ACC ~ 2 Corinthians 4 v1 - 6

4:1 | We Do Not Lose Heart

MINISTRY BY THE MERCY OF GOD. AMBROSIASTER: Paul attributes his perseverance not to human merit but to the mercy of God, which first cleanses a person, then makes him righteous, adopts him as a son of God and endows him with a glory like the glory of God’s own Son. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

NOT LOSING HEART. CHRYSOSTOM: This perseverance is to be attributed to God’s loving kindness, for not only do we not sink down under the weight of all our trials, but we even rejoice and speak boldly. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 8.1.

4:2 | Commended to Everyone’s Conscience

WE RENOUNCE UNDERHANDED WAYS. AMBROSIASTER: This is really an invitation. Just while he had been speaking about himself and his associates, Paul is now exhorting the Corinthians to lead a better life. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

NO CUNNING. CHRYSOSTOM: Some were “walking in craftiness.” They had a reputation for taking nothing, but in fact they took it and kept it secret. They had the seeming character of saints and apostles but were full of innumerable secret wickednesses. Paul takes nothing and calls the Corinthians as his witnesses. Likewise he does nothing wicked and asks them to testify to the truth of what he is saying. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 8.1.

OPEN STATEMENT OF TRUTH. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul is talking here about circumcision, which the false apostles were covertly forcing on newly converted Gentiles. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 307.

LIVES FILLED WITH LIGHT. GREGORY OF NYSSA: Knowing Christ as the “true light,” “inaccessible” to falsehood, we learn this, namely, that it is necessary for our lives also to be illuminated by the rays of the true light. But virtues are the rays of “the Sun of Justice,” streaming forth for our illumination, through which we “lay aside the works of darkness,” so that we “walk becomingly as in the day,” and “we renounce those things which shame conceals.” By doing all things in the light, we become the light itself, so that it “shines” before others, which is the peculiar quality of light. And if we recognize Christ as “sanctification,” in whom every action is steadfast and pure, let us prove by our life that we ourselves stand apart, being ourselves true sharers of his name, coinciding in deed and not in word with the power of his sanctification. ON PERFECTION.

4:3 | Veiled to the Perishing

UNBELIEF DARKENS THE SPLENDOR OF TRUTH. AMBROSIASTER: Unbelief casts darkness over the splendor of the power of God. This is especially true in the case of the Jews. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THOSE WHO ARE PERISHING. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: It is veiled only to those who are unbelievers. It is not hidden from everyone, as the face of Moses was hidden from all Israel in the Old Testament. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

4:4 | Blinded Minds

TO KEEP THEM FROM SEEING. AMBROSIASTER: Paul is saying that God dims the sight of worldly people because they are hostile to the faith of Christ. He is giving them what they want, since it is because they are hostile and tell lies that they move further toward not being able to believe what they do not want to believe. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

BEING ENLIGHTENED. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Every unbeliever is of this world. No one who has overcome it and been deemed worthy of the world to come is blinded in his understanding, for his eyes have been enlightened. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

THE GOD OF THIS WORLD. PELAGIUS: The god of this world may be understood to be the devil, on the ground that he has claimed to rule over unbelievers. Or, on account of the attacks of the heretics it may be understood to mean that God has blinded the minds of unbelievers precisely because of their unbelief. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 4.

THE MINDS OF UNBELIEVERS BLINDED. CHRYSOSTOM: The “god of this world” may refer neither to the devil nor to another creator, as the Manichaeans say, but to the God of the universe, who has blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world. In the world to come there are no unbelievers, only in this one. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 8.2.

THE TRUTH WILL BE PLAIN. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul is saying that unbelief is limited to this world, because in the next life the truth will be plain to everyone. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 308.

THE CALL TO RESEMBLE CHRIST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Our Educator, O children, resembles his Father, God, whose Son he is. He is without sin, without blame. … God immaculate in human form, accomplishing his Father’s will. He is God the Word, who is in the bosom of the Father and also at the right hand of the Father, with even the nature of God. He it is who is the spotless image. We must try, then, to resemble Him in spirit as far as we are able. … Yet we must strive to the best of our ability to be as sinless as we can. There is nothing more important for us than first to be rid of sin and weakness and then to uproot any habitual sinful inclination. The highest perfection, of course, is never to sin in any least way, but this can be said of God alone. The next highest is never deliberately to commit wrong; this is the state proper to the man who possesses wisdom. In the third place comes not sinning except on rare occasions; this marks a man who is well educated. Finally, in the lowest degree we must place delaying in sin for a brief moment, but even this, for those who are called to recover their loss and repent, is a step on the path to salvation. CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 2.4.

A LIVING IMAGE. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: And the Image, as of one substance with him, and because he is of the Father, and not the Father of him. For this is of the nature of an image, to be the reproduction of its archetype and of that whose name it bears; only that there is more here. For in ordinary language an image is a motionless representation of that which has motion, but in this case it is the living reproduction of the living one and is more exactly like than was Seth to Adam or any son to his father. THEOLOGICAL ORATION 4.20.

THE IMAGE AND LIGHT OF THE FATHER. JEROME: What is the face of God like? As his image, certainly, for as the apostle says, the image of the Father is the Son. With his image, therefore, may he shine upon us, that is, may he shine his image, the Son, upon us in order that he himself may shine upon us, for the light of the Father is the light of the Son. He who sees the Father sees also the Son, and he who sees the Son sees also the Father. Where there is no diversity between glory and glory, there glory is one and the same. HOMILY 6 ON PSALM 66 (67).

BREAK FREE FROM THIS EVIL AGE. ORIGEN: For the Son of God is Word and Righteousness. But every sinner is under the tyranny of the prince of this age, since every sinner is made a friend of the present evil age. For he does not hand himself over to the One who gave “himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age” and to deliver us “according to the will of our God and Father,” according to the verse in the letter to the Galatians. And the one who by voluntary sin is under the tyranny of the prince of this age is also ruled by sin. That is why we are commanded by Paul no longer to be subjected to sin that wishes to rule over us. We are so ordered through the following words, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.” ON PRAYER 25.1.

TRACES OF THE IMAGE OF GOD. ORIGEN: But if anyone dares to attribute corruption of substance to what was made according to the image and likeness of God, in my opinion he extends the charge of impiety also to the Son of God himself, since he is also called in Scripture “the image of God.” At least the one who holds the opinion will certainly find fault with the authority of Scripture, which says that humanity was made after the image of God. And the traces of the divine image are clearly recognized not through the likeness of the body, which undergoes corruption, but through the intelligence of the soul, its righteousness, temperance, courage, wisdom, discipline, and through the entire chorus of virtues that are present in God by substance and can be in humankind through effort and the imitation of God. The Lord points this out in the Gospel when He says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” and “Be perfect, as your Father is perfect.” Consequently, it is quite clear that in God all these virtues can never enter or leave, but they are acquired by us little by little and one by one. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.10.

4:5 | Preaching Christ as Lord

ACCEPTED BY OUR FAITH. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: It is not we but he who enables our faith, accepting us and judging us by it. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

WE PREACH CHRIST. AMBROSIASTER: In expressing himself humbly, Paul spoke in a way which was designed to show that he was not preaching the gospel for his own advantage but for the glory of the Lord Christ, to whom he is obedient. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE LORD’S MOUTHPIECE. CHRYSOSTOM: I am a servant. I am but a minister of those who receive the gospel, transacting everything for Another, and for his glory doing what I do. In warring against me you throw down what is God’s. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 8.3.

RESPOND TO THE INVITATION. GREGORY OF NYSSA: And the apostle: “For we preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves merely as your servants in Jesus.” Knowing, then, the fruits of humility and the penalty of conceit, imitate the Master by loving one another and do not shrink from death or any other punishment for the good of each other. But the way which God entered upon for you, do you enter upon for him, proceeding with one body and one soul to the invitation from above, loving God and each other. For love and fear of the Lord are the first fulfillment of the law. ON THE CHRISTIAN MODE OF LIFE.

4:6 | Light Out of Darkness

THIS CREATION IS GREATER. CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see how Paul shows the glory of Moses flashing with added luster to those who want to see it? It shines in our hearts, he says, just as it shone on the face of Moses. First he reminds them of what was made at the beginning of creation, and then he shows that this renewed creation is greater. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 8.3.

SHINING WITH DIVINE LIGHT. THEODORET OF CYR: Since the divine nature is invisible and always remains so, it is seen for what it is in the humanity of Jesus Christ which shines with divine light and sends out its rays. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 309.

OUR HEARTS DARK. SAHDONA: Our hearts had been submerged in darkness. BOOK OF PERFECTION 64.

DAWNING OF DIVINE WISDOM. ISAAC OF NINEVEH: When the Apostle said, “God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts” the resurrection, he showed this resurrection to be the exodus from the old state which in the likeness of Sheol incarcerates a man where the light of the gospel will not shine mystically upon him. This is a breath of life through hope in the resurrection, and by it the dawning of divine wisdom shines in his heart, so that a man should become new, having nothing of the old man. ASCETICAL HOMILIES 37.

THE SHINING OF THE SPIRIT. AMBROSE: But does anyone deny that the Godhead of the eternal Trinity is to be adored, when the Scriptures also set forth the inexplicable majesty of the divine Trinity, as the apostle says elsewhere: “For the 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 Christ Jesus?” … Who is it, then, who shined that we might know God in the face of Christ Jesus? For he said: “God shined,” that the glory of God might be known in the face of Jesus Christ. Who else do we think but the Spirit who was made manifest? Or who else is it but the Holy Spirit, to whom the power of the Godhead is referred? For those who exclude the Spirit must introduce another to receive with the Father and the Son the glory of the Godhead. THE HOLY SPIRIT 3.12.86, 88.

THE SPIRIT’S FIRE. SAHDONA: We should accordingly worship and glorify him who raised our dust to such state, recounting ceaselessly the holiness of him who mingled our spirit with his Spirit and mixed into our bodies the gift of his grace, causing the fire of his Holy Spirit to burst into flame in us. For “he has shone out in our hearts” which had been submerged in darkness. BOOK OF PERFECTION.