So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
12. Hence death indeed. This is said ironically, because it was unseemly that the Corinthians should live happily, and in accordance with their desire, and that they should, free from anxiety, take their ease, while in the mean time Paul was struggling with incessant hardships. “Eust ...
Troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, yet not in despair; persecuted, yet not forsaken of God. Whatever condition God's children face in this world, they have a 'but not' to comfort themselves with, their case is bad, but never so bad as it might be, for God supports and delivers.
AI summary
Commenting on 2 Corinthians 4:8-18
So then death worketh in us,.... This is the conclusion of the foregoing account, or the inference deduced from it; either the death, or dying of Christ, that is, the sufferings of his body, the church, for his sake, "is wrought in us"; fulfilled and perfected in us; see Col 1:24 or rather a corporeal death has seized upon us; the seeds of death are...