The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 108

vice t-0 be restrained, selfishness to be corrected, and count it a mllre waste of time to 1,peak so much of a Personage who lived, and the things which he said and did in J udrea ever so long ago? Do they ask, " What good can this do?" We a.re bold to answer-If this will not do good, nothing will. Moral directions and monitions cannot lift men out of themselves or raise them above low levels of thought and conduct. There must be some new and near relation to God, some help from heaven; and this is gained only through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. In no other way ban been produced powerful and permanent transmutations of human character. In no other way are men rescued from evil habits and made good, and kind, and just, and pcre. Therefore we will persist in preaching what Paul preached, 11. THE PLACE TAKEN BY THE APOSTOLIC PBEACHEB, We do not wish to lord it over the Church. "\Ve are your servants for Jesus' sake." 'rhe factious teachers at Corinth sought their own advancement, and, judging St. Paul by themselves, alleaed that he assumed more authority than he was entitled to, and wished to play dicta.to~ to the Churches. The sensitive and generous heart of the apostle acutely felt the imputa- tion. He was, indeed, bound to assert his e.postolate, but, absorbed as he was with the thought of his Saviour's authority as Lord, he abhorred the idea of claiming lord- ship over God's Church, and was careful to describe himself as a servant, and to associate with himself by name such fellow-servants as Silas and Timothy. Much more al'C modem ministers of the Word, while maintaining the reality and dignity of their ministry, to beware of anything that savours of lordly assumption. They are servants of the saints for Jesus' sake. Not for the sake of men, or for any inducement or remuneration which men can offer. They are not employes of the people, engaged by them to do their religious work, and responsible to them for their conduct. ln fact, they are servants of the people, and yet the people are not their masters. One is their Master, even Christ; and they serve the Church under his orders and for his sake. So Jesus Christ himself became the Servant of all because he was God's elect Servant. Among his followers it is always better and nobler to serve than to be served. What an example Paul showed as a servant for Jesus' sake !-wearing out his frame in severe and dangerous travels and voyages, caring for all the Uhurches, praying for them, writing to them, visiting and revisiting them, running all risks, enduring all things- even that which was hardest of all, the ingratitude and fickleness of those to whom he had ministered-that he might fulfil the service which had been assigned to him by the Lord Jesus. Others might spare themselves, but he never did. "I wiU most gladly spend and be spent for your souls." It is a high standard; but we do well t.o keep lofty models before us, and try to rise to them according to the necessity and oppor- tunity of our own time, and the ability which is given to us of God.-F. Ver. 6.-Light of the knowledge of Divine glory. The Christianity of St. Pm1l was not a formula.ted religion, but the revelation or unveiling of God in his Son our 8aviour 1. '1'1m GLORY OF Goo IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST. ln that face, turned 80 graciously on the sons of men, is not merely the glow of human sympathy aud pity, but the ineffable glory of the most high God. There is no thought here of the com- parison sometimes made between the Divine glory in creation and that glory in redemption. The contrast still in the apostle's mind is between the Law and the gospel. He recalls the glory of God that once shone on the face of MoAes as he descended from the holy mount; and he sets above it the glory in the face of Jesus Christ. '!'ho lustre on the prophet's countenance was trnn~ient, and its effect on the people wns only to agitate them and make them desirous to have it softened by a veil. But Christ is the permanent aud gracious Image of God; and ho reveals it, not to drive men away in terror, but to save thorn and change them into the same imago. II. '1'1rn KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLODY OF Goo IN THE FACE OF JESUS CnnIST, Without this the salvation in the gospel profits us not. We can determine nothing about the benefit which may be derived from or through Christ by those who have had no opportunity to hear of him or know him. That will be as God sees meet. But to us who have the gospel, the blessing must come through spiritual knowledge. If knowledge of law and orrlinances could save, Paul would have been saved while he was a Pharisee; but he entered not on a. stnte of salvation till he gave up all for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Taught by his own experience, he commended ea. IV. 1-18.J 'l'HE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 109