Scripture Daily

Context No. 287 of 4322 · 2 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

2 Corinthians 1:8-14: in context

8For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia: that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life. 9Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, 10who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver, on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us, 11you also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift given to us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on your behalf. 12For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you. 13For we write no other things to you than what you read or even acknowledge, and I hope you will acknowledge to the end— 14as also you acknowledged us in part—that we are your boasting, even as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

Paul opens this letter by telling the Corinthians about something that nearly finished him, an affliction in the province of Asia so severe that he does not bother describing its details, only its weight. He wants them to grasp how far down it took him. We were weighed down beyond our strength, he says, so much that we despaired even of life. This is Paul, the tireless apostle, admitting he reached the point of giving up on living.

Then he does something surprising with it. He does not treat the ordeal as a detour or a mistake. He gives it a purpose. We felt we had received the sentence of death, he says, so that we would not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. The whole use of being crushed past his own capacity was to move his trust off of himself and onto the one whose particular work is raising the dead. That is exactly the God you need when you have despaired of life, the only one still available when your own strength is gone. And he credits their prayers with part of the rescue, so that the thanks would come back up from many mouths at once.

The pattern is worth sitting with. God let Paul run all the way to the end of himself, not to abandon him, but so that he would finally lean his whole weight on the God of resurrection instead of on his own resources. What affliction, beyond my own strength, was meant to pry my trust off of myself and set it on the one who raises the dead?

Sources