Friday, February i. 2 Cor. 3 : 18 ,:
and no matter how severe the suffering. Paul regarded it as a wonderful mercy from God to be entrusted with so glorious a ministry (cf. 1 Tim. 1:11-13). Unlike some -of his opponents in Corinth he had bidden farewell to underhand and secret machinations, or, /as he here terms them, “the hidden things o f ' shame.” No Chris tian worker who realizes the character of the ministry with which he is entrusted will stoop to subtlety and secret schemes of trickery of any kind to carry it out. He will not allow himself to be drawn into playing to the galleries. He will not walk “in crafti ness.” Paul did not and would not “handle the Word of God deceitfully.” Many do, but deceit and the truth of God ought never to go hand in hand. Any one who preaches the gospel, realizing that it is “the Wofd of God,” ought not to stoop to deceit or craft or cunning, or trickery of any kind. And yet how many teachers of the Wofd have a certain element of disingenuousness about them. Paul sought to commend himself not by shrewd devices and subtlety (the finesse of which even preachers are sometimes so proud), but by the plain declaration of the whole truth. It was not to men’s carnal judgment that he sought to commend him self, but “to every man’s conscience,” and that too “in the sight of God.” Sunday, February 3 . 2 Cor. 4 : 3 , 4 . Paul’s gospel might be “veiled” (R. V.) to some, but if so it was not his fault, he had made it plain enough. The fault was in those to whom.the gospel was veiled: they were, “they that are perishing.” In the use of the word ‘Veiled” there is an allusion to what he,has been saying about the veiling of the law in chapter 3:13-16.' These words, “If our gospel' is veiled, it is veiled in them that are perishing,” are
The veil is taken from the believer’s face. We look directly into the glory of Christ’s face. The glory we behold in Him we reflect as a mirror reflects the brightness of the sun. Just as Moses’ face" shone when he came down from the mount with the reflection of the glory that he had beheld in God; so our whole person shines with the glory we behold in Christ. From thus looking at Him and reflecting His Glory, we are “transformed into the same image from glory to glory,” i. e., from one degree of glory to another. Each new look at Christ brings into our life some new glory of His. In this we are taught- how to grow more and more like Jesus, look at Him, and look at Him again, and look at Him again. So it will be “from glory to glory.” . And this will go on until He comes. Then we shall be made just like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3 :2 ). We shall be like Him also in out ward form as well as in intellectual and moral likeness /(Phil. 3:20, 21). All this will be through the working of “the Lord (Jehovah) the Spirit” (v. 18, R. V.; Eph. 3:16, 17). Saturday, February 2 . 2 Cor. 4 : 1 , 2 . The ministration which Paul had received was “the ministration of the Spirit” and “the ministration of righteousness,”, whose glory he has just been describing (cf. ch. 3:8, 9). The word translated “ministry” in v. 1 is the same word that is translated “mini|tration” in ch. 3:8, 9. Having received so glorious a “ministry” or “min istration” as this, Paul fainted not) he kept faithfully an^i boldly! at it in the face of all opposition and suffering; and so ought we, no matter how bitter is the opposition,
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online