2 Corinthians 4:8

In these verses the apostle gives an account of their courage and patience under all their sufferings, where observe,

I. How their sufferings, and patience under them, are declared, Co2 4:8-12. The apostles were great sufferers; therein they followed their Master: Christ had told them that in the world they should have tribulation, and so they had; yet they met with wonderful support, great relief, and many allays of their sorrows. "We are," says the apostle, "troubled on every side, afflicted many ways, and we meet with almost all sorts of troubles; yet not distressed, Co2 4:8. We are not hedged in nor cooped up, because we can see help in God, and help from God, and have liberty of access to God." Again, "We are perplexed, often uncertain, and in doubt what will become of us, and not always without anxiety in our minds on this account; yet not in despair (Co2 4:8), even in our greatest perplexities, knowing that God is able to support us, and to deliver us, and in him we always place our trust and hope." Again, "We are persecuted by men, pursued with hatred and violence from place to place, as men not worthy to live; yet not forsaken of God," Co2 4:9. Good men may be sometimes forsaken of their friends, as well as persecuted by their enemies; but God will never leave them nor forsake them. Again, "We are sometimes dejected, or cast down; the enemy may in a great measure prevail, and our spirits begin to fail us; there may be fears within, as well as fightings without; yet we are not destroyed," Co2 4:9. Still they were preserved, and kept their heads above water. Note, Whatever condition the children of God may be in, in this world, they have a "but not" to comfort themselves with; their case sometimes is bad, yea very bad, but not so bad as it might be. The apostle speaks of their sufferings as constant, and as a counterpart of the sufferings of Christ, Co2 4:10. The sufferings of Christ were, after a sort, re-acted in the sufferings of Christians; thus did they bear about the dying of the Lord Jesus in their body, setting before the world the great example of a suffering Christ, that the life of Jesus might also be made manifest, that is, that people might see the power of Christ's resurrection, and the efficacy of grace in and from the living Jesus, manifested in and towards them, who did yet live, though they were always delivered to death (Co2 4:11), and though death worked in them (Co2 4:12), they being exposed to death, and ready to be swallowed up by death continually. So great were the sufferings of the apostles that, in comparison with them, other Christians were, even at this time, in prosperous circumstances: Death worketh in us; but life in you, Co2 4:12.

II. What it was that kept them from sinking and fainting under their sufferings, Co2 4:13-18. Whatever the burdens and troubles of good men may be, they have cause enough not to faint.

1. Faith kept them from fainting: We have the same spirit of faith (Co2 4:13), that faith which is of the operation of the Spirit; the same faith by which the saints of old did and suffered such great things. Note, The grace of faith is a sovereign cordial, and an effectual antidote against fainting-fits in troublous times. The spirit of faith will go far to bear up the spirit of a man under his infirmities; and as the apostle had David's example to imitate, who said (Psa 116:10), I have believed, and therefore have I spoken, so he leaves us his example to imitate: We also believe, says he, and therefore speak. Note, As we receive help and encouragement from the good words and examples of others, so we should be careful to give a good example to others.

2. Hope of the resurrection kept them from sinking, Co2 4:14. They knew that Christ was raised, and that his resurrection was an earnest and assurance of theirs. This he had treated of largely in his former epistle to these Corinthians, Co1 15:1. And therefore their hope was firm, being well grounded, that he who raised up Christ the head will also raise up all his members. Note, The hope of the resurrection will encourage us in a suffering day, and set us above the fear of death; for what reason has a good Christian to fear death, that dies in hope of a joyful resurrection?

3. The consideration of the glory of God and the benefit of the church, by means of their sufferings, kept them from fainting, Co2 4:15. Their sufferings were for the church's advantage (Co2 1:6), and thus did redound to God's glory. For, when the church is edified, then God is glorified; and we may well afford to bear sufferings patiently and cheerfully when we see others are the better for them - if they are instructed and edified, if they are confirmed and comforted. Note, The sufferings of Christ's ministers, as well as their preaching and conversation, are intended for the good of the church and the glory of God.

4. The thoughts of the advantage their souls would reap by the sufferings of their bodies kept them from fainting: Though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day, Co2 4:16. Here note, (1.) We have every one of us an outward and an inward man, a body and a soul. (2.) If the outward man perish, there is no remedy, it must and will be so, it was made to perish. (3.) It is our happiness if the decays of the outward man do contribute to the renewing of the inward man, if afflictions outwardly are gain to us inwardly, if when the body is sick, and weak, and perishing, the soul is vigorous and prosperous. The best of men have need of further renewing of the inward man, even day by day. Where the good work is begun there is more work to be done, for carrying it forward. And as in wicked men things grow every day worse and worse, so in godly men they grow better and better.

5. The prospect of eternal life and happiness kept them from fainting, and was a mighty support and comfort. As to this observe, (1.) The apostle and his fellow-sufferers saw their afflictions working towards heaven, and that they would end at last (Co2 4:17), whereupon they weighed things aright in the balance of the sanctuary; they did as it were put the heavenly glory in one scale and their earthly sufferings in the other; and, pondering things in their thoughts, they found afflictions to be light, and the glory of heaven to be a far more exceeding weight. That which sense was ready to pronounce heavy and long, grievous and tedious, faith perceived to be light and short, and but for a moment. On the other hand, the worth and weight of the crown of glory, as they are exceedingly great in themselves, so they are esteemed to be by the believing soul - far exceeding all his expressions and thoughts; and it will be a special support in our sufferings when we can perceive them appointed as the way and preparing us for the enjoyment of the future glory. (2.) Their faith enabled them to make this right judgment of things: We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, Co2 4:18. It is by faith that we see God, who is invisible (Heb 11:27), and by this we look to an unseen heaven and hell, and faith is the evidence of things not seen. Note, [1.] There are unseen things, as well as things that are seen. [2.] There is this vast difference between them: unseen things are eternal, seen things but temporal, or temporary only. [3.] By faith we not only discern these things, and the great difference between them, but by this also we take our aim at unseen things, and chiefly regard them, and make it our end and scope, not to escape present evils, and obtain present good, both of which are temporal and transitory, but to escape future evil and obtain future good things, which though unseen, are real, and certain, and eternal; and faith is the substance of things hoped for, as well as the evidence of things not seen, Heb 11:1.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Co_4:8-12

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.

Trials in the cause of Christ

I. The trials encountered in the cause of Christ are sometimes very great. We are troubled on every side. The man who is earnestly engaged in any cause in this world will have to encounter trials. The old prophets had theirs; some were insulted, some incarcerated, some martyred. So with John the Baptist, and so with the apostles, so with the confessors, reformers, and revivalists.

II. However great the trials encountered, they are not beyond bearing. Yet not distressed, or straitened; though perplexed, or bewildered, yet not benighted; though persecuted, or pursued, yet not forsaken, or abandoned; though cast down, or stricken down with a blow, yet not perishing. The true labourer in the cause of Christ, however great his trials, is always supported--

1. By the approbation of his own conscience.

2. By the encouraging results of his own labours.

3. By the sustaining strength of God. As thy days, so shall thy strength be.

III. The right bearing of these trials subserves the good of souls. In the right bearing of these sufferings the sufferer--

1. Reveals the life of Christ to others (2Co_4:10). Who that has witnessed the true Christian languishing on the bed of suffering and death has not seen the spirit of the life of Christ revealed?

2. Promotes in himself and others the Christian life (2Co_4:11). God, says Dean Alford, exhibits death in the living that He may also exhibit life in the dying. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Cast down, but not destroyed.--

Growth under pressure

Sub pondere cresco--I grow under a weight--was the motto on the crest of John Spreull, of Glasgow, who for his defence of religious liberty in the times of Claverhouse was imprisoned on the Bass Rock, in the Frith of Forth. This is the great motto of the worn. Nature is like a huge watch, whose movements are caused by the compression of the mainspring. Only by restraint is life possible. The forms of all living things, from the smallest moss to man himself, are determined by the extent and degree to which the force of life overcomes the dead forces of nature. The simple principle of growth under limitation will account for the shape of every leaf, and the formation of every organ of the human body; for the germination of a seed, and for the beating of the heart within the breast. The blossom of a plant is produced by growth under restraint. At the point farthest away from the root the vital forces are weakest, and the supply of nourishment almost exhausted; and therefore the ordinary leaves are compressed by their diminished power of resistance to the forces to which they are subjected, and modified into the strange shapes and changed into the beautiful colours of the flower. The compression goes on farther in the interior parts of the flower, according as the resisting power becomes less, until at last, in the innermost central part, the forces are brought to an equilibrium, and the plant finds rest in the round seed, which is simply the most complete compression of which the leaves are capable. The head of man is in the same way only a modification of the vertebral column, and his brain a compression of the spinal marrow, by the mechanical conditions under which they are developed. Have you ever watched a bubble of air rising up from the bottom of a clear pond to the top? If so, you cannot fail to have noticed that it ascends not in a straight line, but in a corkscrew or spiral form. The force which draws ii upwards to rejoin the native air from which it has been separated, would do so, if left to itself, by the shortest course; but it encounters continually the resistance of the denser element of the water, and this pressure delays its ascent through it, and makes it take a longer zig-zag path. If you understand the reason of this simple phenomenon, you will understand the way in which every herb and tree grows in the air, and why their shapes are what we see them to be. They all grow in the most varied and complicated spiral forms because they grow under resistance. This is the simple method of natures working, the law which determines all her forms. The same law obtains throughout the spiritual world. There, too, growth is under resistance. The law of the spirit, of life in Christ Jesus, contends against the law of sin and death; the law in the members wars against the law of the mind. The most essential character of spiritual life is that it depends upon the resistance or contest of one form of moral force by another: its tension is holiness, righteousness, self-control. We grow in grace as the trees grow in space--under limitations; and the various forms and degrees of spiritual life which men exhibit are due to the extent of these limitations. Spiritual life does not assume one stereotyped monotonous pattern. There is the same infinite variety in the spiritual world that there is in the natural, arising from similar causes. As no two plants grow in precisely similar circumstances, so no two human beings are exposed to the same spiritual influences. Of course there can be no growth without life. If the soul has no resisting power within, then the forces of the world without simply destroy it. If the soul is dead, all things deepen its death. But if it has spiritual life, then all things help to maintain and develop it. Like the sailing-boat that tacks to the wind, it takes advantage even of the contrary currents of life to reach its end. We may compare the soul that is dead and the soul that has spiritual life to two seeds, one infertile and the other fertile. The forces of nature play upon both seeds in the same way. In the case of the seed that has no life in it, these forces are unresisted; they have their own way, and they proceed to corrupt or break up the elements of which it is composed, until nothing of it remains. In the case of the seed that is possessed of life, the forces of nature are resisted, and this resistance becomes the source of living action, the very power of growth. The changes which the seed undergoes in germinating under the influence of those forces, duly controlled, form the basis of all the subsequent developments. And like these two seeds are dead and living souls. If the soul is dead it yields helplessly to the corruption that is in the world through lust; if the soul is living, it resists these disintegrating forces of the world, and uses them to increase its spiritual life and to build up its spiritual structure. It is only, therefore, of those who have spiritual life in themselves that it can be said, that though cast down they are not destroyed. To such, justification is a living doctrine--not merely part of a formal creed, nor an intellectual abstraction. Their faith is alive, and can prove its vitality by its energy. And the force of this life is remarkable. This faith can overcome the world. It can rise superior to all its temptations and trials. The force of natural life even in the lowest forms is extraordinary. The soft cellular mushroom has been known to lift up heavy masses of pavement by its expansion beneath them; the tender root of a tree insinuating itself in a crevice of the rock splits it up by its growth. And if life in its feeblest form can do such wonderful things, what may not be expected from spiritual and eternal life? The life that is in Christ Jesus by mere formality and profession, is like a dead branch that is merely mechanically united to the tree, and which, destitute of the trees vital sap and force, yields inevitably to the forces of nature, decays, and drops off into dust and ashes. But the life that is in Him by faith is like a living branch that becomes partaker of the whole force of the tree, and grows with its growth, and flourishes with its strength and beauty. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. It grows strong by opposition; it flourishes in the most adverse circumstances; it uses all the conditions of life for its maintenance; it makes even its hindrances to advance its life-work.

1. What casts us down most of all is the burden of sin. In the unrenewed heart this burden is unfelt. We are unconscious of the enormous pressure of the atmosphere upon us, because our bodies are pervaded with air which counterbalances the superincumbent air. But were the air within us removed, the pressure of the air without would crush us. And so, being sinful ourselves, we are unconscious of the weight of sin. But when the love of sin is taken away, then sin becomes a burden which is too heavy for us. We feel ourselves like Christian in the Pilgrims Progress, with his huge bundle upon his back. This pressure of sin has drawn tears from eyes which would have looked unmoved upon the martyrs fires. Sin is indeed the great adversity, the only thing that is truly hostile to us; and yet, in contending with it, we can use it as a fulcrum to remove the obstacles that lie in the souls upward path. But though this great adversity be taken away by faith in Christ, other evils are not taken away, for that would be to take away what determines the strength and shape of the spiritual life: that would leave it a weak and powerless thing. The Christian is not exempt from ordinary troubles.

2. In the world he has tribulation; and many are the afflictions of the righteous. In addition to the ordinary trials of all men, he has troubles of his own that are peculiar to the spiritual life. And these are felt most in proportion to the strength and vigour of the spiritual life; only that in his ease what crushes others proves a means of growth, calls forth, exercises, and educates all the powers of his soul, and brings down the powers of the world to come to shape his character and conduct. Sometimes, indeed, the weight is too much. There are many of Gods people who are so cast down by their circumstances that they seem almost destroyed. They are like a tuft of grass growing under a stone, The stone does not destroy the grass, nor prevent it from growing, for the vital force is stronger than the mechanical; but it dwarfs and distorts it; it blanches its colour, and it deforms its shape. Thus many lives are prevented from being what they might otherwise have been by the crushing circumstances of life.

3. Poverty often lies like a stone upon them. The sordid care for things that perish in the using seems to dwarf the immortal nature to the level of these things--seems to make the soaring spirit a part of the dull material world. The toil that is needed to support the body leaves little time or inclination for the cultivation of the soul. Though poor in itself it can make many rich. It is when the plant is poorest in material, and most limited in force, that it produces the blossom and the fruit by which the world is adorned with beauty and the generations of living creatures are fed. And so the poverty of the Christian may blossom and fruit for others. How often has this been the case in the history of the world! Few of the worlds greatest benefactors have had worldly advantages. The inventions and discoveries that have been of the greatest use to society have been made by persons who had little wealth. It is an axiom in nature that motion takes the direction of least resistance. Poverty, therefore, must be eminently helpful to the growth of the soul, insomuch as it removes many of the hindrances which make it hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. If the aspiration of the soul is heavenward, then a poor man encounters less opposition in that aspiration from his circumstances than one who is rich and increased with goods. He is relieved of that weight of worldliness--of those cares and anxieties which oppress the soul and give it an earthward tendency.

4. Sorrow is the commonest of all pressures that cast down the soul. This experience belongs to no class or condition of life exclusively. It is the great mystery of Providence that there should be such a prodigality of pain--how God can permit such forms of anguish. But the greatness of our sorrow is owing to the greatness of our nature. The highest mountains cast the largest shadows; and so the dark, wide shadows of human experience witness to the original loftiness of our being. Sorrow gives a tragic touch to the meanest personality. God has ordered that sorrow should be the most powerful factor in the education of our race. In the histories of the patriarchs and saints we see how suffering, deep and long-continued, ministered to a noble development. We see the baser earthy element in them crystallised into the purity and transparency of heaven through the fires of pain and sorrow. Many of the weights that press down the Christian life are visible and palpable. But as the palm-tree is pressed on every side by the viewless air, as it is exposed to the resistance of forces which the eye cannot see nor the hand feel, so the heaviest weights which drag down the Christian life are often invisible. Its crosses cannot be displayed. Many of its troubles are of a spiritual nature. It is east down, not by circumstances, but by the state of the soul. And these spiritual sorrows are the evidences of the reality of the work of grace; for where there is the principle of life there must be the changes of life. The form of godliness is a dead, invariable thing; whereas the power of godliness has its winter, its summer, and its autumn states. Sorrow arises in the case of most believers from inability to realise the ideal, to reach the mark of attainment they have set themselves. They have sorrow because of the remembrance of past sins and shortcomings. They have sorrow because of the sins of the world. All this is the godly sorrow that worketh repentance unto life. In this winter state the spiritual life is collecting and concentrating itself for renewed effort when the spring of revival is come. It waits upon the Lord, and so renews its strength. No life can grow or support itself in the void by its spontaneous buoyancy. All life upholds itself in the air by continuous effort. The humblest life is s vortex of unceasing forces. Much more is this the case in regard to the highest life of the soul, the life that is breathed into us by Gods Spirit and formed by faith in Christ Jesus. It has ever to do an uphill work. It has to grow against the gravitation of sin. But this resistance is meant to bring out all that is best in us, to stimulate our most strenuous exertions, to cultivate our patience, to educate our faith and hope, to mould us after the Divine pattern. It is the weight of the architrave upon the pillar that gives it stability and endurance; and it is the fightings without and the fears within that give strength to the character and perseverance to the life. What a beauty and grace does the spiritual life take from the pressure of the light afflictions that are but for a moment and that work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory! The thorny sorrow that springs from the grave of some dead love or hope forms the richest adornment of life. Not only is the outward form of the Christian life moulded into shapes of moral beauty--into whatsoever things are pure, and honest, and lovely, and of good report--but its inner substance is also made more lovely by the pressure of external shocks and internal sufferings. It is not the tree that grows in a rich soil and in a sheltered situation that produces the richly grained wood which is selected to adorn our finest furniture; but the tree that is exposed in its bleak, shelterless situation to every storm of heaven. The wild forces that beat upon it, and which it successfully overcomes, develop in it the beautiful veins and markings which are so highly prized by man. And so it is not when growing up in luxurious ease and comfort that we produce the gifts and graces which enrich and ennoble the Christian life. The natures that have the richest variety and the greatest interest are ever those which have grown under pressure of suffering, and by a vital faith have overcome the world. The Apostle Paul is an illustrious example of the law in question. His growth in grace was indeed under pressure of the most trying outward circumstances, and yet what a marvellous fulness and variety of form did it display! No man was more many-sided in his Christian attainments. We are not at the mercy of the thousand contingencies of life. The troubles that come to us are not accidents. Divine wisdom is shaping all our ends. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)

The frailty of the instruments and the excess of the power

I. Crushed, but not penned in a corner. The idea is that of being jostled in a crowd (Mar_3:9). They are hard pressed for space, but not driven into hopeless straits.

II. In difficulties as to the ways and means of carrying on their ministry effectually, but not reduced to utter helplessness.

III. Persecuted, but not left in the enemies hands--not given over to the persecutors.

IV. Thrown to the ground, but not destroyed. The notion is the pursuit of a fugitive in war, who, when overtaken and thrown down, is usually slain. Here was the overthrow, but, by Gods grace, not the slaughter. (Archdeacon Evans.)

The broken life

The mystery of evil has many aspects. There is one that is contained in that sad word waste. The germs of life that wither before they are sprung up, the lives often so full of power and promise that we see cut off in their prime, the gifted minds that are sunk in unconsciousness or madness. But there is another consideration that is still more practical, and that comes home to all men individually. How much that was born with each one of us must pass unused and undeveloped into the grave! The profession on which a young man has set his heart may be really the one best suited to him, and if he might enter on the preparation for it with his enthusiasm, his success might be morally certain, and the natural growth of character assured. But other wills have to be consulted beside his own; there are money difficulties which are thought to be insurmountable, or there is a fear of some loss of caste, or of some problematical moral consequences which are apprehended. And so the first flush of hope and resolution is checked by an untimely frost, and the leading sapling is nipped. Will the tree grow straight afterwards? That is the question. Or the life of the affections has been in some way warped or stunted. Some early disappointment, the discovery of some unknown defect for which no one living is to blame, some hardly avoidable error, makes us conscious of failure and limitation here, where the longing for the infinite is most insatiable. From this point onwards what is the life to be? These are marked instances of what we all find out at some point in our course--that feeling and energy have to be adapted to circumstance; that while desires and aims may be boundless, opportunity and time and human power are limited. And it is here that the difference becomes apparent between the true and false resolution and enthusiasm. We have attempted the impossible. The possible remains. But does there remain in us the strength and will to do it? Disappointment will have a weakening effect for a while, but it will only be for a while if we have any strength in us. The effect is various. The more speculative and dreamy temper discovers that the world is out of joint, and begins spinning theories of a new and regenerate condition of society, in which every nature shall grow without painful effort into the fulness of its ideal form. The more practical lose sight of their ideal altogether, and fall into a narrow, dull routine. The bolder nature becomes cynically embittered, the softer loses heart and subsides in caution and timidity. These are the subterfuges of weakness, and we must arise and shake ourselves from these if we would be spiritually healthy and strong. Suppose, then, the discovery to have been made, that of many plans only the one that seemed the least interesting can be pursued; that of many powers of which we have been conscious, only some of the more ordinary can find their natural fulfilment; that of all to which our hearts once clung, all but some poor fragment has been taken out of reach. Imagine the great soldier, struck down in middle life and doomed to drag out the rest of his time in feebleness and inaction. What then remains for us? If we are true to ourselves, perhaps the most fruitful portion of our lives. It is true that the desire granted is a tree of life, that there are some kinds of growth which can only come through the intensity or the continuance of joy. But it is also true that still deeper sources of life and growth are opened in times of sorrow and gloom for those who have recourse to them aright. Let us return to Him who, by the finger of His providence, has shown us the limits of our appointed way. Let us devote ourselves anew to do and suffer according to His will, and we shall find springing by the strait and narrow road many an unlooked-for blessing. If love and truth, humility and deep contentment be there, if the finite being is rooted in the infinite, there will be enlargement even in the least hopeful lot. The gifts that, with concurrent circumstances, might have adorned the literature of a nation, or made a lasting name in painting, or music, or some other path of art, may be concentrated on the training of one or two children, so laying up a store of usefulness for the coming time. The same energy which in some lives is seen breaking forth victoriously in all the brilliance of success has wrought not less heroically in others, underground, as it were, unsuspected and unseen except by very few, in a struggle with adverse fortune or adverse health. Viewed under the form of eternity, the one life is no less complete and no less successful than the other. Both pass into the hidden world with equal gain. If there be the fixed determination to do what the hand findeth to do, even though it may seem poor and mean, to do it trusting in the eternal strength and wisdom of Him who ordereth all things according to the good pleasure of His will, we need not fear that any experience, any aspiration, any love, any effort of our past lives will be utterly lost to us. To act in the present is not necessarily to break with the past. We learn to take up mangled matters at the best. We perhaps find out a way of turning to account even the accidents of life, and weaving them into the fabric of our design. Nor is experience, whether of success or failure, ever profitable for ourselves alone. The narrowest and most deserted life need not be lived wholly in isolation. If failure and sorrow have left the heart still fresh and sweet, as it will be if it have clang to a Divine support, then, wherever there are human beings, a way will be found of pouring the oil of consolation and the wine of gladness into other lives. There is so much that wants doing in the world, so few hitherto who have been roused to do even what they eaR. It is terrible to think that we may miss doing the little that is laid to our hands. Let us not waste time in vain regrets, or in vague dreams of what experience has clearly shown to be impossible, but let us gather up the fragments that remain. Though sometimes we may be cast down, let us know that we are not destroyed. (Prof. Lewis Campbell.)

Not destroyed

Many kinds of seeds are gifted with powers not merely of retaining life under the ordinary circumstances of nature, but of resisting the most terrible attacks. When wine has been made from raisins, and the refuse has been scattered over the fields as manure, it has been observed that the grape-seeds have vegetated and produced young vines, and this notwithstanding the boiling and fermentation they have had to endure. The seeds of elder-berries have been observed to grow after similar trials. Many experiments have been made to ascertain exactly what amount of unnatural heat seeds can bear without being destroyed. It considerably exceeds that which plants can bear; and the same is the case with extreme cold. (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 4:8-12. We are troubled — The four articles in this verse respect inward, the four in the next outward afflictions. In each clause the former part shows the earthen vessels; the latter, the excellence of the power. Yet not distressed — Στενοχωρουμενοι, pressed into a strait place, so as to find no way of escape; perplexed — The word απορουμενοι, so rendered, signifies persons involved in evils from which they know not how to extricate themselves: but not — Εξαπορουμενοι, reduced to such despair as to give up all hope of deliverance from God. Persecuted — Continually by men; but not forsaken — Of God; cast down — By our enemies; but not destroyed — Entirely by them. Always — Wherever we go; bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus — Continually expecting to lay down our lives as he laid down his; that the life also of Jesus — Who is now triumphant above all hostile power; might be made manifest in our body — That is, in the preservation of it, feeble as it is, and exposed continually to destruction. Or the expression may mean, that we, through our various dangers and sufferings, being conformed to his life here, may hereafter rise from the dead, and be glorified like him. For we who live — Those of us, the apostles and ministers of Christ, who are not yet killed for the testimony of Jesus; are always delivered unto death — Are perpetually in the very jaws of destruction, which we willingly submit to, that we may obtain a better resurrection. So then — Or so that, upon the whole; death worketh in us — Is very busy, active, and always at work, to bring us under its power by these sufferings; but life in you — Spiritual life has been conveyed to you by our ministry: or the sense may be, we undergo many miseries, and are in continual danger of death; but you are in safety, and enjoy all the comforts of life!

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 4:8. Ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι, while we are troubled in every respect [on every side]) Son 7:5, in every, namely, thing, and place; comp. always at 2Co 4:10.—θλιβόμενοι, while we are troubled) The four participles in this verse refer to the feelings of the mind; the same number in the following ver. to outward occurrences, 2Co 7:5, [Without were fightings; within were fears.] They are construed with ἔχομεν, we have; and in every member the first clause proves, that the vessels are earthen, the latter points out the excellence of the power.—οὐ στενοχωρούμενοι, we are not [distressed] reduced to straits) a way of escape is never wanting.—ἀπορούμενοι, we are perplexed) about the future; as, we are troubled, refers to the present.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co_4:8-10. A proof, based on experience, how this abundant power makes itself known as the power of God in the sufferings of the apostolic calling; so that, in spite of the earthen vessels, 2Co_4:7, the apostolic working advances steadily and successfull.

ἐν παντί] having reference to all the first clauses of 2Co_4:8-9, is neither to be supplemented by loco (Beza, Rosenmüller), nor is it: in all that I do (Hofmann), but is to be left general: in every way. Comp. 2Co_7:5; 1Co_1:5; and see on 2Co_11:6. Comp. the classic ἐν παντὶ κακοῦ εἶναι, Plat. Rep. p. 579 B; εἰς πᾶν κακοῦ ἀφικνεῖσθαι, Herod. viii. 118, and the lik.

θλιβόμενοι κ.τ.λ.] hard pressed, but not becoming driven into straits. Matters do not come so far as that, in virtue of the abundance of the power of God! Kypke rightly says: στενοχωρία angustias hoc loco denotat tales, e quibus non detur exitus. For see 2Co_6:4, 2Co_12:10. Comp. Bengel. The reference of στενοχ. to inward oppression and anxiety (Erasmus, Luther, and many others) anticipates what follow.

ἀπορούμενοι κ.τ.λ.] being brought into doubt (perplexity, where we cannot help ourselves), but not into despair. Comp. 2Co_1:8.[197]

[197] There is no contradiction between this passage and 2Co_1:8, where an actual ἐξαπορεῖσθαι is affirmed only of a single case, and in a definite relation. Here, however, the mental attitude as a whole is portrayed in single, grand strokes.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 4:8-9 . ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι κ . τ . λ .: with a sudden change of metaphor, the Apostle now thinks of himself as a soldier engaged with an apparently stronger foe, and at every moment on the point of defeat; and in four pairs of antithetical participles he describes his condition: in every direction pressed hard, but not hemmed in; bewildered, but not utterly despairing; pursued, but not forsaken ( i.e. , abandoned to the pursuing foe); struck down (as by an arrow; cf. Xen., Cyr. , i., 3, 14 for this use of καταβάλλειν ), but not destroyed . The general sense is much like that of Pro 24:16 , Mic 7:8 ; cf. also chap. 2Co 11:23-30 . στενοχωρία is nearly always (in N.T.) coupled with θλῖψις ( cf. Rom 2:9 ; Rom 8:35 , chap. 2Co 6:4 , and Isa 8:22 ; Isa 30:6 ). With the play on words ἀπορούμενοι … ἐξαπορούμενοι , which it is difficult to reproduce in English, see on 2Co 1:13 above. The phrase ἐν παντί occurs no less than nine times again in this Epistle (see chap. 2Co 6:4 , 2Co 7:5 ; 2Co 7:11 ; 2Co 7:16 , 2Co 8:7 , 2Co 9:8 ; 2Co 9:11 , 2Co 11:6 ; 2Co 11:9 ), though only once elsewhere (1Co 1:5 ) in St. Paul’s writings.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Greek, "BEING hard pressed, yet not inextricably straitened; reduced to inextricable straits" (nominative to "we have," Co2 4:7).

on every side--Greek, "in every respect" (compare Co2 4:10, "always"; Co2 7:5). This verse expresses inward distresses; Co2 4:9, outward distresses (Co2 7:5). "Without were fightings; within were fears." The first clause in each member of the series of contrasted participles, implies the earthiness of the vessels; the second clause, the excellency of the power.

perplexed, but not in despair--Greek, "not utterly perplexed." As perplexity refers to the future, so "troubled" or "hard pressed" refers to the present.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. We are troubled on every side] We have already seen, in the notes on the ninth chapter of the preceding epistle, that St. Paul has made several allusions to those public games which were celebrated every fifth year at the Isthmus of Corinth; and those games have been in that place particularly described. In this and the three following verses the apostle makes allusion to the contests at those games; and the terms which he employs in these verses cannot be understood but in reference to those agonistical exercises to which he alludes. Dr. Hammond has explained the whole on this ground; and I shall here borrow his help. There are four pairs of expressions taken from the customs of the agones.

1. Troubled on every side, yet not distressed.

2. Perplexed, but not in despair.

3. Persecuted, but not forsaken.

4. Cast down, but not destroyed.

Three of these pairs belong to the customs of wrestling; the fourth, to that of running in the race.

Troubled on every side, c.] Εν παντι θλιβομενοι. The word θλιβεσθαι, belongs clearly to παλη wrestling. So says Aristotle, Rhet. lib. i. cap. 5, (and the Scholiast on that place,) ὁ γαρ δυναμενος - θλιβειν και κατεχειν, παλαιστικος·. "He that can gripe his adversary, and take him up, is a good wrestler" there being two dexterities in that exercise:

1. to gripe, and

2. to throw down, which Hesychius calls ωθειν and κρατειν; the first of these is here mentioned, and expressed by θλιβεσθαι, to be pressed down; to which is here opposed, as in a higher degree, στενοχωρεισθαι, to be brought to distress, as when one cannot get out of his antagonist's hands, nor make any resistance against him. So in Isaiah: στενοχωρουμενοι ου δυναμεθα μαχεσθαι, we are brought to such extremities that we can fight no longer.

Perplexed, but not in despair] Απορουμενοι, αλλ' ουκ εξαπορουμενοι. The word απορεισθαι, to be in perplexity, is fit for the wrestler, who being puzzled by his antagonist's skill knows not what to do: so in Hesychius, απορουντες, αμηχανουντες, they that are not able to do or attempt any thing, yet are not εξαπορουμενοι, they miscarry not finally, ορθοι ισταμενοι, stand after all upright; ουκ απογινωσκοντες και ἡττωμενοι, despair not, nor are they overcome, but find a happy issue out of all, being at last conquerors.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. While we are pressed on every side. This is added by way of explanation, for he shows, that his abject condition is so far from detracting from the glory of God, that it is the occasion of advancing it. “We are reduced,” says he, “to straits, but the Lord at length opens up for us an outlet; we are oppressed with poverty, but the Lord affords us help. Many enemies are in arms against us, but under God’s protection we are safe. In fine, though we are brought low, so that it might seem as if all were over with us, still we do not perish.” The last is the severest of all. You see, how he turns to his own advantage every charge that the wicked bring against him.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) We are troubled on every side.—The Greek presents all the clauses in a participial form, in apposition with the “we” with which 2Co_4:7 opens. The careful antithesis in each case requires some modification of the English version in order to be at all adequately expressed. Hemmed-in in everything, yet not straitened for room perplexed, yet not baffled; or, as it has been rendered, less literally, but with great vividness, bewildered, but not benighted. The imagery in both clauses belongs to the life of the soldier on active service.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. We are troubled on every side] Perhaps ‘in every way.’ For the word rendered troubled,’ cf. ch. 2Co_1:4, 2Co_6:4.

yet not distressed] This word, says Bengel, denotes angustias tales e quibus non detur exitus, “such straits as there are no escape from.”

perplexed, but not in despair] The play upon words here (cf. ch. 2Co_1:13, 2Co_3:2) has no exact equivalent in English. The nearest approach to it would be ‘at our wits’ end, but not out of our wits.’ See also note on ch. 2Co_1:8.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

We are troubled on every side,.... Or afflicted; , either "in every place", wherever we are, into whatsoever country, city, or town we enter, we are sure to meet with trouble, of one sort or another; for wherever we be, we are in the world, in which we must expect tribulation: or "always", every day and hour we live, as in Co2 4:10 we are never free from one trial or another: or "by everyone"; by all sorts of persons, good and bad, professors and profane, open persecutors and false brethren; yea, some of the dear children of God, weak believers, give us trouble: or "with every sort" of trouble, inward and outward; trouble from the world, the flesh and the devil:

yet not distressed; so as to have no hope, or see no way of escape; so as to have no manner of comfort, or manifestations of the love of God; or so as to be straitened in our own souls; for notwithstanding all our troubles, we have freedom at the throne of grace, and in our ministry; we can go with liberty to God, and preach the Gospel boldly to you:

we are perplexed; and sometimes know not what to do, which way to take, what course to steer, or how we shall be relieved and supplied; we are sometimes at the utmost loss about things temporal, how we shall be provided for with food and raiment; nor are we without our perplexing thoughts, doubts, and fears, about spiritual affairs:

but not in despair; of the Lord's appearing and working salvation, both in a temporal and spiritual sense.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

Ver. 8. We are troubled on every side] This is the world’s wages to God’s ministers. Veritas odium parit. Opposition is Evangelii genius, said Calvin. Truth goes ever with a scratched face.

We are perplexed] Pray for me, I say, pray for me, saith Latimer; for I am sometimes so fearful, that I could creep into a mouse hole; sometimes God doth visit me again with comfort, &c. There is an elegance here in the original that cannot well be rendered (απορουμενοι αλλ ουκ’ εξαπορουμενοι. Tertullian hammers at it in his Indigemus, sed non perindigemus. Beza hath it Haesitamus at non prorsus haeremus. Mr Dike "staggering," but not wholly sticking.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

We are troubled - We the apostles. Paul here refers to some of the trials to which he and his fellow laborers were subjected in making known the gospel. The “design” for which he does it seems to be to show them:

What they endured in preaching the truth; To show the sustaining power of that gospel in the midst of afflictions; and, To conciliate their favor, or to remind them that they had endured these things on their account, 2Co 4:12-15.

Perhaps one leading design was to recover the affections of those of the Corinthians whose heart had been alienated from him, by showing them how much he had endured on their account. For this purpose he freely opens his heart to them, and tenderly represents the many and grievous pressures and hardships to which love to souls, and theirs among the rest, had exposed him - Doddridge. The whole passage is one of the most pathetic and beautiful to be found in the New Testament. The word rendered “troubled” (θλιβόμενοι thlibomenoi, from θλίβω thlibō) may have reference to wrestling, or to the contests in the Grecian games. It properly means, to press, to press together; then to press as in a crowd where there is a throng Mar 3:9; then to compress together Mat 7:14; and then to oppress, or compress with evils, to distress, to afflict, 2Th 1:6; 2Co 1:6. Here it may mean, that he was encompassed with trials, or placed in the midst of them so that they pressed upon him as persons do in a crowd, or, possibly, as a man was close pressed by an adversary in the games. He refers to the fact that he was called to endure a great number of trials and afflictions. Some of those trials he refers to in 2Co 7:5. “When we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.”

On every side - In every respect. In every way. We are subjected to all kinds of trim and affliction.

Yet not distressed - This by no means expresses the force of the original; nor is it possible perhaps to express it in a translation. Tyndale renders it, “yet we are not without our shift.” The Greek word used here (στενοχωρούμενοι stenochōroumenoi) has a relation to the word which is rendered “troubled.” It properly means “to crowd into a narrow place; to straiten as to room; to be so straitened as not to be able to turn oneself.” And the idea is, that though he was close pressed by persecutions and trials, yet he was not so hemmed in that he had no way to turn himself; his trials did not wholly prevent motion and action. He was not so closely pressed as a man would be who was so straitened that he could not move his body, or stir hand or foot. He had still resources; he was permitted to move; the energy of his piety, and the vigor of his soul could not be entirely cramped and impeded by the trials which encompassed him. The Syriac renders it: “In all things we are pressed, but are not suffocated.” The idea is, he was not wholly discouraged, and disheartened, and overcome. He had resources in his piety which enabled him to bear up under these trials, and still to engage in the work of preaching the gospel.

We are perplexed - (ἀπορούμενοι aporoumenoi). This word (from ἄπορος aporos, “without resource,” which is derived from α a, the alpha privative (“not”), and πόρος poros, way, or exit) means to be without resource; to know not what to do; to hesitate; to be in doubt and anxiety, as a traveler is, who is ignorant of the way, or who has not the means of prosecuting his journey. It means here, that they were often brought into circumstances of great embarrassment, where they hardly knew what to do, or what course to take. They were surrounded by foes; they were in want; they were in circumstances which they had not anticipated, and which greatly perplexed them.

But not in despair - In the margin, “not altogether without help or means.” Tyndale renders this: “We are in poverty, but not utterly without somewhat.” In the word used here, (ἐξαπορούμενοι exaporoumenoi) the preposition is intensive or emphatic, and means “utterly, quite.” The word means to be utterly without resource; to despair altogether; and the idea of Paul here is, that they were not left “entirely” without resource. Their needs were provided for; their embarrassments were removed; their grounds of perplexity were taken away; and unexpected strength and resources were imparted to them. When they did not know what to do; when all resources seemed to fail them, in some unexpected manner they would be relieved and saved from absolute despair. How often does this occur in the lives of all Christians! And how certain is it, that in all such cases God will interpose by his grace, and aid his people, and save them from absolute despair.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

We are straitened.[2] This, by the Greek, seems the sense of the Latin word, which is taken to signify, one perplexed, and in a doubt. See John xiii. 22.; Acts xxv. 20.; Galatians iv. 20.) (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Aporiamur, Greek: aporoumenoi, from Greek: a and Greek: poros, transitus. See Mr. Legh.

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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

We are troubled on every side; we are many ways, indeed every way, afflicted, afflicted with all sorts of afflictions;

yet not distressed; but yet we are not like persons cooped up into a strait place, so as they are not able to turn them, nor know which way to move (so the word signifies).

We are perplexed; the word signifies doubting, uncertain what shall become of us, or how God will dispose of us; full of anxious, troublesome thoughts about what shall be our lot in the world;

but not in despair; but yet not despairing of the help, presence, support, and assistance of God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8, 9. We are troubled—Tightly pressed.

Yet not distressed—Not crushed together.

Perplexed—Dubious, but not desperate.

Persecuted— Pursued, (as by a huntsman,) but not by God abandoned to his power.

Cast down—Prostrated, but not destroyed.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Troubled; afflicted, as in 2Co_1:4. On every side; in everything. Distressed; rather, driven to straits. Perplexed, but not in despair. In the original is a beautiful paronomasia, which might, perhaps, be represented in English by "pressed, but not oppressed." Literally the words mean, being at a loss, but not utterly at a loss. In the special anguish of trial of which he spoke in 2Co_1:8, (comp. 2Co_7:5) he was indeed for a time "utterly at a loss," reduced to utter despair; but in the normal conditions which he here describes he always, as it were, saw some outlet out of his worst perplexities.

Vers. 8-12.

Trials in the cause of Christ.

are troubled on every side," etc. Three remarks are suggested.

I That THE TRIALS ENCOUNTERED IS THE CAUSE OF CHRIST ARE SOMETIMES VERY GREAT. Hear what Paul says about his trials: "We are troubled on every side." He speaks of himself as hemmed in by enemies, pursued by enemies, stricken down by enemies, and dragging about with him, as it were, a living corpse. It may be laid down as a principle, that the man who is earnestly engaged in any righteous cause in this world will have to encounter trials. The old prophets bad their trials, some of them were insulted, some incarcerated, some martyred. So with John the Baptist, and so with the apostles, so with the confessors, reformers, and genuine revivalists.

II That, HOWEVER GREAT THE TRIALS ENCOUNTERED, THEY ARE NOT BEYOND BEARING. The apostle says that although "troubled on every side, yet not distressed," or straitened; though "perplexed," or bewildered, yet not benighted; though "persecuted," or pursued, yet not "forsaken," or abandoned; though "cast down," or stricken down with a blow, yet not perishing. The idea is that he had support under his trials; they did not entirely crush him. The true labourer in the cause of Christ, however great his trials, is always supported:

1. By the approbation of his own conscience.

2. By the encouraging results of his own labours.

3. By the sustaining strength of God. "As thy days, so thy strength shall be.

III THAT THE RIGHT BEARING OF THESE TRIALS SUBSERVES THE GOOD OF SOULS.

1. In the right bearing of these sufferings the sufferer reveals the life ofChrist to others. "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." Rightly endured sufferings bring the sufferer so near to the sufferings of Christ that he is in a sense a sharer of those sufferings, and hence in them the life of Jesus is made manifest. Who that has witnessed the true Christian languishing on the bed of suffering and death has not seen the spirit of the life of Christ revealed?

2. In the right hearing of these sufferings the sufferer promotes in himselfand others the Christian life. "For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus" sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you." "God," says Dean Alford, "exhibits death in the living, that he may also exhibit life in the dying."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

We are troubled, &c. - The four articles in this verse respect inward, the four in the next outward, afflictions. In each clause the former part shows the "earthen vessels;" the latter, "the excellence of the power." Not crushed - Not swallowed up in care and anxiety. Perplexed - What course to take, but never despairing of his power and love to carry us through.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The false apostles and some weak Christians having taken offence at the manifold and great sufferings which St. Paul, with his fellow-apostles, had met with in the course of their ministry: in these verses St. Paul shows the church at Corinth, that there was no reason at all why any should be offended at his sufferings, or any cause why the false apostles should object, that if he had preached the gospel sincerely, Almighty God would never have suffered him to be persecuted and afflicted so severely; namely, because all his afflictions were so graciously moderated, and himself so powerfully upheld by God, that he sunk not under the weight and burden of them. We are troubled, says he, on every side, but not overwhelmed with our troubles; we are often perplexed, but not so as to despair of God’s help and succour; we are persecuted by men, but not forsaken of God; cast down indeed, but not killed by the fall. So that there is in our sufferings a resemblance and representation of the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ. We bear in our bodies a memorative conformity to our dying Lord, that it may appear how mightily we are supported by the quickening power of the Spirit of Christ, under all our afflictions.

As if the apostle had said, "Behold and admire in us the almighty power of Christ exerted towards us in upholding these earthen vessels, (our frail bodies,) notwithstanding the many thousand knocks they have met with in carrying about that heavenly treasure, the holy gospel with which God has intrusted us."

Observe next, He rejoices in the cause of his sufferings: We are delivered unto death for Jesus’s sake; for our owning, preaching, and practising the doctrine of Jesus.

Blessed be God, we suffer not as evil-doers, but for well-doing; we suffer for the sake of the best person, and in the best cause, that ever the world was acquainted with. He adds, We are delivered unto death, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh; that is, the infinitely wise God suffers us to be thus afflicted, that in and by the sufferings which our mortal flesh does sustain and undergo, he might make it evidently manifest that Christ is risen from the dead, and, as a living head, conveys the the necessary influences of strength, support, and comfort, as to all members, so more particularly to his ministers; by which we are enabled, without fainting, to suffer the hardest things with patience, courage and constancy.

Observe lastly, He declares to them the great advantages which they reaped by his afflictions: Death worketh in us, but life in you; that is, the preaching of the gospel exposes us to death; but unto you it brings eternal life. Our death is your life, our sufferings are your advantage; we having the same faithful Spirit which was in the saints under the Old Testament, and particularly in holy David, Psa 116:10 who says, I believed, and therefore speak; I was sore afflicted. Now as he believed and trusted in God for deliverance out of his many and great troubles, so in like manner do we believe and trust.

From the whole note, 1. That a perplexed and persecuted, an afflicted and distressed condition was the lot and portion of the members, but especially of the ministers of Christ, in the first and purest ages of the church. Christ espoused his church to himself upon the bed of his cross, his head begirt with a pillow of thorns, his body drenched in a bath of his own blood: and if the head was crowned with thorns, it is unsuitable that the feet should tread on roses.

Note, 2. Though all Christ’s followers have drunk of the same cup with himself, yet the dregs of the cup have usually been put into the hand of the ministers of the word: We that live are always delivered unto death. Most of the apostles were, by the rage of tyrants, put to cruel deaths, and offered up a bloody sacrifice. The calling of ministers is honourable, but their outward condition is deplorable: their embassy is glorious, but their usage is often grievous: God sends them forth with renown, the world entertains them with reproach.

Note, 3. God doth not bring his people into a suffering condition, and there leave them; when they suffer for him, they are not forsaken by him. The voice of despair is not heard in the dark night of their calamity; but God has either the castle of providence, or the ark of promise; the all-sufficiency of his power, or the abundance of his grace: these, every of these, and all these, are for his people’s retirement in the greatest storms and tempests: We are troubled, yet not distressed; persecuted, but not forsaken.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

we are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair ;

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8, 9. We are troubled on every side. In verses 8 and 9 are four pairs of contrasts which should the frailty of the instruments and the greatness of the power: (1) “pressed on every side” (Revision), but not hemmed in by the pressure; (2) in apparently overwhelming difficulties, but never reduced to despair; (3) persecuted by their enemies, but not forsaken and delivered over to them; (4) overthrown and cast to the earth, but even then rescued from the enemy, standing over them prostrate, so that they are not destroyed.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

8–11. Five illustrations of the contrast between the treasure and the earthen vessel.

8. ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι ἀλλʼ οὐ στενοχωρούμενοι. In every way pressed, but not straitened. The participles agree with the subject of ἔχομεν. Here, as in Mar 3:9, the notion of pressure must be preserved in translating θλίβω, although ‘pressed’ and ‘pressure’ would not be suitable, 2Co 1:4-8: see on 2Co 1:4. By στενοχωρούμενοι (2Co 6:12) is meant ‘cramped, penned in a corner so as to be helpless.’ The vague ἐν παντί may be ‘in everything’ (2Co 6:4, 2Co 7:11, 2Co 8:7, 2Co 11:6), or ‘on every side’ (2Co 7:5), or ‘in every condition of life’ (1Th 5:18). The context seems to require ‘in everything.’ ‘Greatly hampered, but not hemmed in’ is the general meaning. Comp. θλίψις καὶ στενοχωρία (Rom 2:9; Rom 8:35).

ἀπορούμενοι ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐξαπορούμενοι. Another play upon words: in difficulty, but not in despair. Comp. 2Co 1:8 and see on 2Co 1:13 and 2Co 3:2. He had this feeling about the Galatians: ἀποροῦμαι ἐν ὑμῖν (Gal 4:20). Comp. θλίψις καὶ στενοχωρία καὶ σκότος ὥστε μὴ βλέπειν, καὶ οὐκ ἀπορηθήσεται ὁ ἐν στενοχωρίᾳ ὤν (Isa 8:22), which S. Paul may have had in his mind. Note the accumulation of participles.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8-10.] He illustrates the expression, ‘earthen vessels,’ in detail, by his own experience and that of the other ministers of Christ.

8.] in every way (see reff.) pressed, but not (inextricably) crushed (στ. ‘angustias h. l. denotat tales, e quibus non detur exitus,’ Meyer, from Kypke);—in perplexity but not in despair (a literal statement of what the last clause stated figuratively: as Stanley, “bewildered, but not benighted”):—persecuted but not deserted (ἐγκαταλειπόμενοι, see reff., used of desertion both by God and by man. Hammond, Olsh., Stanley, al., would refer διωκόμ.… to the foot-race, and render it ‘pursued, but not left behind,’ as Herod. viii. 59, οἱ δέ γε ἐγκαταλειπόμενοι οὐ στεφανοῦνται,—but the sense thus would be quite beside the purpose, as the Apostle is speaking not of rivalry from those who as runners had the same end in view, but of troubles and persecutions): struck down (as with a dart during pursuit: so Xen. Cyr. i. 3. 14, θηρία.… τοξεύων καὶ ἀκοντίζων καταβαλεῖς. It is ordinarily interpreted of a fall in wrestling; but agonistic figures would be out of place in the present passage, and the attempt to find them has bewildered most of the modern Commentators), but not destroyed:

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8-10. The rhythm in these three verses is clearly marked by the balance of the clauses. We have four illustrations of the way in which the frailty of the instruments might have been fatal to any other cause, but in this case were not allowed to be so. The fifth instance is different. They are all taken from the Apostle’s own experience.

8. ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι. We have the same words in 7:5; ‘in everything pressed.’ In 1:6 it was necessary to translate θλιβόμεθα ‘are afflicted,’ because of the frequent ‘affliction’ in that passage. But here the radical signification of ‘pressure’ (Mar 3:9) must be retained, because of στενοΧωρούμενοι. The pressure is that of persecution (1Th 3:4; 2Th 1:6, 2Th 1:7; Heb 11:37). The indefinite ἐν παντί is to be understood with all the pairs of participles. Chrys. paraphrases, ‘in respect of foes and friends, of those who are hostile and those who are of one’s own household.’ Ἐν παντί occurs ten times in 2 Cor. Elsewhere in Paul, 1Co 1:5 only.

οὐ στενοΧωρούμενοι. ‘Not in hopeless straits,’ not in a plight from which extrication is impossible: nunquam deest exitus 1Co 10:13); in inviis vias salutis invenimus; ἐν ἀπόροις πράγμασιν πόρους εὑρίκομεν σωτηρίας (Thdrt.) He is speaking of external difficulties, not of mental anxiety: that comes next.

Here we have οὐ with a participle (which is rare in N.T.) four times in two verses; but there are eight other examples in the Pauline Epistles; see on 1Co 9:26; J. H. Moulton, p. 231; Blass, § 75.5. We have στενοΧωρία Rom 2:9, Rom 8:35.

ἀπορούμενοι ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐξαπορούμενοι. Once more a play upon words (see on 1:13); ‘in despondency, yet not in despair’; indigemus, sed non perinde indigemus (Tert. Scorp. 13). * There may be the greater anxiety and perplexity, so that one does not know what to do, and yet confidence that all will end well. Such a state of mind is quite compatible with expectation of death (see on 1:8).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Troubled [θλιβομενοι] . See on tribulation, Mt 13:21. The verb also has the meaning of to straiten, contract, as Mt 7:14, where teqlimmenh, A. V. narrow, is properly rendered by Rev. straitened. Distressed [στενοχωρουμενοι] . Only here and ch. 6 12. From stenov narrow, and cwrov a space. Hence cramped. The A. V. gives no suggestion of the figurative paradox. We are pressed closely, yet not cramped. Rev., pressed on every side, yet not straitened.

Perplexed [απορουμενοι] . From aj not, and porov a passage. Lit., to be unable to find a way out.

In despair [εξαπορουμενοι] . Rev., very neatly, rendered unto despair. The word expresses an advance of thought on perplexed, yet on the same line. We are perplexed, but not utterly perplexed. The play between the Greek words cannot be rendered.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.