John Calvin Commentary 2 Corinthians 4:10

"always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body." — 2 Corinthians 4:10 (ASV)

The mortification of Jesus. He says more than he had done previously, for he shows that the very thing that the false apostles used as a pretext for despising the gospel was so far from bringing any degree of contempt upon the gospel, that it tended even to render it glorious.

For he employs the expression—the mortification of Jesus Christ—to denote everything that rendered Him contemptible in the eyes of the world, in order to prepare Him for participating in a blessed resurrection. In the first place, the sufferings of Christ, however ignominious they may be in the eyes of men, have, nevertheless, more honor in the sight of God than all the triumphs of emperors and all the pomp of kings.

The end, however, must also be kept in mind: that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified together with him (Romans 8:17).

Therefore, he elegantly reproves the madness of those who made his unique fellowship with Christ a matter of reproach. At the same time, the Corinthians are admonished to be careful not to, while haughtily despising Paul’s lowly and abject appearance, injure Christ Himself by seeking a cause for reproach in His sufferings, which we ought to hold in the highest honor.

The word rendered mortification is taken here in a different sense from what it has in many passages of Scripture. For it often means self-denial, when we renounce the lusts of the flesh and are renewed to obedience to God. Here, however, it means the afflictions by which we are stirred up to meditate on the end of this present life. To make the matter clearer, let us call the former the inward mortification, and the latter the outward. Both make us conformed to Christ, the one directly, the other indirectly, so to speak. Paul speaks of the former in Colossians 3:5, and in Romans 6:6, where he teaches that

our old man is crucified, that we may walk in newness of life.

He discusses the second in Romans 8:29, where he teaches that we were predestinated by God to this end—that we might be conformed to the image of his Son. It is called, however, a mortification of Christ only in the case of believers, because the wicked, in enduring the afflictions of this present life, share with Adam, but the elect have participation with the Son of God, so that all those miseries that are in their own nature accursed are helpful to their salvation.

All the sons of God, it is true, have this in common: that they bear about the mortification of Christ. But, in proportion as anyone is distinguished by a larger measure of gifts, he, by that same measure, comes that much nearer to conformity with Christ in this respect.

That the life of Jesus. Here is the best antidote to adversity—that as Christ’s death is the gate of life, so we know that a blessed resurrection will be for us the end of all miseries, since Christ has associated us with Himself on this condition: that we shall be partakers of His life, if in this world we submit to die with Him.

The sentence that immediately follows may be explained in two ways. If you understand the expression delivered to death as meaning to be incessantly harassed with persecutions and exposed to dangers, this would be more particularly applicable to Paul and those like him, who were openly assailed by the fury of the wicked.

Thus, the expression "for Jesus’ sake" will be equivalent to for the testimony of Christ (Revelation 1:9).

However, since the expression to be daily delivered to death means otherwise—to have death constantly before our eyes and to live in such a manner that our life is more a shadow of death—I have no objection to this passage also being expounded in such a way as to be applicable to all believers, and that, moreover, to each in his own order.

Paul himself, in Romans 8:36, explains Psalm 44:22 in this manner. In this way, for Christ’s sake would mean—because this condition is imposed upon all His members. Erasmus, however, has rendered it, though with less propriety, we who live. The rendering that I have given is more suitable—while we live. For Paul means that, as long as we are in the world, we resemble the dead rather than the living.