{4} But as we were {c} allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which {d} trieth our hearts.

(4) To approve his conscience to God, being free from all flattery and covetousness.

(c) There is this difference between the judgments of God and the judgments of men, that when men choose, they give regard to the qualities of those things which stand before them, but God finds the reason of his counsel only in himself. Therefore, it follows that seeing as we are not able to think a good thought, that whoever he first chooses to those callings, he does not find them able but indeed makes them able. And therefore in that we are empowered of God, it depends upon his mercy.

(d) Who approves and allows them.

People's New Testament

2:4 So we speak. God had given them the gospel as a trust. They were stewards of the mysteries of God (1Co 4:1). They spoke as those faithful to a trust, seeking to please God instead of men.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. as-according as; even as.

allowed-Greek, "We have been approved on trial," "deemed fit." This word corresponds to "God which trieth our hearts" below. This approval as to sincerity depends solely on the grace and mercy of God (Ac 9:15; 1Co 7:25; 2Co 3:5; 1Ti 1:11, 12).

not as pleasing-not as persons who seek to please men; characteristic of false teachers (Ga 1:10).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-6 The apostle had no wordly design in his preaching. Suffering in a good cause should sharpen holy resolution. The gospel of Christ at first met with much opposition; and it was preached with contention, with striving in preaching, and against opposition. And as the matter of the apostle's exhortation was true and pure, the manner of his speaking was without guile. The gospel of Christ is designed for mortifying corrupt affections, and that men may be brought under the power of faith. This is the great motive to sincerity, to consider that God not only sees all we do, but knows our thoughts afar off, and searches the heart. And it is from this God who trieth our hearts, that we must receive our reward. The evidences of the apostle's sincerity were, that he avoided flattery and covetousness. He avoided ambition and vain-glory.