So then death worketh in us: but life in you.
ωστε ο μεν θανατος εν ημιν ενεργειται η δε ζωη εν υμιν
11 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Here he is no longer reasoning about death, but about calamities and consolations. "We," he says, "are in calamities and temptations, while you enjoy rest, and our calamities bring you life. We undergo dangers, while you enjoy well-being, because you do not endure such temptations."
Here he calls temptations death, saying: We are in dangers, while you enjoy the life that flows from these dangers. This happens through the proclamation of the Gospel to you, by which you live eternal life.
We have recently spoken of all the persecutions and sufferings of the Apostle Paul during his ministry. More than once he was left barely alive from torments and grievous circumstances.
Yet in his weak flesh the Apostle, by the grace of God, endured everything and preserved his strength until the last days of his life.
Is this not a special mercy of God toward him? Is it possible not to stand in reverence before such a messenger of God? God is not in outward strength, but in righteousness.
Should we not also believe that the power of God is made perfect in weakness, in a weak man? Through him it accomplishes wondrous deeds, granting him tirelessness of body, vigor of spirit, and influence upon others.
The Apostle rightly said: death works in us. At the same time, while we experience mortal sufferings, life works in you.
That is, seeing our honest conviction, firm faith, and good life, and seeing our sufferings without complaint, you ought to be encouraged by this. You should rejoice at the power of true faith.
You should also be inspired by the examples of your teachers to a firm confession of Christ. In this courage and struggle for truth consists the life of Christianity, and especially the life of each Christian.
Whatever convictions a man holds, in their spirit he speaks and acts. So also the Apostle speaks about himself.
Thus death works in us, but life in you. That is, death works openly in us, while life works hiddenly in you.
He says this because the apostles Paul and Timothy themselves exposed their lives to deadly danger for the salvation of others. By preaching to the Gentiles, they stirred up hatred against themselves both from Jews and Gentiles who desired their death.
For your salvation we undergo dangers, since we teach you at risk to ourselves. But because we are in distress, you enjoy life. Since he mentioned immortal life, which exists only in hope, and what is hoped for is unseen, he recalls the prophetic word. He shows that the saints of old also were illumined by faith.
These words are founded on what precedes. The Apostles subjected themselves at every hour to mortal danger, only to spread the Gospel faith and thus make believers heirs of eternal and blessed life.
Since the Corinthians, to whom this epistle was written, believed in Jesus Christ and therefore became heirs of eternal life by His grace, he said this: we Apostles, preaching the faith, are delivered to death.
"So then death works in us." But you believers, through your faith, become heirs of eternal life: "but life in you."
Yet here he has set forth eternal life, which we cannot see with bodily eyes, but apprehend by will alone through the noetic powers of the soul. Therefore he adds the following:
Verses 13-14: "And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written: 'I believed, and therefore I spoke,' we also believe, and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and present us with you."
"Death works in us, but life in you." The purpose of the Apostle's sufferings and dying is to bring believers spiritual life, life in Christ. Thus death here is understood according to the body, and life according to the spirit.
If one then turns to the future, He who raised the Lord Jesus will surely raise and set before Himself in great glory the heralds of Jesus. Now they are so weak, unimpressive, and seemingly helplessly dying for their preaching.
But the Lord will not glorify us without you, the Apostle adds to his devoted disciples, but with you. "For all things are for your sake, that grace, having abounded through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God" (2 Cor 4:15).
Thus, according to the Apostle's thought, this persecution of the heralds of the Gospel calls not for contempt and humiliation, but for great respect.
The outward condition of Christianity's heralds seems not to correspond to the great glory of Christianity and their inward greatness. It is inglorious and even humbled, and some of the newly converted were scandalized by this.
But the Apostle Paul shows the lofty purpose of the Apostles' humbled state. First, it makes evident the divine power acting in them. Second, through it the apostolic preaching becomes accessible in the highest degree.
The Apostle most aptly compares this condition of Christianity to something precious, such as costly fragrant oil, kept in an earthen vessel. Though weak and easily broken, it can still preserve what is placed within it unharmed and impart it to many.
"This above all is wondrous," says St. John Chrysostom, "and it is the greatest miracle of God's power, that an earthen vessel can contain such light and guard this treasure. For then the power of God is especially seen, when through weak instruments He accomplishes great deeds.
This is clear from what the Lord said to this same Apostle: 'My strength is made perfect in weakness' (12:9). Sending only twelve men, He subdued the whole world, and this when those twelve were persecuted.
Whence came such power of persuasion? From nowhere else but the power of God. The newness of the preaching was opposed to everyone, and the preachers came from a people despised by all, poor and unlearned.
How then did they subdue the whole world? Does this not clearly show that they had God as their helper? Such effects do not belong to human strength, but to the almighty power of God."
"And not only this," he says, "is wondrous, that we keep this treasure in earthen vessels. It is also wondrous that, while undergoing countless afflictions and being struck from every side, we preserve it and do not lose it.
Even a vessel of adamant could not withstand such assaults. Yet now an earthen vessel remains unharmed by the grace of God, and the treasure is preserved."
In particular, the earthen vessel means earthly existence. Yet the Apostles were strengthened by hope in the resurrection and the life to come. Clear proofs of these were constantly given in the Apostles' life, filled with many mortal dangers from which they nevertheless emerged alive.
"If anyone does not believe," says St. John Chrysostom in the person of the Apostles, "that Jesus died and rose again, let him be assured of the truth of the resurrection by seeing us daily dying and rising.
When Christ snatches us from the dangers of death, the life of Jesus is thereby manifested in our body. For His power would not be so visible if we never suffered, as it is now, when we suffer and remain unconquered."
"These words may also be understood in another way" (verse 11). How? As he says elsewhere: "If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him" (Rom 6:8).
For as we bear His death and choose now to die alive for His sake, so He is well pleased then to make us alive after death (cf. Rom 8:17).
"Besides this, eternal life is revealed through the Apostles' great preaching labors in those who profit from them, such as the Corinthians. Therefore they can in no way despise the Apostles because they are in straitened circumstances."
"Death works in us," that is, sorrows, afflictions, and continual exposure to death. By all this it is shown that we are earthen vessels.
"But life," he says, "in you." That is, the treasure hidden in us, the word of preaching and grace, becomes your possession through the very fact that we die daily. It imparts to you the life that acts in you.
You are assured by our weakness and poverty, by the fact that we die and yet remain alive, that the power of God acts in us.
Being assured of this, you believe the word of preaching. Believing, you are made alive by the grace of the Holy Spirit through the mysteries.
You begin to live a new life in Christ Jesus, known to no one else. Having begun here, this life is to remain eternal, leading you into unending blessedness.
Theodoret writes: "For the sake of your salvation we undergo dangers, because at danger to ourselves we impart to you the teaching that gives true life.
Thus it comes about that, because we suffer affliction, you enjoy true life."
Oecumenius says the same: "The Apostle speaks as though saying: We die because of the Gospel, so that you, having believed through it in Christ, may be deemed worthy of true life, which is also incorrupt and eternal life."
In him Photius also says: "Sorrows, sufferings, and deadly afflictions work in us, but faith and piety, in which true life is found, work in you.
Life is faith with piety, because they acquire incorrupt, unending, and eternally blessed life in the heavens."
Let us conclude the discourse with the words of Theophylact: "We are in dangers. But from these dangers you gather the fruit of life, believing in the Gospel preached by us, through which you begin to live eternal life."
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 11 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS