Ver. 1. “Seeing we have this ministry.” The previous chapter shows us what this ministry is. (vss. 7, 8.) “The ministration of the Spirit” means the grace, and light, and life of the Gospel, as opposed to the law. (3:12.) The more plainly he told it out, the better; not as Moses, who put a veil over his face. The law said do, and live; but it gave no power. Could the Son minister as Moses? No; and the moment the Son finds a ministry fit for His hand, the Holy Ghost finds a ministry fit for His power. (vs. 18.) “Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord;” it is a glory that gladdens, not like Moses. This glory shines in the face of Jesus, and is indeed a gladdening glory; and the more widely it spreads its beams, the more the whole scene around is full of the temper and mind of heaven. But it is not merely the thing that is committed to his lips, rehearsed in the ears of sinners, and then have done with it, but he goes on to show how the soul may deeply enter into the power of it. And don’t let us be satisfied; no; I will not assume that we could be satisfied with the intellect touching it.
Ch. 4:1. “Seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.” He had got the mercy, and it made him so happy to catch the smile of his gracious God, that he could not faint. There was plenty to try him, on the right and on the left, but there was nothing in God to try him; and he went through the scene around him without fainting; but if the gospel had been a sentiment with him, it could not have been so. Do we travel forth in all the exigencies of life, and find this sustaining us? Do we know the mercy of this truth, “Jesus loved me, and gave Himself for me?” But it was not merely that he fainted not, but he never took a crooked way to get out of a difficulty.
Ver. 2. Is it possible to read such a picture without panting after this image? What can be equal to that; to walk with a spirit lifted above the temptation to descend to the wretched tricks and dishonesty of the world? Do not let circumstances for a moment dare to measure the balance as to present happiness with such a mind as this. What is the way of the world? To make yourself happy in circumstances; to force some contribution towards happiness out of circumstances; but the Spirit of God takes you into another region.
Ver. 3. “If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.” If this Gospel be hid, it is hid in consequence of some depravity in the heart, or it would be received in an instant. But something of our own comes in; one says, I have bought a piece of ground, and must needs go and see it; another, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them.
We speak of weakness, and it is well; but if I am obliged to confess that my faith is weak, I confess an evil which has power over me. Unbelief is all chargeable on sin; so, when we confess, as we have reason to do, that we are weak, let us make the confession in the knowledge of what we are, saying it is a proof that the things of this world have not been driven out of the heart, in the energy with which they ought to have been.
Ver. 4. Does that increase your happiness? It does mine. Oh, let there be a thousand witnesses against self, rather than a suspicion of Jesus. No; this Gospel is so blessed, that if it had not to struggle with the darkness with which the god of this world occupies the heart, it must prevail.
Ver. 5. “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.” No; we know his heart too well to think he preached himself. “And ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” How full his heart!
Ver. 6, 7. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” These vessels do not intimate what is morally wrong, but rather weakness, exposed to buffeting.; and he goes on to describe the vessels. Verses 8, 9. It is in such vessels that God has committed this treasure. vss. 10, 11, 12. He is willing to pass through all this, that he may convey the water of life to others―that he may carry abroad that precious truth, to know which is life eternal. (vs. 12.) Death in him, but life in them. How little does one know of that. Are you accustomed to look at your own individual trouble as a secondary thing, or as a principal thing? With this dear, devoted man, his own trouble was secondary. What a wonderful lifting up of the Holy Spirit there must be, to land and plant us in such an experience as that! Who can write down, “My own personal history is but an item, if I am able to scatter a drop of the water of life, or distribute a crumb of the bread of life, be it through trouble, sorrow, or perplexity.” But if you and I take the scales in our own hands, how prone are we to try everything by our own standard, and not in the balance of eternity. If you and I had such a mind as Paul, you would find yourself in company with Jesus. You are in company with Him, everlastingly joined to Him; but you would find yourself in company with Him in detail.
Ver. 14. Dear, devoted man! He looked beyond any honor that could be attached to earthen vessels, to the morning when they should be presented faultless before the throne of God with exceeding joy. The thought of the brightness of that morning lit up the night; and in another place he could say, “the night is far spent, and the day is at hand.” The world looks to circumstances, to this or that scene, to make them happy; but Paul looked to no such thing. He looked through this night scene to the dawn of the morning without clouds, “unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” Yes. His joy, His delight, the joy of Jesus, will be to introduce you to that glory. Oh! if my soul could grasp that as I would grasp some expected pleasure tomorrow! O that we may indeed grasp the expectation of that morning in the same way!
Ver. 15. This is another thought that filled his soul; he wanted to swell the chorus of heaven in that day. It was to be a time when all the company were to be presented faultless before the throne; but it was also to be a time when the harpers should begin their chorus, and it was his business to get more harpers in to swell it. Oh! if we could go and lay hold of a poor sinner in the street and tell him of this mercy, and the next moment to be able to say, “I have added a harper to the company that shall praise my Jesus through eternity.” Yes; he looked beyond all here, to that time when the poor ransomed sinner should get his golden harp to sing glory to the Lamb that was slain. O may this not be the sentiment of the tasteful mind, nor the intelligence of the intellectual mind; but may it be a reality, a substance, and then we shall go through the scenes here, waiting for the joyful morning, when Jesus shall take to Him His power, and reign.