Life springs from death. Like a rose blooms from earth scorched by fire, spiritual life blossoms in souls fertilized by sacrifice. Paul wrote, For we are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you (2 Cor. 4:11-12).
The verb translated "being delivered over" (παραδιδόμεθα) frequently occurs in the passion accounts (TDNT, 2:169). It means to hand over, deliver or give up someone. Judas handed over Jesus to the Chief Priests (Mark 14:10) and the Council handed over Jesus to Pilate (Mark 15:1). Pilate, in turn, handed over Jesus to the mob of people (Luke 23:25) by handing him over to the soldiers for crucifixion (Mark 15:15). Paul uses a passive voice to indicate that God hands over the living ones (οἱ ζῶντες) to death. The present tense of the verb tells us that this handing over to death is a constant and continual process, not a one-time event. The constancy of God delivering us to die throughout life is stressed by the opening particle "always" (ἀεὶ) placed first in the sentence for emphasis.
Serving Christ in our lives is a constant death struggle. Our death struggle has a God-ordained purpose (ἵνα καὶ). The particle translated "also" or "and" should be understood as intensive and better translated with words like "really" or "certainly." We are being delivered over to death so that the life of Jesus may really or certainly be demonstrated in our dying lives (Dana & Mantey, Grammar, p.251). The "life of Jesus" (ἡ ζωὴ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is a partitive genitive meaning that the life we each have is part of all that Jesus is (MHT, Grammar, 3:217).
The life of a servant of Christ is a life of death. God constantly hands us over to die so that Christ's life can be revealed in our mortal flesh (θνητῇ σαρκὶ). Our flesh (σάρξ) is subject to death (θνητός). Here Paul uses the flesh in its literal sense of the material that covers our bones (BAGD, p.743). The phrase is parallel to "in the body" (ἐν τῷ σώματι) in verse 10. Our physical bodies are decaying as we live. God designs our dying process to reveal His living power, so our physical death demonstrates His spiritual life. Our willingness to die and the way we die is God's most powerful witness to the world of the power of the living Christ because the world has no answer to the dilemma of death.
Death "works" (ἐνεργεῖται) in us. We get our word energy from this Greek word. It comes from the root meaning to work and refers to action or activity. The word group was often used in the Greco-Roman world to refer to activity by cosmic or even demonic forces (TDNT, 2:652-653). In the New Testament, it is rarely used for human activity but often used of satanic miracles (2 Thess. 2:9) although even this activity functions under the authority of God (2 Thess. 2:11). The word is used elsewhere for the work of God in our lives.
Death operates in us within the parameters of God's purpose. God's purpose is to bring life to others through death operating in us. The same verb should be understood in the second half of the verse. The prepositional phrases are parallel to one another. Death works in us (ἐν ἡμῖν), but life works in you (ἐν ὑμῖν). Some think that Paul is ironic here implying that some Christians wanted a life without hardship, unlike Paul. However, Paul is emphasizing the life of Jesus here not life without hardship. Paul is telling them that the life of Jesus being lived in them came through Paul's willingness to die sacrificially to bring them the gospel. (Hughes, 2 Corinthians, p.145).
Sacrificial love drives our missional calling. The gospel brings life to others through our willingness to die to self. Servant leadership involves nothing less than sacrificial service.
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