That the life also of Jesus might he made m^anifest in our mortal flesh. The only variation between this and the cor- responding clause of the preceding verse is, that here the phrase in our mortal flesh is substituted for in our body. The word body does not of itself involve the idea of weakness and mortality, but the word flesh does. Hereafter we are to be clothed with bodies, but not with flesh and blood. The con- trast, therefore, between the power of the life of Christ, and the feebleness of the instrument or organ through which that life is revealed, is enhanced by saying it was manifested in our mortal flesh. In himself Paul was utter weakness ; in Christ he could do and sufi^er all things.
12. So then death worketh in us, but Hfe in you.
This verse expresses the conclusion or the result of the preceding exhibitions. So then I have the sufiering and you the benefit. I am constantly dying, but the life of Jesus manifested in me is operative for your good. The death and life here spoken of must be the same as in vs. 10. 11. The death is Paul's sufl'erings and dying ; the life is not his physi- cal life and activity by which the life of Christ is represented, but the divine life and efficiency of Jesus. Death and life are personified. The one is represented as operative in Paul ; the other in the Corinthians. The di\'ine power manifested in the support of the apostle, and in rendering his labours so success- ful, was not primarily and principally for his benefit, but for the benefit of those to whom he preached. It was, however, to him and to them a consolation that his labours were not in vain. There is no analogy between this passage and 1 Cor. 4, 8-10, where the apostle in a tone of irony contrasts his own condition with that of the Corinthians, "Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us," &c., and therefore there is no propriety in understanding the apostle here to represent the Corinthians as living at their ease while he was persecuted and afflicted. According to this view, life here signifies a state of enjoyment and prosperity, and death the oj^posite. But it is plain from the connection that the life spoken of is " the life of Jesus " which was manifested in the apostle, the fruits of which the Corinthians enjoyed.
13. We having the same spirit of faith, according