2 Corinthians 4:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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2 Corinthians 4:8

Comments

Paul now speaks of his trials, his troubles. The Greek word means something like, ‘We are hemmed in, crowded in.’ We are in situations where we cannot know what to do next. There is no way out of a predicament, a trial, a problem. The translation has the sense because it adds the words ‘on every side’. It maybe physical pressures, or hostility and violence; the apostle Paul knew it constantly. Maybe he means great hindrances to the work, distances to cover, rugged terrain, even shipwreck, arrest and bondage and chains. ‘Yet not distressed.’ And that is another interesting word, meaning something like, ‘but we never feel cramped or limited.’ The apostle Paul is marvellous because although he felt all the pressures, and all the difficulties and the obstructions, yet within himself he never felt limited because God had proved himself to Paul so much, so many times. Things never were as hopeless as they seemed. He was never impeded. ‘We are perplexed, but not in despair.’ We are at a loss but never utterly at a loss: that is how the apostle felt.

Application

If only we could feel like that. Because he knew that at the point where all seemed to be lost, the power of God would be poured forth, and the problems would be melted away, and God would bless and enable him to continue and to carry out. He would break through the chain. If only we could react to all difficulties and obstructions in the same way. But we can. It is open to us to do so, to remember all the deliverances of God and to go forward in faith. This obstruction, this opposition, this difficulty is given to us so that we shall see the arm of God and we shall be assured and blessed, and it will be proved to us through and through that all the power is of God. We may be pressed without relief when we are following our earthly delights and our focus is not upon the Lord and our lives are not committed to him. But if it is for the Lord, whether we are witnessing, or preaching, or Sunday school teaching, or undertaking some task assisting in the work of God, or even supporting it or contributing to it; if our lives are focussed on the cause of Christ and the work of God, this will be true of us – ‘troubled on every side, yet not distressed… perplexed, but not in despair.’

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2 Corinthians 4:8 Commentary and Bible Study