Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. InsteadThis word marks a contrast to previous behaviors or attitudes. In the context of 2 Corinthians, Paul is contrasting the integrity of his ministry with the deceitful practices of false teachers. The Greek word "ἀλλά" (alla) signifies a strong opposition, emphasizing a decisive break from past actions. This sets the tone for a life transformed by the Gospel, urging believers to live in a manner that reflects their new identity in Christ. we have renounced
The Greek word "ἀπειπάμεθα" (apeipametha) implies a strong, deliberate rejection. This renunciation is not passive but an active decision to turn away from behaviors that are incompatible with the Gospel. Historically, this reflects the early Christian community's commitment to purity and truth, distinguishing themselves from the surrounding pagan culture. secret and shameful ways
The phrase refers to hidden sins and actions that bring dishonor. The Greek "κρυπτὰ τῆς αἰσχύνης" (krypta tēs aischynēs) suggests practices that are concealed due to their disgraceful nature. In a historical context, this could relate to the mystery religions and secretive cults prevalent in Corinth, which often involved immoral acts. Paul calls for transparency and integrity, aligning with the Christian call to live as children of light (Ephesians 5:8). we do not practice deceit
The Greek "οὐδὲ περιπατοῦμεν ἐν πανουργίᾳ" (oude peripatoumen en panourgia) indicates a lifestyle free from cunning and trickery. Paul emphasizes honesty in ministry, contrasting with the false apostles who manipulated the truth for personal gain. This commitment to truthfulness is foundational for Christian witness, as it reflects the character of God who is truth (John 14:6). nor do we distort the word of God
The Greek "μηδὲ δολοῦντες τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ" (mēde dolountes ton logon tou Theou) conveys the idea of adulterating or corrupting the message of Scripture. Paul insists on preserving the purity of the Gospel, a message that must remain unaltered to retain its power to save. This is a call to uphold doctrinal integrity, resisting the temptation to modify the message to suit cultural trends or personal agendas. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth
The phrase "ἀλλὰ τῇ φανερώσει τῆς ἀληθείας" (alla tē phanerōsei tēs alētheias) highlights the transparency and clarity with which the Gospel should be presented. Paul advocates for a bold and clear declaration of the truth, without ambiguity or compromise. This approach is rooted in the conviction that the truth of the Gospel is powerful and transformative, needing no embellishment. we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience
The Greek "συνιστάνοντες ἑαυτοὺς πρὸς πᾶσαν συνείδησιν ἀνθρώπων" (synistanontes heautous pros pasan syneidēsin anthrōpōn) suggests presenting oneself in a way that appeals to the moral awareness of others. Paul is confident that his conduct and message will stand up to scrutiny, appealing to the innate sense of right and wrong in every person. This underscores the importance of living a life that is consistent with the Gospel, as our actions often speak louder than words. in the sight of God
The phrase "ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ" (enōpion tou Theou) reminds believers that their ultimate accountability is to God. This awareness of divine oversight encourages sincerity and integrity, knowing that God sees beyond outward appearances to the heart. It is a call to live with a God-centered focus, prioritizing His approval above all else. This perspective fosters a life of holiness and dedication, as we seek to honor God in all we do. Persons / Places / Events 1. Paul the ApostleThe author of 2 Corinthians, Paul is writing to the church in Corinth to defend his ministry and encourage the believers in their faith. 2. CorinthA major city in ancient Greece, known for its wealth and immorality. The church in Corinth faced many challenges, including false teachings and internal divisions. 3. The Corinthian ChurchThe recipients of Paul's letter, they were a diverse group of believers struggling with issues of morality, unity, and understanding the true gospel. Teaching Points Integrity in MinistryPaul emphasizes the importance of integrity and transparency in ministry. As believers, we are called to renounce secret and shameful ways, ensuring that our actions align with the truth of the gospel. Commitment to TruthThe phrase "manifesting the truth" highlights the necessity of living and speaking truthfully. This involves a commitment to the gospel message without distortion or manipulation. Rejecting DeceptionPaul’s rejection of "deception" and "distorting the word of God" serves as a warning against altering the gospel for personal gain or to please others. We must remain faithful to the true message of Christ. Accountability to GodThe passage underscores that our ultimate accountability is to God. Our conscience should be clear before Him, knowing that our actions and words are in line with His truth. Witness to OthersBy living truthfully and with integrity, we commend ourselves to others' consciences. Our lives should be a testament to the transformative power of the gospel, drawing others to Christ. Bible Study Questions 1. How does Paul's approach to ministry in 2 Corinthians 4:2 challenge us to examine our own integrity in sharing the gospel? 2. In what ways can we ensure that we are "manifesting the truth" in our daily lives and interactions with others? 3. What are some modern examples of "deception" or "distorting the word of God" that we should be cautious of, and how can we guard against them? 4. How does understanding our accountability to God influence the way we live and share our faith? 5. Reflect on a time when your actions or words served as a witness to others. How can you continue to live in a way that commends the gospel to others' consciences? Connections to Other Scriptures 1 Corinthians 2:1-5Paul emphasizes his commitment to preaching the gospel with sincerity and not with eloquent wisdom, which connects to his renunciation of deceitful practices in 2 Corinthians 4:2. Galatians 1:10Paul speaks about seeking God's approval rather than human approval, which aligns with his rejection of cunning and deceit in his ministry. Ephesians 5:8-11Paul encourages believers to live as children of light, exposing deeds of darkness, which parallels his call to manifest the truth openly in 2 Corinthians 4:2. | Conscience a Witness to the Truth | H. Melvill, B. D. | 2 Corinthians 4:2 | | The Conditions and Character of a True Ministry | W. Perkins. | 2 Corinthians 4:2 | | The Minister's Aim, Weapons, and Encouragements | F. B. Meyer, B. A. | 2 Corinthians 4:2 | | The Mission of the Pulpit Is | G. T. Perks, M. A. | 2 Corinthians 4:2 | | The Self-Evidencing Nature of Divine Truth | J. Caird, D. D. | 2 Corinthians 4:2 | | The Sphere of the Pulpit, or the Mission of Minister's | D. Thomas, D. D. | 2 Corinthians 4:2 | | The True Minister | J. Clarkson. | 2 Corinthians 4:2 | | Truth and Conscience | J.R. Thomson | 2 Corinthians 4:2 | | Truth and the Conscience | A. H. Bradford, D. D. | 2 Corinthians 4:2 | | Full Confidence in the Power of the Truth | R. Tuck | 2 Corinthians 4:1, 2 | | Glory of the Apostolic Ministry; How its Duties Were Discharged | C. Lipscomb | 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 | | How Men Should Preach | E. Hurndall | 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 |
People Corinthians, Galatians, PaulPlaces Achaia, CorinthTopics FALSE, TRUE, Approval, Clear, Commend, Commending, Conscience, Contrary, Craftiness, Cunning, Deceit, Deceitfully, Deception, Disgraceful, Dishonesty, Distort, Falsifying, Feeling, Forth, Full, Galatians, God's, Handling, Hidden, Human, Letter, Making, Manifestation, Man's, Marks, Message, Nay, Open, Ourselves, Paul's, Plainly, Practice, Presence, Recommending, Refuse, Rejected, Renounce, Renounced, Revelation, Secrecy, Secret, Sense, Setting, Shame, Shameful, Sight, Statement, Strive, Tamper, Tricks, Truth, Underhanded, Using, Walking, WrongDictionary of Bible Themes 2 Corinthians 4:2 1462 truth, in NT
1690 word of God
5009 conscience, nature of
5549 speech, positive
5589 trap
5811 compromise
5941 secrecy
6147 deceit, practice
7759 preachers, qualifications
8252 faithfulness, relationships
8275 honesty
8310 morality, and creation
8468 renunciation 2 Corinthians 4:1-2 5109 Paul, apostle Library The Winsome Jesus.
The Face of Jesus: Jesus drew crowds, men, women, children, bad people, enemies--His personality--face--impress of experiences--the glory of God in that face, 2 Corinthians 4:6. Hebrews 1:3. The Music of God in the Voice of Jesus: the eye--Jesus' eyes, Luke 4:16-30. John 8:59. 10:31. 7:32, 45, 46. 18:6. Mark 10:32. 9:36. 10:13-16. Luke 19:48.--His voice, Matthew 26:30. personal touch, Matthew 8:3, 15. 9:29. 17:7. 20:34. Mark 1:41. 7:33. Luke 5:13. 22:51. (John 14:16-20). His presence irresistible. …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about JesusLooking at the Unseen
'While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.'--2 COR. iv. 18. Men may be said to be divided into two classes, materialists and idealists, in the widest sense of those two words. The mass care for, and are occupied by, and regard as really solid good, those goods which can be touched and enjoyed by sense. The minority--students, thinkers, men of ideas, moralists, and the like--believe in, and care for, impalpable spiritual riches. Everybody admits that the …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) The Heart of the Gospel
Let me give you a parable. In the days of Nero there was great shortness of food in the city of Rome, although there was abundance of corn to be purchased at Alexandria. A certain man who owned a vessel went down to the sea coast, and there he noticed many hungry people straining their eyes toward the sea, watching for the vessels that were to come from Egypt with corn. When these vessels came to the shore, one by one, the poor people wrung their hands in bitter disappointment, for on board the galleys …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 32: 1886 In the Bitter Cold of Winter the Trees Stand Bare of Leaves...
1. In the bitter cold of winter the trees stand bare of leaves, and it seems as if their life, too, had departed for ever, yet in the spring time they put forth new leaves and beautiful flowers, and the fruit begins to show itself. So was it with Me in My crucifixion and resurrection, and so it is with my faithful cross-bearers (2 Cor. iv.8-11; vi.4-10). Though they seem to be crushed and dead beneath their cross they still put forth the beautiful flowers and glorious fruits of eternal life which …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet Clairvoyance
"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."--2 COR. iv. 18. "Everything that is, is double."--Hermes Trismegistus. "LOOK not at the things which are seen." How can we look not at the things which are seen? If they are seen, how can we help looking at them? "Look at the things which are not seen." How can we look at things which are not seen? Has religion some magic wishing-cap, …
Henry Drummond—The Ideal Life Conclusion.
NEBICULA est; transibit,"--"It is a little cloud; it will pass away." This was said first, I believe, by Athanasius, of Julian the Apostate who, after a short reign of intense hostility to Christianity, perished with his work, "leaving no wreck behind."[97]97 The same may be applied to all the recent attempts to undermine the faith of humanity in the person of its divine Lord and Saviour. The clouds, great and small, pass away; the sun continues to shine: darkness has its hour; the light is eternal. …
Philip Schaff—The Person of Christ Meditations of the Blessed State of a Regenerate Man in Heaven.
Here my meditation dazzles, and my pen falls out of my hand; the one being not able to conceive, nor the other to describe, that most excellent bliss, and eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. iv. 17; Rom. viii. 18)--whereof all the afflictions of this present life are not worthy--which all the elect shall with the blessed Trinity enjoy, from that time that they shall be received with Christ, as joint-heirs (Rom. viii. 17) into that everlasting kingdom of joy. Notwithstanding, we may take a scantling thereof. …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety Out of the Depths
Heinrich Suso 2 Cor. iv. 17 "O Father! not my will, but Thine be done!" Thus with my lips I say; Yet lags the heart, the while the lips would run-- My heart, it sayeth "Nay." "Be comforted, O child of My delight, Though yet thy heart complain; For I would have thee suffer when I smite, Or pain would not be [g]ain. "Were it a chastening if it were not grief? Yet for a moment tears-- Then glows the spring where fell the yellow leaf, Of Heaven's eternal years. "For sorrow is the sorrow of an hour, …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others Light of a Stone Most Precious
P. G. 2 Cor. iv. 6, 7 God in heaven hath a treasure, Riches none may count or tell; Hath a deep eternal pleasure, Christ, the Son He loveth well. God hath here on earth a treasure, None but He its price may know-- Deep unfathomable pleasure, Christ revealed in saints below. Christ, the light that fills the heavens Shining forth on earth beneath, Through His Spirit freely given Light of life midst shades of death; Down from heaven's unclouded glory God Himself the treasure brought, Closing thus …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others The Council of Nicæa.
An ecumenical council was a new experiment. Local councils had long since grown to be a recognised organ of the Church both for legislation and for judicial proceedings. But no precedent as yet prescribed, no ecclesiastical law or theological principle had as yet enthroned, the General Council' as the supreme expression of the Church's mind. Constantine had already referred the case of the Donatists first to a select council at Rome under bishop Miltiades, then to what Augustine (Ep. 43) has been …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius Memoir of John Bunyan
THE FIRST PERIOD. THIS GREAT MAN DESCENDED FROM IGNOBLE PARENTS--BORN IN POVERTY--HIS EDUCATION AND EVIL HABITS--FOLLOWS HIS FATHER'S BUSINESS AS A BRAZIER--ENLISTS FOR A SOLDIER--RETURNS FROM THE WARS AND OBTAINS AN AMIABLE, RELIGIOUS WIFE--HER DOWER. 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.'--2 Cor 4:7 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.'--Isaiah 55:8. 'Though ye have lien among the …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Preaching (ii. ).
For Thy sake, beloved Lord, I will labour in Thy Word; On the knees, in patient prayer; At the desk, with studious care; In the pulpit, seeking still There to utter all Thy will. I pursue the subject of attractive preaching, taking still the word attractive in its worthiest sense, and again laying stress on the necessity of attractiveness of the right sort. We have looked a little already at some of the external requisites to this end; now let us approach some which have to do with matter more …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren Fourth Sunday after Trinity Consolation in Suffering, and Patience.
Text: Romans 8, 18-22. 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to vanity not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III Religious Joy.
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."--Luke ii. 10, 11. There are two principal lessons which we are taught on the great Festival which we this day celebrate, lowliness and joy. This surely is a day, of all others, in which is set before us the heavenly excellence and the acceptableness in God's sight of that state which …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII The Patience of Man, which is Right and Laudable and Worthy of the Name...
2. The patience of man, which is right and laudable and worthy of the name of virtue, is understood to be that by which we tolerate evil things with an even mind, that we may not with a mind uneven desert good things, through which we may arrive at better. Wherefore the impatient, while they will not suffer ills, effect not a deliverance from ills, but only the suffering of heavier ills. Whereas the patient who choose rather by not committing to bear, than by not bearing to commit, evil, both make …
St. Augustine—On Patience Edwards -- Spiritual Light
Jonathan Edwards, the New England divine and metaphysician, was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, in 1703. He was graduated early from Yale College, where he had given much attention to philosophy, became tutor of his college, and at nineteen began to preach. His voice and manner did not lend themselves readily to pulpit oratory, but his clear, logical, and intense presentation of the truth produced a profound and permanent effect upon his hearers. He wrote what were considered the most important …
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 3 Faith in General.
"Through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."--Ephes. ii. 8. When the judicial act of the Triune God, justification, is announced to the conscience, faith begins to be active and expresses itself in works. This leads us to call the attention of our readers to the work of the Holy Spirit, which consists in the imparting of faith. We are saved through faith; and that faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. It is very specially a gift of the Triune God, by a peculiar …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit Concerning Christian Liberty
CHRISTIAN faith has appeared to many an easy thing; nay, not a few even reckon it among the social virtues, as it were; and this they do, because they have not made proof of it experimentally, and have never tasted of what efficacy it is. For it is not possible for any man to write well about it, or to understand well what is rightly written, who has not at some time tasted of its spirit, under the pressure of tribulation. While he who has tasted of it, even to a very small extent, can never write, …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation Lastly, Let us Hear the Lord Himself Delivering Most Plain Judgment on this Matter. ...
23. Lastly, let us hear the Lord Himself delivering most plain judgment on this matter. For, upon His speaking after a divine and fearful manner concerning husband and wife not separating, save on account of fornication, His disciples said to Him, "If the case be such with a wife, it is not good to marry." [2066] To whom He saith, "Not all receive this saying. For there are eunuchs who were so born: but there are others who were made by men: and there are eunuchs, who made themselves eunuchs for …
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity. He Severely Reproves Abaelard for Scrutinizing Rashly and Impiously, and Extenuating the Power Of, the Secret Things of God.
He severely reproves Abaelard for scrutinizing rashly and impiously, and extenuating the power of, the secret things of God. 17. This is the righteousness of man in the blood of the Redeemer: which this son of perdition, by his scoffs and insinuations, is attempting to render vain; so much so, that he thinks and argues that the whole fact that the Lord of Glory emptied Himself, that He was made lower than the angels, that He was born of a woman, that He lived in the world, that He made trial of our …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux Strength and Indwelling.
"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that …
W. H. Griffith Thomas—The Prayers of St. Paul Links 2 Corinthians 4:2 NIV2 Corinthians 4:2 NLT2 Corinthians 4:2 ESV2 Corinthians 4:2 NASB2 Corinthians 4:2 KJV
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