The manner of presentation of the ministry of Christ in Second Corinthians differs greatly from that in Ephesians. In the latter epistle we have the mystery of Christ and the Church unfolded, and our heavenly blessings in association with a risen Christ. In connection with this, ministry is found as the gracious provision of the Head for the need of His members below. It comes out, as it were, as part of a circle of teaching concerning the Church, its blessings and endowments.
We observe a different aspect in Corinthians. The Apostle is seeking the full spiritual restoration of his children in the faith. They had erred; Satan had gotten in. Their hearts had been estranged from the Lord and from the man who had been so greatly used in their blessing. Their ways and words had forced the Apostle to speak of himself and his ministry-this to a larger extent than he would have wished to have done. Consequently, ministry in this epistle has largely an experimental character. The deep feelings and emotions of the wounded servant are to be observed throughout. To simplify the matter, I would just mention that the subject is presented thus: in chapter 3, we have the ministry; in chapter 4, the minister; in chapter 5, his motives; in chapter 6, his moral traits.
The Ministry in Chapter Three
The ministry is of an exceedingly blessed character. The gospel, called here the gospel of the glory of Christ, is put in contrast with the law. Paul had been made an able minister of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. The law was a ministration of death and of condemnation. It set forth, not what God is, as some have said, but what man ought to be. This was fatal to the creature. So helpless is the ruin of nature that none can render the righteous requirement. Law knows little of mercy. It proposes blessing life and righteousness to those who keep it, but thunders out a curse upon all who fail, whatever their plea.
Law came in with glory and the circumstances in the giving of it were full of majesty. The mediator who brought it into the camp shone with the brightness of the glory he had been beholding, and had to put a veil on his face. It is the second giving of the law that the Apostle refers to here. This is important.
Law and Mercy
The first tables were broken before they reached the camp, for Moses would not bring them in where the golden calf was. The second giving of the law was accompanied by a proclamation of longsuffering and sovereign grace (Ex. 34). It is this the Apostle describes as a ministration of both death and condemnation. The law, even when thus accompanied, has this solemn character for all who have to do with it. What a grave consideration for thousands in Christendom! It is undeniable that those who in this day take up the law speak of mercy at the same time. Even a mingled system is ruin for the creature. Law in any shape or form only works wrath for man who is fallen and a sinner.
The old ministry is spoken of here as "that which is done away" (2 Cor. 3:1111For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. (2 Corinthians 3:11)). It came in incidentally until the promised Seed came. God would make manifest to all the real condition of the creature before the mighty remedy was introduced. So grievously have men misunderstood the declared object of God in giving the law that instead of learning their true state by it, they have gone about to establish a righteousness of their own by means of the law. What utter blindness as to the real condition of flesh before God.
The gospel, on the other hand, is spoken of as "that which remaineth." It will never fade before a brighter glory.
The Glory that Excels
It is not the statement of what man ought to be, but of what God is. He has revealed Himself in His Son, and in a manner blessedly suitable to our need and condition. It is not merely introduced with glory, but it subsists in glory. This is the glory that excels! It is divine testimony to One who having accomplished redemption has gone up into the glory of God. We gaze upon Him with unveiled face, in perfect peace in the presence of infinite holiness.
It is a ministry of righteousness and of the Spirit. It is of righteousness, not in requiring it as under the law, but in revealing it unto all. "Now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." Rom. 3:21, 2221But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (Romans 3:21‑22). God can now maintain His own consistency with Himself, yet holding as righteous every one that believes in Jesus on the ground of redemption. It is not mercy, though He is rich in it and has lavished it upon us, but righteousness. He is perfectly righteous in all His dealings of grace with us through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Here is solid ground for our feet, and resting here peace is sure and settled.
The Ministry of the Spirit
But God has put this honor on the work of Jesus. The Spirit has come out from the glory into which He has entered, and is God's gift to all who believe the gospel of God's salvation. (How could we wish to go back to law? Yet the Galatians did so. And many to their own loss in this day say that "the old wine is better.") But this is the gospel, the wonderful ministry that Paul had received. It is not a dry abstract statement of doctrine, but a precious testimony to Christ's glory. It confers righteousness and the Spirit on all who bow to it.
The Minister in Chapter Four
The ministry imparted its own character to the vessel; it formed the Apostle Paul, so to speak. He did not faint, though there was much cause for him to do so. He was energized and sustained by the glory of Christ. "Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power." He was guileless, walking transparently without a veil. How could he preach such a gospel and be otherwise? He eschewed the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in darkness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully. He gave forth the truth in all its purity. It received no adulteration in passing through such a vessel.
The God who once commanded the light to shine out of darkness, had Himself shined in Paul's heart, for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Apostle was a vessel of heavenly light set here to shed a holy radiance around. Are we this practically? It is not merely that Paul set forth in his teachings the doctrines of these things, though he did so, but he was all this in himself as well as in his teaching.
He was a vessel of heavenly light. The treasure was in an earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power might be clearly of God and not of man.
A Vessel of Heavenly Light
Who but God could have accomplished all that Paul carried out in the face of habitual and serious opposition, with the added difficulty of a thorn in the flesh? But the vessel must be broken in order to have the effectual shining forth of the heavenly testimony. The allusion is doubtless to Gideon's lamps and pitchers. The lamps were placed within the pitchers, and the pitchers had to be smashed (Judg. 7). Consequently, God brought power out of weakness. "The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 1 Cor. 1:2525Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:25).
The breaking process described is very touching. "Troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." 2 Cor. 4:8-108We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:8‑10). What a precious servant of Christ! He walked with scarcely a falter a path of unparalleled trial and suffering for the sake of Christ, filling up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh for His body's sake, the Church. He met nothing but reproach and loss on every hand.
This is not, however, Christ the perfect Servant. But comparing ourselves with Paul, how far short we come! Is there not a tendency with us to seek our own and not the things of Jesus Christ? Are we not prone to seek a comfortable pathway in our service, and to shun reproach and suffering? Is there not a danger of flesh and the world proving a snare to our hearts? Let us search ourselves closely in the light of the Divine Presence.
The Motives of the Minister in Chapter Five
There are three motives of the minister: the coming glory, the judgment seat, and the love of Christ.
(1.) As to the bright future, the Apostle was full of holy confidence. We know that if the earthly tabernacle (the body) is destroyed, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. If life has to be laid down, we are confident that we shall be clothed at the appointed moment, and shall be like the Son. We do not look for dissolution, but for Christ's coming, that the power of life in Christ may swallow up mortality. We anticipate a glorious change at the fulfillment of the blessed hope. Let it be distinctly understood that the Apostle himself looked for this. By no means did he relegate the Lord's coming to a distant day. It is a mark of the evil servant to do so and such was not Paul. It is true that when he wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy, he spoke differently, but the Lord had then made known to him that he must go into death for His sake, and be among the sleepers at His coming. Peter was similarly informed by the Lord.
God has made us for the glory. His purpose when He first began to work in our souls was to have us ultimately like His Son. He has predestinated us to be "conformed to the image of His Son, that He may be the firstborn among many brethren." Rom. 8:2929For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29).
The Coming Glory
Meanwhile, He has given us the Spirit as the earnest and thus we are filled with confidence. If we die, it is but absence from the body, to be at home with the Lord. With the Apostle all this became a motive for service. "Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him." 2 Cor. 5:99Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. (2 Corinthians 5:9). How could he help laboring for such a Lord? To have been marked out for glory, to be assured of the presence of the Spirit, so filled the Apostle with adoring gratitude that he was very gladly willing to spend and be spent for Him.
(2.) Then comes the judgment seat. "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." This includes saints as well as sinners, not that all will stand before the Lord together, nor with the same issues. Those who believe in Jesus and are at peace with God through His work, these are in the possession of eternal life in His Son and beyond judgment. Christ cannot judge His own handiwork. But it all must be told out that we may know the real truth as to His grace and as to ourselves, that any rewards that are due for faithful service may be dealt out by the Lord. How solemn it will be for some to stand before Christ; what confusion of face there will be, what eternal ruin! They will stand in all the nakedness of nature, without a rag in which to appear, without a single plea, only to be righteously expelled from Him into eternal woe! The thought of it quickened the Apostle and became a second motive for service and ministry. "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." Does it act thus with us? Satan seems determined in our day to remove this motive for service altogether. Never were the terrors of the judgment to come so softened, not to say openly denied. Men doing this act falsely and become tools of the enemy. Paul had the future with its tremendous and appalling issues fully before his eyes, and it had the effect of making him even more zealous in his labor for Christ among men.
(3.) The third motive is by no means the least, but rather the spring of all. "The love of Christ constraineth us." He thought of Him coming down to where men were and walking here in an attitude of reconciliation toward men.
Love of Christ
Then He went into death that He might close the history of the first man and lay a righteous ground of reconciliation for the new creation. This wondrous love filled the heart of the Apostle and was a constraining power. It caused him to go forth throughout the Gentile world as an ambassador of the absent Christ, with this blessed ministry of reconciliation, beseeching men on God's part to be reconciled to Him. Service is of but little worth if love is not the spring. "Servile work" can never satisfy Christ. But what will not love endure? What will it not accomplish for its object?
Moral Traits of the Minister in Chapter Six
The Apostle and his fellow-workers besought the Corinthians not to receive the grace of God in vain. He speaks of beseeching sinners in chapter 5 and verse 20; now he beseeches saints. If they turned out badly, the ministry was blamed and the Lord dishonored. John presents the matter similarly in his epistles (1 John 2:2828And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. (1 John 2:28); 2 John 88Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. (2 John 8)). As for Paul, how did he behave? "In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God." He was most anxious to be without reproach, and to preserve a true character as God's minister in whom the divine glory was in measure bound up. Faithful man! He not only set forth the truth by word of mouth, but exemplified it in all his ways. Our teaching has only the weight which our lives give to it.
The first moral trait is "much patience." This is found in the front rank in chapter 12 also. In Paul it was proved to be "in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses." None endured what he did in the service of Christ. But is there no place for it now because persecution has ceased? Assuredly, there is. In these latter days of service in the assembly of God, it is not infrequently of a distressing and discouraging character. With declining love on every hand, the world coming into the hallowed circle, and growing indifference to the claims of Christ, the spiritual laborer needs "much patience." Let the whole chapter be examined with all its features and may the Spirit of God produce these things in us all for Christ's glory.
W. Fereday