2 Corinthians 6:5 Commentary and Bible Study

Here we read first of stripes, imprisonments, tumults. They are really similar. They are particular persecutions and severe persecution which the apostle encounters and Christian people from time to time have had in great measure. Stripes – the apostle Paul five times suffered 39 stripes, lashes by the Jewish authorities. And three times he was beaten with rods, a terrible scourging. Imprisonments often. He was imprisoned for the faith. And tumults – mob violence in different places, and noticeably in Jerusalem when a murderous throng came upon him, and he was only rescued by the Roman authorities. And on occasions he was stoned and so ill-treated and violently treated.And then three more – labours, watchings, fastings. And these three are quite different because you could say they were voluntary hardships. Labours, exhaustion is the word. Where would the apostle been exhausted? When he chose to make tents and to work with tentmakers to earn his living. He did not want to be given gifts in many places lest people should think he preached for money and the Gentiles were put off, so he laboured often through the night to support himself. ‘In watchings.’ That translates the Greek word which literally means in sleeplessness. This was a voluntary thing, voluntary in this way – that in order to preach in that city, that town, and to work making tents and so on, he sometimes went without sleep. Or his prayer time would be deep into the night praying for God’s blessing, or his letter writing. It was a mark of his consecration to God. These things had to be done and he was willing to do them.In fastings, and although there is fasting in the New Testament and it is a proper and honourable and holy thing, this is not what the apostle is referring to here. Here when he mentions fasting, he is not talking about religious fasting, he is talking about voluntarily going without food in order to do the work of the Lord. To get to a particular place meant journeying perhaps without food but it was vital that he met up with people there. So he was not the kind of man who would say, ‘I cannot do that, I cannot go without sleep. I cannot travel through the night, because it would be uncomfortable.’ He would do it for the Lord.