2 Corinthians 4:12

12 So then death works 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 always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

11 For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

12 So then death works in us, but life in you.

13 We having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and, therefore, I have spoken; we also believe and, therefore, speak;

14 knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you.