Summary: - 2 Cor. 4:7 (NKJV, NIV, NLT) - 2 Cor. 3:15-18 - where the Spirit is Lord - 2 Cor. 4:1-18 - We often lose heart because we do not consider how great a calling God has given us in Jesus. - The idea behind the Greek word for lose heart is the "faint-hearted coward." The Greek word has the idea of not only a lack of courage but of bad behavior and evil conduct. - Craftiness speaks of "a cunning readiness to adopt any device or trickery for the achievement of ends which are anything but altruistic." (Hughes) - There is a higher scrutiny than that of the human conscience: it is to God that every minister of the gospel is ultimately and eternally answerable." (Hughes) - "The blindness of unbelievers in no way detracts from the clearness of the gospel for the sun is no less resplendent because the blind do not perceive its light." (Calvin) - John 3:19 - "The god of this world is able only to blind the minds of the unbelieving … Refusal to believe is the secret and reason of the blindness that happens to men." (Morgan) - Acts 9:1-19, Ps. 44:3, 78:14
