Spiritual Treasure
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Good News Translation (GNT)
*************************
3 For if the gospel we preach is hidden, it is
hidden only from those who are being lost.
4 They do not believe, because their minds
have been kept in the dark by the evil god of
this world. He keeps them from seeing the
light shining on them, the light that comes
from the Good News about the glory of Christ,
who is the exact likeness of God.
5 For it is not ourselves that we preach; we
preach Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves
as your servants for Jesus' sake.
6 The God who said, "Out of darkness the
light shall shine!" is the same God who made
his light shine in our hearts, to bring us the
knowledge of God's glory shining in the face
of Christ.
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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)
Spiritual Treasure
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
The only ones who cannot see
the truth of Paul's Gospel
are those whose minds and
hearts have been covered
with the "veil" of unbelief.
The veil is not covering
the Gospel;
it is covering the minds
of unbelievers.
Their spiritual eyes
have been blinded
to the truth.
To proclaim the Gospel
to such people is like
giving a mirror
to a blind man.
The god of this age is Satan.
He has blinded the minds
of unbelievers.
Because of their blindness,
unbelieving men cannot see
the light of the gospel
of the glory of the Christ.
Paul's main work
as an apostle was to make
blind men see and to turn them
from darkness to the
glorious light of God.
Jesus is the image of God,
in whom, the invisible God
has been made visible.
But only those who have not
been blinded by unbelief
can recognize who the Christ is.
Paul writes: For we do not
preach ourselves.
That is, Paul and his
colleagues did not puff
themselves up with pride,
they did not seek honour from men.
Instead, setting forth
the truth plainly (verse 2),
Paul preached the Gospel
of the lord and nothing else.
Even though Paul was an apostle,
he was not the Corinthians' master;
rather, he was their servant.
In one way, Paul was the servant
only of Jesus,
and not of any other man.
But in another way, Paul
made himself a servant
of all men for Jesus' sake.
In so doing,
Paul was following the example
of Jesus Himself, who,
being in very nature God ...
made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant.
In the beginning, God said,
"Let there be light".
And even today God continues
to say to all men:
"Let there be light."
God is light;
in him there is no darkness at all.
At the time we first
believed in Jesus,
God's light began to shine
in our hearts in order to
reveal to us His own glory
in the face of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said:
"I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will never
walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life".
One day on the road to Damascus,
Paul himself had seen the
light of Christ,
and his life had been
changed forever.
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