2 Corinthians 4:12

12 Thus death is at work in us but life in you.

2 Corinthians 4:12 Meaning and Commentary

2 Corinthians 4:12

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.

2 Corinthians 4:12 In-Context

10 We always carry in our bodies the dying of Yeshua, so that the life of Yeshua may be manifested in our bodies too.

11 For we who are alive are always being handed over to death for Yeshua's sake, so that Yeshua's life also might be manifested in our mortal bodies.

12 Thus death is at work in us but life in you.

13 The Tanakh says, "I trusted, therefore I spoke."b Since we have that same Spirit who enables us to trust, we also trust and therefore speak;

14 because we know that he who raised the Lord Yeshua will also raise us with Yeshua and bring us along with you into his presence.