4:12 {7} So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
(7) A very wise conclusion: as if he would say, Therefore, to be short, we die that you may live by our death, because they ventured into all those dangers for the building of the Church's sake, and they ceased not to strengthen and encourage all the faithful with the examples of their patience.
4:12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you. The ever present image of death, threatening the gospel ministers, was the means of life to the saved.
4:12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you - You live in peace; we die daily. Yet - Living or dying, so long as we believe, we cannot but speak.
4:8-12 The apostles were great sufferers, yet they met with wonderful support. Believers may be forsaken of their friends, as well as persecuted by enemies; but their God will never leave them nor forsake them. There may be fears within, as well as fightings without; yet we are not destroyed. The apostle speaks of their sufferings as a counterpart of the sufferings of Christ, that people might see the power of Christ's resurrection, and of grace in and from the living Jesus. In comparison with them, other Christians were, even at that time, in prosperous circumstances.
