II CORINTHIANS 4:1

In the first few verses of Second Corinthians chapter four the Apostle Paul is giving us several important characteristics of the ministry that was given to him from God to preach the gospel and to teach God’s Word. He wrote in Second Corinthians 4:1-3, “Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” If you have been given a ministry by God to do for His glory then you have been given a great privilege. Most people in the world do what they do for themselves and their own benefit. In the end they will prove to have wasted lives. If you are given a ministry, one thing is for sure: it is not because you deserve it or have earned it. It will be for the same reason that Paul said he was given a ministry: “mercy.” Paul said, “We have this ministry, as we have received mercy.” Forget about your feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness. No one is worthy to preach the great gospel of the grace of Christ. It is because of God’s mercy to you that you are permitted to work with Him.

Concerning his ministry Paul said that he did not faint. He did not stop. He did not give up. There is much to do in the service of the Lord. In spite of all the work that there was to do, he kept doing the work. Of course, that is one of the requirements to have a ministry from God. You must stay it. You must keep doing what God gave you to do. Many people start, but not as many finish what they started.

You also must be a very honest person if you are going to serve God fruitfully. In other words, if you are going to deliver the truth from God, then you must be a truthful person. It is all about truth. Jesus is the truth. The Word of God is the truth. If you are going to work with them in their work in this world, you must be a person of truth. It is all about the difference between truth and untruth. Your testimony in the world hinges on this issue: how truthful are you? A man of his word is a man with a great testimony. If your word means nothing, then your testimony will mean nothing. Who can find an honest man? If you have found one, then you have found someone of great value. There exists in the world on the one hand truth and on the other hand untruth: on the one hand light and on the other hand darkness. You will seek the one and become a part of the one, or you will seek the other and become a part of the other.

Paul said that he had “renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully.” To handle the Word of God deceitfully refers to having the wrong motives when using or teaching the Word of God. Someone who teaches or preaches the Word of God should do so for very clear and direct purposes: to benefit the hearers, to glorify God and Christ, and to honestly reveal the treasures of the Word. The wrong motives would include the following: attempting to manipulate or control people, attempting to avoid the controversial at all costs, speaking to please man instead of God, or trying to find ways to enrich oneself by using the Word of God to do so. Such things would be handling the Word of God deceitfully, and unfortunately it happens all too often from the pulpit. Some of the better-known television evangelists and preachers commit all of these sins. That is a great shame and is evidence of the times in which we live.

If you claim to be a believer, one of the important questions about you and your life is this: in what ways are you a testimony to a lost world? Does your life count as a testimony or not? Are you a good influence for God and for Christ? How do you become a person such that God uses you to touch them? That is what Paul was talking about in the last part of Second Corinthians 4:2 when he wrote, “by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” In the conscience of every lost soul there is the knowledge that something better exists. There is a hunger and a void that must be filled. The only thing that can fill that void satisfactorily is the truth about God and Christ. If you walk in the truth and if you speak the truth, those around you shall see and know and be touched. They shall be touched in their conscience concerning the truth. That is the work of the Spirit. People shall be touched in ways that you do not know. What you will be doing is manifesting the truth in ways in which God leads you to do so. But those on the outside will see and will hear and will be touched, and then they must make a decision: to hide from the truth or to run to it and fall at the feet of Jesus and say, “My Lord and my God.”

Concerning the ones who have not yet come to the truth, the Bible says in Second Corinthians 4:3-4, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” These verses say two things about those who do not believe: they are lost and they are blind. They are lost souls. Their souls are in danger and in great peril of perishing forever. Jesus has compassion on lost souls. Jesus said about Himself, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.” To show his great desire to save the lost Jesus told us the parable of the lost sheep and said in Luke 15:4-5, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing.”

Unbelievers are lost souls who need to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ. They are also spiritually blind and they need to receive their sight. The reason that unbelievers are kept in blindness is made very clear: the god of this world has blinded them. The “god of this world” refers to the evil one, Satan. Satan is called the god of this world because of the power that he has in this world to control and to influence much of what takes place. The god of this world can be seen at work in the entertainment industry, in politics, in the educational systems, and in much of organized religion. One of the devil’s goals is to keep people from being saved. In order to keep people from being saved and to keep them in darkness, he uses several methods, and one of those is to keep people from hearing the gospel.

There is a constant struggle by the systems of the world to keep the gospel from being preached. How shall they believe except they hear, and how shall they hear except someone tell them the gospel? In America since about 1960 there has been a continued effort by dark spiritual forces to limit the teaching of the gospel as much as possible in this country, and of course the same thing goes on in other countries around the world. Millions and millions of people have a limited exposure to the gospel in other countries of the world because of the dark spiritual forces that attempt to suppress the gospel. These include communist countries such as Cuba, China, and North Korea. They also include Moslem countries where a billion people are held in darkness by false religion. The essential doctrine that Jesus is God is attacked by atheism, modernism, Judaism, the religion of Islam, and every false cult.

The thing that can deliver people out of darkness is the truth about Jesus. The truth about Jesus is the truth about God. That is why Second Corinthians 4:4 says that Christ is “the image of God.” When you look in a mirror and see your image, you are of course seeing yourself. When you look to Jesus, you are looking to God. When you see Jesus, you see God. Jesus said, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.” Jesus Christ is the divine, virgin-born, Son of God. That is the message that brings salvation to lost souls, and the message that opens the eyes of the spiritually blind.

That is why Paul preached the message that he preached. Paul wrote in Second Corinthians 4:5-6, “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” If you want to know if someone preaches the same message that Paul preached, then just listen about whom they preach. Paul preached about Jesus. Jesus is the Savior. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.”

Who do preachers talk about when they do not talk about Jesus? Some of them talk about themselves. If someone’s goal is to bring attention to themselves or to glorify themselves, then they will talk about themselves. Jesus said, “He that speaketh of himself seeks his own glory, but he that seeks the glory of him that sent him, the same is true.” Some people who corrupt the gospel, instead of speaking of themselves speak of some other human, which is just as bad. Those that are carnally minded lift up men and praise man instead of God. It is not uncommon at all. Some man accomplishes something in following the Lord, but then other men see his accomplishments and they give the glory to the man instead of to the Lord. Paul said in Second Corinthians 4:5-6, “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.”

Paul also said, “ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Paul viewed himself as a servant. That is one of the things that accounts for his success. Some people want to dominate, control, and make all the decisions. These are the same kind of people who also want to talk about themselves. Paul said that he was a servant for Jesus’ sake. If you really understand and appreciate what Jesus has done for you by taking your sins upon Himself, then you will want to be a servant for His sake. A servant has given up his will. A servant does the bidding of others.

If you have been delivered from darkness, then you have had the exact same experience that Paul had. He described what happened to him in Second Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” What happens when a person gets saved? Salvation is described right here. God commands the light to shine out of darkness. That is salvation, when it happens in your heart. Notice that it is called “the light of the knowledge.” If you know what you need to know, then you will be enlightened. But this knowledge that shines out of darkness is much more than intellectual knowledge. It is knowledge that is in the heart, and it is the knowledge of Jesus Christ in the heart. Romans 10:9 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Do you know Jesus Christ personally? Only Jesus can take away spiritual darkness.

In Second Corinthians 4:7 the Bible says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Paul called the gospel and the knowledge of Christ a “treasure.” Jesus said, “Where your heart is, there shall your treasure be.” Those who have come to know Christ realize that the pearl of great price is the gospel and the salvation that the gospel gives to them. What do you treasure and value most? Hopefully it is the gospel.

The Bible says here, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” The words “earthen vessels” refers to our body and our earthly human lives. We have been enlightened, we have been given the glorious standing of the righteousness of Christ; but we must admit we have these things in earthen vessels. We have not arrived yet. We are weak and prone to error. We are imperfect. If you want to find fault, you can easily find fault with us, but you cannot find fault with the gospel or with the Lord Jesus Christ. God knows what we are made of. Psalm 103:14 says, “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” Do not be too critical of a preacher or of another Christian. Give some consideration to the fact that they have the treasure in earthen vessels. And do not be too hard on yourself or lose faith that God cannot use you.

You have the treasure that He has given to you in an earthen vessel, but that does not mean that He cannot use you or will not use you. Much to the contrary. God gave you the treasure in an earthen vessel for a very specific reason: “that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” God does not share His glory with anyone. If you had too many gifts and were too close to perfection you might just think you are something when you are nothing. God knew what he was doing when He enlightened you through Christ, and He knew what He was doing when He gave you treasure in earthen vessels.

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