2 Corinthians 4:1,2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Therefore, seeing we have this ministry Spoken of from 2Co 4:6-11 of the preceding chapter, with which this is closely connected; a ministry so superior to that wherewith Moses was intrusted; as we have received mercy To be accounted faithful; as God has in mercy accepted us as his servants, and supported us in our work; we faint not Under any of those sufferings which we are called to endure; nor desist, in any degree, from our glorious enterprise. But have renounced Or set at open defiance; the hidden things of dishonesty Or of shame, as της αισχυνης properly signifies; all things which men need to hide or be ashamed of; not walking in craftiness Using no disguise, subtlety, or guile; nor handling the word of God deceitfully Not privily corrupting the pure truth of God by any additions of our own, or alterations, or by attempting to accommodate it to the taste of our hearers. But, by manifestation of the genuine and unsophisticated truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience Appealing to the consciences of sinners for the truth and importance of our doctrine; or acting in such a manner as all men, in their consciences, if rightly informed, must approve of; in the sight of God Whose eye we know is upon us, observing the secrets of our hearts, and therefore we desire, by the most perfect integrity and uprightness, to approve ourselves to him. The apostle does not mean that they actually recommended themselves to the conscience of every man, so that they had the approbation of every man; but that they behaved in such a manner as ought to have convinced every man of their honesty and fidelity in their preaching, and in the exercise of every other branch of their ministry.