NOTES for Co2 4:1-6

Paul's words about the ministry of a witness recall the Savior's instructions to the apostles whom He sends to serve, when He tells them to be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves." By "innocence," Jesus apparently meant the spiritual wholeness that the apostle considers a necessary quality of a witness. It is obvious to Paul that no witness can bear witness to the Kingdom if his soul is burdened by some hidden sin or uncleanness (vv. 1-2). And the issue here, of course, is not only that such witness would be outright hypocrisy. The apostle does not speak by chance about the witness's openness to those to whom he testifies. Witness presupposes not merely words, but above all the experience of the Kingdom, which must become accessible to those who listen. And the witness's unrepented sin can easily get in the way.

Of course, an unbiased person may well forgive a witness for his sinfulness, since, objectively speaking, there are no sinless people, and simple justice does not allow us to demand sinlessness from a witness who carries out his ministry conscientiously and with all his soul. But objectively, the witness's task in such a case may remain unfulfilled: he will not be able to show those to whom he testifies the most important thing, the Kingdom that the Savior brought into the world. And therefore more is required of a witness in a certain sense than of an ordinary person: the fullness of righteousness is required of him.

Of course, this does not mean that the witness can reach such a spiritual height on his own. Yet witness, according to Paul, is full only when it takes place in the presence of God, and for God, of course, it is entirely possible to correct what a person is unable to change. But the witness himself must be completely transparent to the action of God for this to happen, not only when he is testifying, but at every other time as well. Only then will the witness truly testify not about himself, not about his religiosity or his spiritual experience, but about Christ and His Kingdom (vv. 5-6). And then he will not have to resort to the means people usually use to convince others that they are right, for he is only a witness of the Kingdom, and it is not for him to decide who will enter it and who will not (vv. 3-4). This is true wisdom, which does not impose itself and does not force anyone to follow its appeals and advice. Only such preaching can bear witness to Christ and to the Kingdom, and not to the witness himself.