The Deep Pain of Second Corinthians

One commentary I have on the New Testament says this about 2^nd Corinthians: “If Paul’s letter to the Galatians reveals anger, and if his letter to the Philippians reveals joy, then this letter reveals deep pain on Paul’s part” (Making Sense of the New Testament, p. 369).  We see reference to the sufferings of Paul starting from the first chapter in the book of 2^nd Corinthians.  He wrote that “the sufferings of Christ abound in us” and alluded to their “tribulation” and being “afflicted” and to the “sufferings which we also suffer.”  He told them, “We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves (2 Corinthians 1:4-9).  Though we don’t have all the details, clearly Paul and his brethren had been in serious trouble and had suffered nigh unto death for the gospel. 

               Many other passages in 2^nd Corinthians continue this theme of the suffering pain Paul experienced.  He alluded to the “much affliction and anguish of heart” he had when he wrote  to them “with many tears” (2 Corinthians 2:4).  Paul referred to his numerous challenges as he highlighted the great faith which with he confronted them saying, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.”  But he considered them “light affliction, which is but for a moment” and was able to persevere through them all (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 17).  Later on he again referred to his painful experiences saying that they were “in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings (2 Corinthians 6:4-5).  He gave his most specific list of the pains he had experienced in a later chapter of the epistle, saying that he was “in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness” (2 Corinthians 11:23-27).  That is quite the list from Paul of the incredible sufferings he endured—shipwrecks and stoning and scourging and dangers among those who would have sought his destruction.  Clearly Paul lived through countless trying and dangerous events and this epistle was indeed one that revealed deep pain for the apostle.  It is through these experiences that he could write confidently of “the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort” to whom we can turn in all of our troubles (2 Corinthians 1:3).