Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Corinthians · About this commentary
The Things Not Seen
2 Corinthians 4:13-18
13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore we also speak, · WEB
An affliction that had reached despair is called light and momentary, and the scale that makes that true is stated rather than assumed.
Verse 13 grounds the speaking in a quotation: "I believed, and therefore I spoke." We also believe, and therefore we also speak. The order is fixed — belief first, speech as its consequence — and Paul claims no more than the psalm did.
What is believed is stated in verse 14, and it is a single fact with a chain attached: he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also through Jesus, and will present us with you. One resurrection already accomplished, one promised, and the promise includes the readers standing alongside him. Even here, mid-defense, he will not be presented without them.
Verse 15 gives the purpose in a sequence that ends outside everyone involved: all things are for your sakes, so that grace multiplied may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Grace spreading through many people produces thanks from many people — the arithmetic of the whole letter, and the same movement the collection chapters will describe with money 2 Corinthians 9:12.
Then verse 16 closes the bracket opened at the start of the chapter — therefore we don't faint — and sets two processes running at once: though our outward person is decaying, yet our inward person is renewed day by day.
Both verbs are continuous. Neither is presented as winning; they are simultaneous, and the renewal is dated day by day, which is a supply rather than a reserve.
Verse 17 then makes a claim that only survives because of the comparison inside it: our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.
The man calling the affliction light is the man who despaired of life in Asia 2 Corinthians 1:8 and was let down a wall in a basket 2 Corinthians 11:33. He is not minimizing it. He is weighing it, and the word he chooses for the other side of the scale is weight — the two are measured in the same units, which is what makes the verdict a measurement rather than a consolation.
And verse 18 supplies the discipline that makes the measuring possible: we don't look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, because the visible is temporal and the invisible eternal.
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