Twice, Paul said, “We do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:1, 16). I think everything in this chapter is designed by Paul to support that statement.

What does it mean to lose heart? The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 4:16:

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

What is being renewed? Willpower? Resolve? Or zeal, passion, and joy? What is Paul’s desire for how we serve?

• “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord” (Romans 12:11).
• “[Let] the one who leads, [do so] with zeal; [let] the one who does acts of mercy, [do so] with cheerfulness” (Romans 12:8).
• “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).
• He prayed for endurance and patience “with joy.” “[I pray that you] be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy” (Colossians 1:11).

What God renews day by day is zeal for the work, passion for the work, and joy in the work. To not lose heart means to keep on being renewed, not only in the will to go on but also with the zeal, passion, and joy to go on.

Threats to Discouragement

What is threatening to make Paul lose heart? The first thing is a small response to the message. Here’s a clue: look at the connection between verses 1 and 2.

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:1–2)

We don’t lose heart — but we renounce tampering with the word. Evidently, the temptation was to remove the cause of discouragement by changing the word.

The effect of the true word was both life and death. The response was not all Paul wanted:

We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:15–16)

But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. (2 Corinthians 3:14)

Therefore, not losing heart will enable you to be faithful to the word and not give in to pressures to change the message to get a bigger following.

Second, suffering for the truth is also a temptation to lose heart. Our ministry is a proclamation of Christ and an embodiment of Christ.

What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. (2 Corinthians 4:5)

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4:8–10)

So, the threat of losing heart is both (1) a weak response and (2) suffering in the process.

Our Joyful Perseverance

Here are six arguments of how not to lose heart while holding tight to the message.

1. The failure of some to respond is not your fault.

If God chooses to pass over some and not give them the light, it is his decree, not your failure. Second Corinthians 4:3–4 says,

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The gospel divides humanity:

We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:15–16)

2. Your suffering reveals the life of Christ.

When you are afflicted in every way, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down, and thus carry in your body the death of Jesus, never forget: this is how the life of Jesus is manifested to your people.

. . . always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:10–11)

3. People will be saved through your ministry.

In spite of the sorrows of those who don’t believe, many will see the life of Jesus in your message and your life, and they will live, and they will give thanks. Your ministry will not be wasted. Paul says, “So death is at work in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12).

4. Your weakness serves God’s supremacy.

We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Since you must take the role of a clay pot in your weakness and your afflictions, never forget that there is a design in it “that the surpassing power [might belong] to God and not to us.” Become so God-centered that his glory through your affliction really is sufficient to keep you from losing heart.

5. You will be raised from the dead.

. . . . knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. (2 Corinthians 4:14)

Never let anybody tell you that being heavenly minded makes you no earthly good. Paul’s heavenly mindedness was precisely what sustained him through the Christlike sacrifices he had to make for his ministry. He believed and spoke and suffered “knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.”

Seriously, brothers, if the hope of the resurrection is not a regular sustaining power in your sacrifices, how will you survive?

6. God has a daily inner renewal for you.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16)

How does it come? It comes from the hope of the weight of glory that makes present afflictions light and momentary by comparison.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Corinthians 4:17)

Look to Things Unseen

How do we experience this hope?

. . . as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

And where do we look? The word is where our “unseen hope” is described. For example, Romans 8:23–25 says,

Not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

All six of these reasons not to lose heart are from the word! Paul concludes:

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)