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"pressed hard,
but not crushed,
perplexed,
but not in despair,
persecuted,
but not abandoned,
flung down,
but not destroyed."
We may now be better able to appreciate the opening of this second epistle, with its
emphasis upon tribulation and consolation:--
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and
God of all consolation, Who consoleth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to
console those who are in any tribulation by the consolation wherewith we ourselves are
consoled by God" (II Cor. 1: 3, 4).
"For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, as to our tribulation which happened
in Asia, that exceedingly beyond power were we weighed down, so that we despaired
even of life. But we ourselves, within ourselves, have had the sentence of death, that we
might rest our confidence not upon ourselves, but upon God Who raiseth the dead"
(II Cor. 1: 8, 9).
Here is the key to the problem of Paul's sufferings, all were to direct his attention and
hope to resurrection. Resurrection and its power are prominent in such a passage as
Phil. 3: 10, 11:--
"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I may attain unto the
out-resurrection out from among the dead."
Here, it will be observed, resurrection power and resurrection hope stand on either
side of the sufferings. It is the same in II Cor. 4: 17 - 5: 1:--
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more
exceeding age-abiding weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the
things which are not seen are age-abiding; for we know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle were dissolved; we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,
age-abiding in the heavens."
"Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of
Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal body" (II Cor. 4: 10).
The sufferings of Paul, moreover, had close connection with His peculiar ministry of
the dispensation of the mystery:--
"Whereunto I am appointed a preacher. . . . for which cause I also suffer" (II Tim. 1: 11, 12).
"Remember. . . . my gospel, wherein I suffer" (II Tim. 2: 8, 9).
His sufferings, moreover, had a special connection with the church of the one body
and the present dispensation:--
"Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with age-abiding glory" (II Tim. 2: 10).
"Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up on my part that which is
lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church,
whereof I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which was given me
to you-ward, to fill up the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid since the
ages and since the generations" (Col. 1: 24-26).