{"id":1732,"date":"2017-09-29T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T13:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielgoepfrich.com\/?p=1732"},"modified":"2022-08-29T13:36:33","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T17:36:33","slug":"2-corinthians-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/2-corinthians-4\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Corinthians 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Chapter four<\/strong> returns to the theme of Paul\u2019s personal struggles in carrying out his ministry, especially toward the Corinthians. Although there was a great deal to discourage them, including satanic opposition, Paul\u2019s cure to keep himself from depression was to do the one thing he was called to do: continue preaching the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:1-6). This worked against his discouragement as he was always reminded that <em>\u201cwe do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ . . . For God . . . is the one who shined in our hearts\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 4:5-6). Paul\u2019s proper focus helped him frame his attitude in situations that could throw him off track.<\/p>\n<p>A second key perspective that Paul held was the temporal nature of this world, especially his physical body. A look through Acts and Paul\u2019s other letters show that he suffered great physical abuse throughout his ministry, at the hands of both Jews and Gentiles (see 2 Corinthians 6:4-5; 11:23-27). Too often believers approach this world as if it should be like heaven. Paul knew that his body was fragile, like a <em>\u201cclay jar\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 4:7). However, he had an <em>\u201cextraordinary power\u201d<\/em> from God so that no matter how he was in <em>\u201ctrouble . . . perplexed . . . persecuted . . . knocked down,\u201d<\/em> he refused to be <em>\u201ccrushed . . . driven to despair . . . abandoned . . . destroyed\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). No matter how often he was <em>\u201chanded over to death,\u201d<\/em> it was always <em>\u201cfor Jesus\u2019 sake\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 4:11), and he would certainly be resurrected into Jesus\u2019 presence one day (2 Corinthians 4:14). <em>\u201cTherefore, we do not despair,\u201d<\/em> because, no matter what happens to the body, it cannot destroy our spirits, which God continues to renew. Paul\u2019s eternal perspective allowed him to press on through temporary pain (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). What a wonderful encouragement this should be to every believer who suffers from terrible life situations or depression!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chapter four returns to the theme of Paul\u2019s personal struggles in carrying out his ministry, especially toward the Corinthians. Although there was a great deal to discourage them, including satanic opposition, Paul\u2019s cure to keep himself from depression was to do the one thing he was called to do: continue preaching the gospel (2 Corinthians [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[32,36],"class_list":["post-1732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-studies","tag-2corinthians","tag-acts"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"widget-thumbnail":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Goepfrich","author_link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/author\/dgoepfrich\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Chapter four returns to the theme of Paul\u2019s personal struggles in carrying out his ministry, especially toward the Corinthians. Although there was a great deal to discourage them, including satanic opposition, Paul\u2019s cure to keep himself from depression was to do the one thing he was called to do: continue preaching the gospel (2 Corinthians&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}