and its ministry. These are inseparably intertwined. Both take the shape of his cross and resurrection life. Second, “the love of God.” Paul knows God the Father as the source of all life and hope. Third, “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” The common sharing in the divine life that constitutes the church is the divine gift that is the Spirit. He transforms every life, and empowers the ministry of the people of God.
Kolodiejchuk 2007, 43 Ibid., 146. This is the distinctive contribution of 2 Cor to the theology of the NT. Young and Ford 1987, 255. McCant 1999, 162. Kolodiejchuk 2007, 43 Ibid., 146. This is the distinctive contribution of 2 Cor to the theology of the NT. Young and Ford 1987, 255.
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Frank G. Carver