[4] but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, [5] beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger;
2 Corinthians 6:4-5
I am keenly aware of my own shortcomings and when I am not aware of them God seems to arrange numerous people to list them for me!
If the phone rings just when we are about to serve dinner I get grumpy, when I can’t understand the IT stuff on my computer I get very irritable, I am not very good at being ill or being cared for and so on.
Being honest, I act as though I have a right to everything going smoothly and never to go wrong whether that’s an inanimate object, people, food, drivers of vehicles or shopping. I have a very low threshold, well at least when compared to Paul.
I am not suggesting that anyone should actively seek the list that Paul describes. I am also not advocating masochism or martyrdom as a trophy. There’s nothing inherently good in pain. In fact, it is part of our calling as Christians to help alleviate the suffering and hardship of others but in doing so, it may well require that we ourselves willingly embrace danger, the loss of freedom and property, as well as the disruption of our cherished routines and schedules that define us.
No one knew this better than Paul, a man who personally suffered almost indescribable agony for the sake of Christ and the welfare of the people he cared for. It’s hard for us to read that list and not to think that our trials do not reach any of the depth of his and that my little annoyances are really something I should not get so worked up about.
Today, sadly, we are often told that you can expect (or can pay for) health and wealth. After all you are a child of the King and you deserve it! This was similar to the argument of Paul’s opponents in Corinth, who insisted that a true “apostle” of Christ would never endure the things he did.
Paul was asked on numerous occasions to substantiate his claim to apostolic gifting. Although he struggled to speak about himself, the situation at Corinth required that he identify his qualifications. He does so on several occasions (see 11:16-33), one of the more explicit being in 6:4-10. Please take time out to ponder these 6 verses.
So to verses 4 and 5 in which we find three sets of three words that describe Paul’s outward circumstances, all of which are plural which means they were not one offs but regular and multiple instances or occasions on which he suffered.
In the first set of three he mentions “afflictions, hardships, calamities”. “Afflictions” is a general term appearing numerous times in 2 Corinthians, the most severe of which was the life-threatening experience described in 1:8-9. “Hardships” carries the thought of being under pressure, perhaps to the constant stress to which he was subjected. The word translated “calamities” literally means “in constraints” or in a confined and narrow place from which there can be no escape. It points to Paul’s feeling of being trapped by circumstances seemingly beyond his control. Wow!
The second set of three words point more to the direct and extremely physical persecution to which he was subjected. He often endured “beatings” (2 Corinthians 11:23-25), whether by rods, lashes, or fists. We know specifically of only one “imprisonment” (2 Corinthians 11:23)
before 2 Corinthians was written, which occurred in Philippi (Acts 16).
The “riots” or uprisings against Paul in the cities where he preached are quite a few and if we were him we they would probably have deterred us from preaching: at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:50), Iconium (Acts 14:5), Lystra (Acts 14:19, Philippi (Acts 16:22), Thessalonica (Acts 17:5-7), Berea (Acts 17:13), Corinth (Acts 18:12-23), Ephesus (Acts 19:23 to 20:1). To be honest I need to put my troubles in perspective.
Lastly, he endured “labours, sleepless nights, [and] hunger.” Unlike the first six words that describe what was done to him by others, these all refer to self-imposed hardships Paul embraced in the fulfilment of his ministry.
The word “labours” is either a reference to his work as a tent-maker (Acts 18:3) or could also refer to his extended and demanding seasons of work as an apostle.
By “sleeplessness” he doesn’t mean that he suffered from insomnia, but that he went without sleep to serve and minister to others (Paul often refers to working “night and day”(1 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:8). However he lost sleep it was a choice he joyfully embraced for the sake of another’s progress in God.
Finally, he often suffered from “hunger.” It may have been because he was fasting or it may have been due to lack of money we can not be sure. What we are sure of is that he tells us he was frequently without food.
No one in the Christian West anticipates such treatment. If we ever encountered anything remotely similar to what Paul faced, we’d never go back to them ever again. Surely servants of God (vs 4) who are dedicated to the gospel and to the people they serve ought to expect the best of everything. How dare anyone deprive us of our comforts!
So what would motivate a man to willingly pursue a life characterised by the sort of hardships Paul endured? What could possibly sustain a man through such sufferings?
Have a look at Hebrews 10:32:34. There we read of Christians who “endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated” (vs 32-33). Beyond this, they “joyfully accepted the plundering” of their “property” (vs 34)! Here’s why. Here’s how. They “knew” they “had a better possession and an abiding one” (vs 34).
The degree to which we find suffering intolerable is the degree to which we lack confidence in our position in Christ. To the extent that we are angered by even a little discomfort, this reveals our lack of satisfaction in Him.
Paul was in the grip of the glory to come, which far outweighed that driver who just cut you up on the motorway.
[16] So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. [17] For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, [18] as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
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