2 Corinthians 6:5 - Exposition

In stripes . The stripes were of two kinds—from Jewish whips and Roman rods. But of the five scourgings with Jewish whips not one is mentioned in the Acts, and only one of the three scourgings with Roman rods ( Acts 16:23 ). Nothing, therefore, is more clear than that the Acts only furnishes us with a fragmentary and incomplete record, in which, as we gather from the Epistles, either the agonies of St. Paul's lifelong martyrdom are for some reason intentionally minimized, or else (which is, perhaps, mere probable) St. Paul was, as his rule and habit, so reticent about his own sufferings in the cause of Christ that St. Luke was only vaguely, if at all, aware of many scenes of trial through which he had passed. In imprisonments. St. Paul was frequently in prison, but St. Luke only tells us of one of these occasions ( Acts 16:24 )—at Philippi; the Roman imprisonment and that at Caesarea were subsequent to this Epistle. In tumults. These were a normal incident of St. Paul's life, both up to this time and for years afterwards ( Acts 13:50 ; Acts 14:19 ; Acts 16:22 ; Acts 17:4 , Acts 17:5 ; Acts 18:12 ; Acts 19:28 , Acts 19:29 ; Acts 21:27-39 ; Acts 22:22 , Acts 22:23 ; Acts 23:9 , Acts 23:10 ; Acts 27:42 , etc.) The word akatastasiai might also mean "insecurities," i.e. homelessness, wanderings, uncertainties; but New Testament usage seems decisive in favour of the frowner meaning ( 2 Corinthians 12:20 ; 1 Corinthians 14:33 ; James 3:15 ). In labours ( 2 Corinthians 11:28 ; 1 Corinthians 4:12 ; 1 Corinthians 15:10 ; Acts 20:34 ; 1 Thessalonians 2:9 ; 2 Thessalonians 3:8 ). In watchings. "Spells of sleeplessness" were a necessary incident of such a life; and an eminently nervous nature like that of St. Paul is rarely capable of the habitual relief of sound steep. Hence he again refers to this in 2 Corinthians 11:27 . His "sleeplessness" was sometimes the necessary result of labours "night and day" ( Acts 20:31 ; 1 Thessalonians 2:9 , etc.). In fastings. St. Paul never inculcates the practice of voluntary fasting as a duty (for the reading in 1 Corinthians 7:5 is more than dubious); but it is probable that he found it personally useful at times ( Acts 13:2 , Acts 13:3 ; Acts 14:23 ; Acts 9:9 ). The nine forms of suffering hitherto mentioned—three general, three specific, and three voluntary—are all physical sufferings borne with "much endurance."