---
title: 2 Corinthians 4:5
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-corinthians-4-5/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-corinthians-4-5.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 2 Corinthians 4:5
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 2 Corinthians 4:5

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

## JW Usage

"We are preaching, not about ourselves, but about Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake" is read by JWs as a description of the organisation's public-preaching work. The Governing Body and rank-and-file publishers alike see themselves as pointing people to Jehovah's purpose through Christ — never drawing attention to themselves, always modelling servant-leadership on Paul's example.

## Protestant Usage

Paul's claim is sharper than the Watchtower's framing allows. "Ourselves as your slaves" — Paul explicitly denies positioning himself as a mediating authority between the believer and Christ. The entire point of verse 5 is that the apostle points *past* himself to Jesus Christ as Lord; he does not interpose himself, his office, or an ongoing teaching body between the Corinthians and their Lord.
Contrast with the 1981 *Watchtower* claim that "unless we are in touch with this channel of communication that God is using, we will not progress along the road to life, no matter how much Bible reading we do." That is the opposite of 2 Corinthians 4:5. Paul's pattern matches Jesus' rule in Matthew 23:8-10 — "one is your Teacher... your Leader is one, the Christ" — and 1 John 2:27 — "the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to be teaching you." Teachers exist (Ephesians 4:11); they point to Christ. A body that inserts itself between the believer and the Bible has stopped being a Pauline teacher and started being the thing Paul refused to be.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [One Is Your Teacher — the Christ](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/one-teacher-matt23.md) — Matthew 23:8-10 [Authority]