Paul's Trials and Afflictions.
THE peculiarity (we might say privacy) of Paul's call to the apostleship was such as to cause it to be often called in question. This accounts for the frequency of his reference to it by way of defense, and completely exonerates him from any charge of boasting. So with reference to his recounting the many afflictions and persecutions he had undergone for the sake of the gospel, as recorded in 2 Cor. 11:24-33. He had to meet the bitter opposition of “false apostles,” who were endeavoring to mislead the Corinthian church in furtherance of their own selfish ends, and a comparison of the false and true was absolutely necessary. We have reason to be thankful for this record, as it is an important item of history which is nowhere else given. PAUL was in the service of the Master about thirty years. His initiation was by affliction, and the Lord said to Ananias at Damascus, “I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.” Acts 9:16. In this letter to the Corinthians he gives us an idea of how the word of the Lord was being fulfilled; and in the Acts we have mention of further trials of the same character—particularly at Jerusalem, at Cesarea, and on the voyage to Rome—during the succeeding eight years of his life, which ended in martyrdom.