2 Corinthians 4:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

At the same time, he shows that there is great harmony between the Old and New Testaments. The same Spirit acted in both Testaments. We are not alone in suffering afflictions, but all the ancients also suffered them.

He also shows that one must be strengthened more in faith and hope, and not seek immediate deliverance from the afflictions that befall us.

Thus, after proving by reasoning the resurrection and life, and that affliction is not a sign of weakness or abandonment by God, the Apostle finally turns to faith and directs everything toward it.

Yet to confirm this faith, he again points to Christ's Resurrection, saying: "We also believe, and therefore speak." What do we believe? "Knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will raise us also through Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sake, that grace, being multiplied, may through the thanksgiving of many abound to the glory of God" (2 Cor 4:14-15).

Again he teaches the Corinthians not to ascribe the benefits they have received to men, that is, to the false apostles. Everything comes from God, Who is pleased to pour out His benefits upon many, so that a greater number of people may give Him thanks.

What are you saying? If you did not believe, would you not speak, but stand silent? Yes, he says. Without faith I cannot open my mouth, move my tongue, or part my lips. Though endowed with the gift of speech, I stand silent without its instruction.

As a plant without a root cannot bring forth fruit, so, without faith first existing, the word of teaching cannot come forth. Therefore he also says elsewhere: "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom 10:10).

What can be better than this tree, or even compared with it, when not only its branches but the root itself bears fruit? The root is justification, and the branches are salvation. Therefore he says, "We believe, and therefore speak."

As a staff firmly supports limbs trembling and weakened by old age, and does not let them slip and fall, so also faith supports our soul more securely than a staff. Our soul is shaken and tossed by the weakness of thoughts.

Faith upholds it by the power of its own strength, establishes it safely, and never lets it stumble. It corrects the weakness of thoughts by the abundance of its own power. It scatters the darkness arising from them.

By its own light, faith illumines the soul sitting amid confused thoughts as though in a dark house.

Therefore those who lack it are in no better state than those who live in darkness. Just as such people strike walls, collide with those they meet, and fall into ravines and abysses, their eyes are of no use without guiding light.

So also those deprived of faith collide with one another, strike the walls, and finally fall. They drag themselves down into the abyss of perdition.

But of what faith is Paul speaking here? The name of faith has a twofold meaning.

Faith is the one by which the apostles once performed signs, and of which Christ said: "For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move" (Mt 17:20).

Likewise, when the disciples could not deliver the lunatic from the demon and wished to know the reason, He pointed it out to them in their lack of faith, saying: "Because of your unbelief" (Mt 17:20).

Paul also speaks of this same faith: "And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains" (1 Cor 13:2).

Likewise, when Peter, walking on the sea, began to sink, Christ reproached him for the lack of this same faith, saying: "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Mt 14:31).

Thus faith is the one that works signs and wonders.

Faith is also the one that guides us to the knowledge of God, by which each of us is faithful. Of this the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Romans: "I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world" (Rom 1:8).

He also says to the Thessalonians: "From you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone out" (1 Thess 1:8).

To which faith does he point here? Clearly to the faith of knowledge, as the following words show. "We believe," he says, "and therefore speak." What do we believe? "Knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will raise us also through Jesus," by His power.

But why does he call it the spirit of faith and include it among the gifts? If faith is a gift, and only a gift of the Spirit, and not our merit, then unbelievers will not be punished, and believers will not be counted worthy of praise.

For this is the property of gifts: one does not receive crowns and rewards for them. A gift is not the merit of those who receive it, but the gift of the Giver's generosity.

Therefore the Lord commanded His disciples not to rejoice that they cast out demons. He also excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven those who prophesied and worked many miracles in His name (Mt 7:22).

They could not boast in their own merits, yet wished to be saved by gifts alone.

Why, then, does the Apostle call it the spirit of faith? He wishes to show that in the beginning, believing and obeying the call depend on our good disposition.

After faith has been implanted, we need the help of the Holy Spirit so that it may remain continually unshaken and unchanged.

Neither God nor the grace of the Spirit forestalls our disposition. He calls, yet He waits for us to come voluntarily and by our own desire. Then, when we have already come, He grants us every help from Himself.

For after we have approached the faith, the devil immediately comes, wishing to tear out this good root. He hastens to sow tares and to harm the true and pure seeds.

Then we need the help of the Spirit. Seated beside our soul like an industrious farmer, He surrounds the newly planted growth of faith on every side by His great care and providence.

Therefore the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Thessalonians: "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thess 5:19). He teaches that after the coming of the Spirit's grace, we shall be inaccessible to the evil demon and all his schemes.

For if no one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3), much more can no one keep his faith safe and firm except by the Holy Spirit.

Why, then, did the Apostle say "the same"? He wishes to show the great kinship of the New Testament with the Old. Therefore he reminded us of the prophetic saying: "Having the same spirit of faith."

He added: "As it is written: I believed, and therefore have I spoken."

Long before, many years earlier, David said the very thing that Paul now cited (Ps 115:1). Paul declares that the same grace of the Spirit rooted the power of faith in him then and in us now.

It is as though he said: the same Spirit of faith that spoke in him also acts in us.

Why, then, did the Apostle say: "having the same spirit of faith"? He wishes to show that, in both the Old and the New Testament, faith is the mother of blessings.

Yet it is necessary to begin the discourse somewhat farther back. Then this reason will become much clearer to us. What is this reason?

At the time when the Apostle spoke these words, a great war surrounded the faithful, a grievous and unceasing war. Everywhere whole cities and nations rose against them. All authorities were hostile, kings armed themselves, weapons were raised, and swords were sharpened.

Armies marched out, and every kind of punishment and torture was devised. Plundering and confiscation of possessions, exiles, daily executions, torments and prisons, fire, iron, beasts, gallows, wheels, precipices, cliffs, and everything imaginable were used to destroy the faithful.

But the war did not stop there. It was not only raised up by enemies; nature itself became divided against itself. Fathers rose against children, daughters hated those who had carried them in the womb, and friends turned away from friends.

Little by little, war entered among relatives and into families. At that time there was great confusion throughout the whole world.

When waves rise, clouds gather, thunder breaks forth, darkness surrounds a ship on every side, the sea rages, monsters arise, pirates attack, and the passengers themselves rise against one another, the ship cannot escape danger.

Only a higher, strong, and mighty right hand can drive away the confusion, stop the storm, and grant calm to those who sail.

So it was then also, at the beginning of the preaching. The storm rose not only from without, but within they often rose against one another. Who says this? Paul himself, who writes: "Without were fightings, within were fears" (2 Cor 7:5).

That this was truly so, and that countless afflictions surrounded both teachers and disciples, and that the war extended to all, I again bring Paul as witness.

Paul set this forth together with the greatness of the afflictions that overtook them. God had promised them a reward for their labors after their departure from here, while He had rewarded their forefathers here.

Seeing that much carelessness arose in them from such thoughts, Paul wished to strengthen them. He taught that even among their fathers matters were ordered in the same way, and that many received the reward only by faith.

For this reason he reminded them of the prophetic saying: "Having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written: I believed, and therefore have I spoken."

It is as though he said: the great David also, that wondrous and noble prophet, received recompense by faith and not by experience. Otherwise he would not have said: "I believed, and therefore have I spoken."

For faith is the substance of things hoped for, not of things seen (Heb 11:1). Whoever sees something certainly no longer hopes for it.

Therefore, if he believed, he believed what was awaited. If he believed what was awaited, and what was awaited was not yet seen, then he had not yet received what he believed.

Therefore the Apostle says: "having the same spirit of faith," that is, we also have the same faith that existed in the Old Testament.

For this reason, in another place, when speaking of the saints of that time, he says: "They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy" (Heb 11:37-38).

Then, teaching that they endured afflictions and had not even yet received the rewards, he adds: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off" (Heb 11:13).

Tell me, then, how did they see them, when they had not yet come to pass? With the eyes of faith, which pierce heaven and behold all that is there.

It will be done because the Apostle will have to give an answer for the souls entrusted to his care. It will also be done so that the Corinthians themselves may hear, in the presence of their teacher, either blessing or condemnation from God, the righteous Judge.

They will hear this for their obedience to his preaching or for their disobedience. This means, Orthodox Christians, that every pastor must then stand before the judgment with those entrusted to him.

Therefore both pastor and flock must care together, with common strength, for the salvation of their souls.

When the prophet David spoke of the land of the living, that is, of the Jerusalem above, the fatherland and dwelling place of those who abide eternally with God, he said: "I will be well pleasing before the Lord in the land of the living" (Ps 114:9).

He testified that he spoke of this land while guided by faith: "I believed, and therefore I spoke" (Ps 115:1).

Paul therefore says: Since we Apostles have the same spirit of faith, that is, the same grace and the same illumination of faith as the holy Prophets had, we also speak.

They, being enlightened by faith, spoke of the future life and its enjoyment, as the Psalmist's words testify: "I believed, and therefore I spoke."

Since we have believed the words of Jesus Christ, for this reason we also speak, just as they did, about things not subject to the senses but apprehended by faith.

We speak because by faith we have learned and known that God, Who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead as man, will raise us Apostles also for our faith in that Lord Jesus.

He will raise us together with you believers and set us before His glory, so that we may abide with Him forever and enjoy His divine kingdom and blessedness.

"Being raised together with the Lord in glory is the most inspiring and stirring subject in the Christian confession," says Bishop Theophan.

"How much consolation there is here for those who suffer for the faith! The resurrection of Christ laid the foundation for the general resurrection of all. Now all must necessarily rise.

This common faith rose in the Apostles to the highest degree because they became more essentially partakers of Christ's death. For he says: we are delivered to death for Jesus' sake.

As in the Lord death and resurrection were inseparable, so the Apostles also understood their resurrection through the Lord as inseparable from their dying for Him."

Contemplating this, the Apostle had already said earlier, “I no longer live for myself.” Here he says the same thing. Let deaths be all around. We believe that life belongs to us, which no death can snatch away.

We stand in possession of this life, and, without fearing deaths, we carry on the work of the Gospel with boldness.

“Knowing.” Since this knowledge stands here as an interpretation of faith, it must be recognized as one that embraces the whole consciousness.

As it governed the whole life of the Apostles, so it covered all other objects of knowledge and always stood at the forefront.

“That He who raised the Lord Jesus,” that is, God the Father, together, without doubt, with the Holy Spirit. God the Son incarnate rose, but the Resurrection was accomplished by the single action of the Most Holy Trinity.

“Will raise us also with Jesus.” By “us” the Apostle speaks of himself, of the Apostles, that is, of those continually dying in the work of preaching the Gospel and imparting grace to all.

Of course, he does not mean that God will raise only them, but that He will raise them together with all.

The Resurrection of Christ laid the foundation for the general resurrection of all mankind. Now all will necessarily rise. The difference will be only for what purpose and in what form each will rise.

Some will rise in light and for glory, while others will rise in darkness and for torments. Those who rise in light will not all appear in one degree of brightness.

With what brightness will the Apostles be surrounded? They had a foretaste of this. Here is the source of the inspiration of which the Apostle speaks here.

“He will raise with Jesus,” δια Ιησου, through Jesus. The power of Christ’s Resurrection will then pass from Him to all.

Now it is concentrated in Him alone, and in others it acts only spiritually. When they are regenerated by faith in the font of baptism, they receive at the same time the seed of a glorious resurrection.

The gift of the Holy Spirit seals this hope more substantially. On this foundation every baptized person can confess without deception: He will raise me also to glory, if I preserve the grace of baptism or restore what was lost through repentance.

This faith, common to all, rose in the Apostles to a higher degree because they became more substantially partakers of Christ’s death. For he says, “We are always being delivered to death for Jesus’ sake.”

As in the Lord death and Resurrection were inseparable, so the Apostles also recognized their resurrection through the Lord as inseparable from their dying for Him.

“And will present us with you.” Before whom will He present us? If before Himself and before His throne, this brings the thought to the judgment that will follow the resurrection.

But since the Apostle’s thought is of the inspiring, most glorious future, the nearer meaning is this: He will present us into the blessed kingdom, or where the Lord promised His servants would be.

He added “with you” to remind the Corinthians that this is also the object of their faith. While directing their attention to the glory of the Apostles’ resurrection, they should not lose sight of their own resurrection with them.

Nor should they forget the obligations corresponding to this hope.

Blessed Theophylact writes, “He will raise us also with you to receive endless blessings. By this he inspires them to preserve the faith and to be zealous for a good life corresponding to the faith.”