Paul Writing in Prison After His Sufferingsby KandD
11:242 Corinthians 11:24
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
Of the Jews Paul five times received forty stripes save one, that is, the Jewish punishment of thirty-nine lashes inflicted on five separate occasions, showing the repeated physical suffering he endured in his ministry as a faithful messenger to the Gentiles. The chapter in which this stands gives instruction against judging and criticizing others, condemning faultfinding, evil surmising, evil speaking, bearing false witness, hatred, and accusing the brethren. Men who view matters with human eyesight make grave mistakes when they take up a work God has not appointed but has condemned, the work of criticizing, climbing upon the judgment seat, and pronouncing sentence on others, and instead of this such ones should for their own spiritual advancement watchfully examine their own hearts and look well to their own shortcomings and defects of character to remove the beam from themselves.
The verse gives only one of Paul's occasional glimpses of his own labors and sufferings in the cause of Christ, given in letters of reproof, counsel, admonition, and encouragement to churches troubled by apostasy, which he otherwise did not dwell on but turned from to magnify God's grace. The beatings were endured for the sake of the gospel and for the truth, after accepting hardship and giving up status, relationships, and honor, in a life of poverty, self-denial, and suffering that sought to bless others and live as Christ did. They were borne while battling opposition, pushing forward the gospel work with untiring zeal, guarding the interests of a church yet young in the faith and carrying a heavy burden for all the churches. He feared his efforts might prove vain, and spent many sleepless nights in prayer and earnest thought over methods used to counteract his work, while working with his own hands to supply his necessities, in weariness and pain from unceasing toil and constant danger, enfeebled by disease and at times depressed in spirit.
The Jewish scourgings belonged with imprisonment, beatings with rods, stoning, cold and hunger and thirst, pain, peril, misrepresentation, reproach and abuse, and perils by land and by sea, in the city and in the wilderness, from his own countrymen, from the heathen and from false brethren, ending at last in death. Paul's severe trials so described were far greater than those Brother Andrews had experienced or would be called to endure. Amid the constant storm of opposition, the clamor of enemies and the desertion of friends he almost lost heart yet remained steadfast, looking back to Calvary and pressing on with new ardor to spread the knowledge of the Crucified, treading the blood-stained path Christ had trodden before him and seeking no discharge from the warfare till laying off his armor at his Redeemer's feet. His wounds and scars show that suffering for Christ can be borne as part of a victorious fight of faith, and the steadfastness God's servants displayed through divine power witnesses to God's promises, abiding presence, and sustaining grace.
Of the Jews Paul five times received forty stripes save one, that is, the Jewish punishment of thirty-nine lashes inflicted on five separate occasions, showing the repeated physical suffering he endured in his ministry as a faithful messenger to the Gentiles. The chapter in which this stands gives instruction against judging and criticizing others, condemning faultfinding, evil surmising, evil speaking, bearing false witness, hatred, and accusing the brethren. Men who view matters with human eyesight make grave mistakes when they take up a work God has not appointed but has condemned, the work of criticizing, climbing upon the judgment seat, and pronouncing sentence on others, and instead of this such ones should for their own spiritual advancement watchfully examine their own hearts and look well to their own shortcomings and defects of character to remove the beam from themselves.
The verse gives only one of Paul's occasional glimpses of his own labors and sufferings in the cause of Christ, given in letters of reproof, counsel, admonition, and encouragement to churches troubled by apostasy, which he otherwise did not dwell on but turned from to magnify God's grace. The beatings were endured for the sake of the gospel and for the truth, after accepting hardship and giving up status, relationships, and honor, in a life of poverty, self-denial, and suffering that sought to bless others and live as Christ did. They were borne while battling opposition, pushing forward the gospel work with untiring zeal, guarding the interests of a church yet young in the faith and carrying a heavy burden for all the churches. He feared his efforts might prove vain, and spent many sleepless nights in prayer and earnest thought over methods used to counteract his work, while working with his own hands to supply his necessities, in weariness and pain from unceasing toil and constant danger, enfeebled by disease and at times depressed in spirit.
The Jewish scourgings belonged with imprisonment, beatings with rods, stoning, cold and hunger and thirst, pain, peril, misrepresentation, reproach and abuse, and perils by land and by sea, in the city and in the wilderness, from his own countrymen, from the heathen and from false brethren, ending at last in death. Paul's severe trials so described were far greater than those Brother Andrews had experienced or would be called to endure. Amid the constant storm of opposition, the clamor of enemies and the desertion of friends he almost lost heart yet remained steadfast, looking back to Calvary and pressing on with new ardor to spread the knowledge of the Crucified, treading the blood-stained path Christ had trodden before him and seeking no discharge from the warfare till laying off his armor at his Redeemer's feet. His wounds and scars show that suffering for Christ can be borne as part of a victorious fight of faith, and the steadfastness God's servants displayed through divine power witnesses to God's promises, abiding presence, and sustaining grace.