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Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Corinthians 4:5

Annotations upon the Holy Bible. Browse this work.

2 Corinthians4:5

5 For we preach not our selves , but Christ Jesus the Lord , and our selves your servants for Jesus sake .

For a man to preach himself, is to preach the devices and imaginations of his own heart, instead of the revealed Will of God; to make his discourses the evomitions of his own lusts and passions; or to make himself the End of his Preaching; preaching meerly for filthy lucre sake, or to supply himself with bread, or for the ostentation of his own Wit, and Learning, and Parts.

But we preach Jesus Christ the Lord, we preach what he hath commanded us to preach, and he is the Subject of our Discourses; we either preach what Christ is, or declare in our Preaching what he hath done and suffered for Sinners, or what he hath commanded us to do in order to our and your obtaining of Life and Salvation through him.

And in our preaching, though in the first place we are Christs Servants, who hath commanded us to go and preach, and who is the subject matter of our Preaching, and whose Honour and Glory is the End of all our Preaching; yet we are also your Servants: really so, not in that we serve your lusts and humors, and speak smooth things, such as may be pleasing to your humors; but for Iesus sake, because in revealing the Will of God to you, and in publishing the Grace of the Gospel to you, we do you the highest service we can in your eternal concerns.

Marginal references: Chap. 1.24.

Matthew Poole and continuators, Annotations upon the Holy Bible, 2 Corinthians 4:5. Public domain.

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