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Scott's Reference Library
2 Corinthians 4:3 through 2 Corinthians
4:6 (NIV)
3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4The
god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see
the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For we
do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your
servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of
darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 1-7
The best of men would faint, if they did not receive mercy from God. And that
mercy which has helped us out, and helped us on, hitherto, we may rely upon to
help us even to the end. The apostles had no base and wicked designs, covered
with fair and specious pretences. They did not try to make their ministry serve
a turn. Sincerity or uprightness will keep the favourable opinion of wise and
good men. Christ by his gospel makes a glorious discovery to the minds of men.
But the design of the devil is, to keep men in ignorance; and when he cannot
keep the light of the gospel of Christ out of the world, he spares no pains to
keep men from the gospel, or to set them against it. The rejection of the gospel
is here traced to the wilful blindness and wickedness of the human heart. Self
was not the matter or the end of the apostles’ preaching; they preached Christ
as Jesus, the Saviour and Deliverer, who saves to the uttermost all that come to
God through him. Ministers are servants to the souls of men; they must avoid
becoming servants to the humours or the lusts of men. It is pleasant to behold
the sun in the firmament; but it is more pleasant and profitable for the gospel
to shine in the heart. As light was the beginning of the first creation; so, in
the new creation, the light of the Spirit is his first work upon the soul. The
treasure of gospel light and grace is put into earthen vessels. The ministers of
the gospel are subject to the same passions and weaknesses as other men. God
could have sent angels to make known the glorious doctrine of the gospel, or
could have sent the most admired sons of men to teach the nations, but he chose
humbler, weaker vessels, that his power might be more glorified in upholding
them, and in the blessed change wrought by their ministry.