2 Corinthians 4 (4)

Pray Psalm 27.11-13.
Teach me Your way, O LORD,
And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.

Sing Psalm 27.11-13.
(St. Denio: Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise)
LORD, teach us; LORD, lead us because of our foes!
Hear, LORD, when we plead for release from their woes.
Had we not believed all Your goodness to see,
our heart sorely grieved and in turmoil would be.

Read 2 Corinthians 4.1-12; meditate on verses 11, 12.

Preparation
1. Why are we as believers “always dying”?

2. What does our dying like this do for others”?

Meditation
Foremost in Paul’s mind in these verses are the various trials and afflictions he and other preachers and apostles had been made to suffer so that others could hear the Gospel, believe, and be saved. Paul did not resent this; rather, he accepted it as normal, as much a part of his ministry as it was of Jesus’. He was willing to continue suffering and identifying with Jesus in his various afflictions so long as it meant others could know true life in Him.

But Paul also speaks of a truth that applies to every follower of Jesus: We can’t know more of the life we have in Jesus unless we die to the life we knew before Him. Jesus called us to take up our cross day by day, to crucify the remaining elements of sin in our lives that we might be born anew daily in Him. He said that, like a seed that is buried in the ground, we must die to our hardness so that we will be open to the rivers of living water His Spirit brings, that we may truly live.

And He also taught that we must not love our lives in this world more than we love Jesus. And because we love Him supremely, we, like Paul and the others, can expect that in this world we will have tribulation. But He has overcome the world for us and He can overcome the trials and afflictions we must endure so that others might see and hear the true life of Jesus in us.

We only know the true life of Jesus by dying to the old life of self. And as we do, we can show the real life of Jesus to the people around us, who observe and experience us dying to live every day.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
We have been called out of death into life; yet our old sinful nature needs to be put down on a regular basis.

It is rabid and must not be toyed with. Don’t pet or feed it for it will come back to bite you.

“‘Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,’ says the Lord GOD.
‘Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin.
Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed,
and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
For why should you die, O house of Israel?
For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord GOD.
Therefore turn and live!’” (Ez. 18.30-32).

God has planned a better way for us. Yes, death is included; but death to sin and life for righteousness.
Death to our old nature, and life abundant in the new (Jn. 10.10).

“We can’t know more of the life we have in Jesus unless we die to the life we knew before Him.”

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (Jn. 5.24).

We who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, but only so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies—death working itself out into life (2 Cor. 4.11, 12). A metamorphosis of the soul.

Why, when offered the fresh life-giving breath of God and the cool wind of the Holy Spirit, would we ever put back on the suffocating and blinding veil that once smothered us?

Dying to live? Yes indeed.
“Thus says the LORD…Seek Me and live…” (Amos 5.4).

For reflection
1. How do you experience dying to your old sinful ways?

2. How do you experience growing in new life in Jesus?

3. Whom will you encourage today to die to self and live to Jesus?

Here is the best antidote to adversity ― that as Christ's death is the gate of life, so we know that a blessed resurrection will be to us the termination of all miseries, inasmuch as Christ has associated us with himself on this condition, that we shall be partakers of his life, if in this world we submit to die with him. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4.11, 12

Pray Psalm 27.1-10.
Pray that the Lord will help you die to yourself that His light may shine in you and through you for a richer and fuller life in Jesus.

Sing Psalm 27.1-10.
(St. Denio: Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise)
LORD, You are our Light and our Savior most dear!
You guard us with might; therefore, whom shall we fear?
Though evil surround us, our enemies fall;
no harm shall confound us when on You we call.

One thing we request but to dwell with You, LORD.
Your beauty to test and to think on Your Word.
In trouble You hide us secure in Your grace;
no foe may o’erride us: We sing of Your praise.

Hear, LORD, when we cry and be gracious, we pray!
LORD, do not deny us Your favor this day!
Our help, our salvation, though others may fall,
preserve our good station when on You we call.

T. M. and Susie Moore

Growing in prayer
Growing in Christ begins in and is sustained by prayer. But how can we improve our prayer life so that we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord? Our free online course, “Perspectives on Prayer”, can lead you to a deeper and more satisfying prayer life with the Lord. Watch this brief introductory video, then enroll for the course and download the materials. Get a friend or two to go through it with you and strengthen one another for the work of prayer.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter, available by clicking here.