Paul's thanksgiving continues, but its focus shifts from the reason for thanksgiving to the situation that provided the occasion for it.
1:8 We cannot identify the precise affliction to which Paul referred certainly. This text and others in the New Testament do not give us enough information. The fact that Paul did not explain exactly what caused his affliction is significant. Evidently he wanted the Corinthians and us to focus on the intensity of the affliction as he felt it. This is what he emphasized here rather than the specific cause of his suffering. He spoke of his affliction as though the Corinthians knew about it, so probably they had more information about it than we do.
Commentators have conjectured what the specific problem may have been and have come up with many different possibilities. Perhaps Paul referred to fighting wild beasts at Ephesus39, the uproar at Ephesus instigated by Demetrius40, or a later outbreak of hostility against Paul at Ephesus.41He may have had in mind various unspecified trials and plots against Paul's life42, a succession of persecutions in Asia43, or an attempt to lynch Paul.44Perhaps he referred to shipwreck followed by a night and a day in the sea45, anxiety over the state of the Corinthian church46, a deadly sickness47, or Paul's thorn in the flesh.48
What we can say certainly about Paul's affliction is that the Corinthians failed to appreciate its intensity.
"Hence Paul writes to tell them not whatit was, but howit had oppressed him beyond endurance."49
It occurred in the Roman province of Asia (the western part of modern Turkey), and it would have been a fatal affliction had God not intervened. Furthermore it was a suffering "of Christ"(v. 5), connected somehow with Paul's ministry to the Corinthians (v. 6).
"Whatever this thlipsis[affliction] may have been, he hints that it was far worse than what the Corinthians had to endure."50
1:9-10 The "sentence of death"was the assurance Paul had that he was going to die as a result of this affliction.
"The great lesson of this overwhelming affliction which had befallen him was that he (and all who are Christ's) should trust, not in self, but in God, the Raiser of the dead.'
". . . in the wake of this trying experience that was tantamount to death there followed a further experience that was tantamount to resurrection."51
"This is, indeed, a theme which provides a key to the whole epistle. Is Paul assailed by anguish of spirit? It is God who always leads him in triumph in Christ (3:13ff.). Do we have the treasure of divine glory in earthen vessels? It is that it may be seen that the exceeding greatness of the power is of God, and not of self (4:7ff.). Is the Apostle always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake? It is that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in his mortal flesh (4:10ff.). Is the outward man decaying? Yet the inward man is renewed day by day (4:16). . . . The climax is reached in the twelfth chapter where Paul explains how through the endurance of a thorn in the flesh' he was taught that God's grace is all-sufficient and that His power is made perfect in weakness (12:7ff.). This was a principle to which even our Lord submitted in providing our salvation, for He was crucified through weakness, but is alive through the power of God (13:4). It is a theme, therefore, which points to the unity of the epistle, and which in particular links the concluding to the opening chapter."52
Some translations (e.g., AV) render verse 10, "delivered . . . does deliver . . . will deliver"(past, present, future). The better rendering (e.g., NASB, NIV) is, "delivered . . . will deliver . . . will yet deliver"(past, future, more distant future). In either case the meaning is clear. God delivered Paul from this past affliction, would continue to deliver him from the same or similar afflictions in the future, and would always deliver him.
"He says death' rather than peril of death,' because he had regarded himself as a dead man."53
"When God puts His children into the furnace, He keeps His hand on the thermostat and His eye on the thermometer (1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Peter 1:6-7)."54
Paul teaches us then that affliction does four things for us. It makes us more sympathetic. It gives us a greater appreciation for God's superabounding comfort and encouragement that He brings to us with the affliction. It causes us to trust in God more, and it gives us greater confidence in God's power and greater hope for the future.
1:11 Paul seems to have had no doubt that his brothers and sisters in Corinth would continue to pray for him.
". . . the Apostle is as secure of the intercession of the Corinthians as he is of God's protection, and the one will contribute to the other."55
"Joining in helping"is the translation of a Greek word used only here in the New Testament, synypourgounton. It consists of three words meaning "with,""under,"and "work."It paints a picture of laborers bowed down under some heavy burden that they are working hard together to lift.
"Intercessory prayer has great power, otherwise Paul would not so often solicit it on his own behalf, and enjoin the duty on his readers."56
"There is no limit to the power of intercessory prayer; and though the display of God's mercy does not depend on it, we may be sure that He desires nothing more than that His people should be united in mutual intercession offered in the name of His Son. When such prayer is answered, it results in an outburst of praise and thanksgiving which redounds greatly to God's glory."57
"In prayer, human impotence casts itself at the feet of divine omnipotence."58
"My heart always rejoices when anyone writes or says to me, I am praying for you,' for I need to be prayed for. I am so forgetful about prayer myself; so many times when I should be praying I am busy at something else, and often if there is any power at all in my messages I know it is because somebody at home or in the audience is praying for me. One owes so much to the prayers of God's beloved people."59
"Persons"(Gr. prosopon) is literally "faces."A literal rendering presents the attractive picture of many faces turned upward toward heaven offering thanks to God for His answers to the united prayers of Paul and his readers. This is doubtless the figure Paul wanted us to visualize in this verse.
From this introduction hopefully we have learned a greater appreciation of the comfort of God and the afflictions He allows us to experience in our service for Him.
"The Arabs have a proverb, All sunshine makes a desert.'"60
"In this beautiful introduction Paul found occasion to be thankful in the most trying circumstances. Even suffering has benefits. It provides the occasion to experience God's comfort, to watch Him answer prayer, and to observe how believers can be strengthened in their Christian walk and witness by another's circumstances."61
"Comfort is the great word, comfort from God, comfort for others. So he prepared for whatever he had to say presently of rebuke, by a revelation of great tenderness. He called them to sympathize with him, and he assured them that God had sympathized with him, and that He would sympathize with them as they are asked to sympathize with him. It is the sympathy of sharing the activity of God, Who is the God of all comfort."62
