So then death worketh in us
This is the conclusion of the foregoing account, or the inference
deduced from it; either the death, or dying of Christ, that is,
the sufferings of his body, the church, for his sake,
(energeitai) , "is wrought
in us"; fulfilled and perfected in us; see ( Colossians
1:24 ) or rather a corporeal death has seized upon us; the
seeds of death are in us; our flesh, our bodies are mortal, dying
off apace; death has already attacked us, is working on our
constitutions gradually, and unpinning our tabernacles, which in
a short time will be wholly took down and laid in the dust:
but life in you.
Some understand these words as spoken ironically, like those in (
1
Corinthians 4:8 1
Corinthians 4:9 ) but the apostle seems not to be speaking in
such a strain, but in the most serious manner, and about things
solemn and awful; and his meaning is, ours is the sorrow, the
trouble, the affliction, and death itself, yours is the gain, the
joy, the pleasure, and life; what we get by preaching the Gospel
are reproach, persecution, and death; but this Gospel we preach
at such expense is the savour of life unto life to you, and is
the means of maintaining spiritual life in your souls, and of
nourishing you up unto eternal life; and which is no small
encouragement to us to go on in our work with boldness and
cheerfulness: or these words regard the different state and
condition of the apostle, and other ministers, and of the
Corinthians; the one were in adversity, and the other in
prosperity.