2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

This passage occurs during the ordinary/Pentecost season of year B, most recently June 9, 2024.  This is less of a full post and some quick comments

Let's dig into the comparison between

ὁ ἔξω ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος (4:16) - the outside of us human

and

 ὁ ἔσω ἡμῶν (ἄνθρωπος) (4:16) - the inside of us human

• Paul writes here that we always have a split personality.  The outside and the inside.  This is not, notice, a distinction between the body and soul.  This is a difference between something beyond/exterior and something internal.
• This is the data that Luther will use to develop the idea of saint and sinner.  Even the reborn still have a person with us that is dying. 
• However, Paul here does not suggest the outside is innately terrible.  He uses the word πρόσκαιρα (4:18) - This word is often translated "transient."  I think that is a bit too negative.  The word literally means "towards a season."  There is a usefulness in this life and in the body.  It is just not eternal.
• What is most important is that Paul gives no indication that we can, by our own strength, supplement or create this interior human.  It is being renewed (ἀνακαινοῦται); it is of God (ἐκ θεοῦ); it arises from and for grace (ἡ χάρις)
• While the specific phrase of "exterior" person is unique to this particular citation, the idea of a "split person" appears elsewhere in the Pauline corpus, with varying degrees of sinfulness ascribed to the old/exterior self.
• Eph. 3:16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit zin your inner being (ἔσω ἄνθρωπος)
• Colossians 3:9-10  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self (παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον) with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
• Romans 6:6:  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
• Romans 7:22:   For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
• Overall, this particular passage seems the least negative when it comes to describing the old/exterior self, simply as an earthly vessel that will ultimately run its course.