Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
"Lest any should say, How then is it that we continue to enjoy such unspeakable glory in a mortal body? Paul replies, this very fact is one of the most marvellous proofs of God's power, that an earthen vessel could bear such splendor and keep such a treasure" [CHRYSOSTOM, Homilies, 8.496, A]. The treasure or "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God." The fragile "earthen vessel" is the body, the "outward man" (2 Corinthians 4:16; compare 2 Corinthians 4:10), liable to afflictions and death. So the light in Gideon's pitchers, the type (Judges 7:16-20, Judges 7:22). The ancients often kept their treasures in jars or vessels of earthenware. "There are earthen vessels which yet may be clean; whereas a golden vessel may be filthy" [BENGEL].
that the excellency of the power, etc.--that the power of the ministry (the Holy Spirit), in respect to its surpassing "excellency," exhibited in winning souls (1 Corinthians 2:4) and in sustaining us ministers, might be ascribed solely to God, we being weak as earthen vessels. God often allows the vessel to be chipped and broken, that the excellency of the treasure contained, and of the power which that treasure has, may be all His (2 Corinthians 4:10-11; John 3:30).
may be of God . . . not of us--rather, as Greek, "may be God's (may be seen and be thankfully [2 Corinthians 4:15] acknowledged to belong to God), and not (to come) from us." The power not merely comes from God, but belongs to Him continually, and is to be ascribed to him.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Isaiah 9:4
Acts 9:15
2 Corinthians 4:8
2 Corinthians 4:11
2 Corinthians 6:7
2 Corinthians 7:4
2 Corinthians 11:27
2 Corinthians 12:9
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