Paul’S Sufferings
PAUL’S SUFFERINGS
2 CORINTHIANS 11:21b-33
Paul records his sufferings for the sake of Christ and the gospel.
Having taken up his assumed position of foolishly boasting, Paul goes on to give a record of his past life of service for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s.
The true tests of apostleship, he asserts, are not in loud claims and unsupported pretensions. The acid test is found in that person’s record of suffering, service and sympathy with others for their good. So Romans 15:15-19; 2 Timothy 2:10; 3:10-12.
Paul has a notable record of his trials and, in giving them, he tells us many things that we should never otherwise have known.
He begins by claiming a pure descent as a true Jew (11:22). Then he proceeds to show that he is a true “minister of Christ” (11:23) by listing a catalog of deprivations and sufferings. Added to the physical strain of a life of hardship (11:23-27) was a mental and spiritual liability also to be carried: “my anxiety for all the churches” (11:28), and no church gave him more anxiety than Corinth! Finally, he adds the ever-pressing and exacting responsibility of the “care of souls,” watching for the opportunity to help another in distress, and entering sympathetically into their deep need (11:29).
As a postscript he rounds off with a personal account of the Damascus episode of Acts 9:25. Why is this event, in itself, trivial in contrast with the hair-raising experiences and dangers of 11:23-27, put last? One possible solution is that Paul’s objectors had fastened on this incident, distorted it and turned it into an accusation of a cowardly escape from Damascus. More likely, however, is the view that Paul singles out this experience for mention because it left upon his mind a lasting impression as the first trial after his conversion that he knew for the sake of his loyalty to Christ.
Notes 11:22: see Philippians 3:5. 11:23: Clement of Rome (ad 96) says that Paul was imprisoned seven times. 11:24: see Deuteronomy 25:3. 11:25: Acts 14:19; 16:22. 11:26: “danger from false brothers”—a particularly distressing experience (2 Timothy 4:10,14-16).