{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"First Day","title":"2 Corinthians 4: Unexpected Outcomes","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1093,"description":"(CSB)Thank you for listening to First Day.1 Therefore, since we have this ministry because we were shown mercy, we do not give up.2 Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth.Paul spends much of chapter four discussing the ministry of the Spirit. In verse six he states that we—himself, the Corinthians, and the Church today—have been made competent ministers of the new covenant through the Spirit. In performing this ministry, the Church becomes “the aroma of the knowledge of Christ” and brings life and was a ministry in which we have no right to participate. Paul states that it is because of God’s mercy that we have become Christ’s credentials to the world. We did not receive the death that we deserved but through Christ have received mercy. And this motivates Paul and should motivate the Corinthian church to continue moving toward the life of Christ. Having been entrusted with this ministry, the faithful must cease acting for their own interests and begin only acting for God’s. This same message is repeated from chapter one. We are to live openly and honestly, thus revealing the truth of the gospel. This act is not going to make us rich or powerful or even liked by the world. But it will prove that the kingdom of God is here. The purpose of this ministry is obvious. 3 But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. 6 For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.If the gospel message is not...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/QuQW_cZXSsuBMOigLtAJwx1STWkIimOEzRB22DVXWLI/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzMwOC8xNTM2OTc2/NTk0LWFydHdvcmsu/anBn.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}