2 Corinthians 4:9

Persecuted. See on Matt. 5:10–12; 10:17–23; John 15:20. Each succeeding contrast reveals more fully the intensity of the suffering and personal peril. Paul speaks of being surrounded, pursued, caught, and thrown down by hostile forces. No way of escape seemed to remain, and death appeared to be inevitable.

Not forsaken. Through all his trials Paul and his fellow laborers experienced the fulfillment of Christ’s promise to be with them even to the point of death, and to provide a way of escape (see 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Thess. 1:4; Heb. 2:18; 13:5). For the Christian in times of trial and persecution, certain divine truths are evident. However great the trials encountered, they are not beyond endurance (Deut. 33:25; Ps. 46:1). No Christian need be discouraged. Even when stripped of everything of earthly value his greatest treasure remains secure—beyond the reach of men and demons (2 Cor. 4:16; cf. Ps. 23:3). Rightly endured, all sufferings and trials that beset the life of the Christian serve only to bring him into closer fellowship with Christ in His sufferings (Phil. 3:10). Paul, perhaps, suffered more for Christ’s sake than any other Christian has been called upon to suffer. If so, Paul understood better than others what it meant to suffer with Jesus. Of all the NT writers, no other writes so much about the cross and about dying with Christ. With Paul, even persecution, trial, sacrifice, and life itself became experiences to glory in, because of the closer fellowship they brought with Christ in His sufferings.

Christ’s followers are to attain perfection through sufferings. Christ’s sufferings provided the dark background, as it were, against which His perfection of character shone forth with brighter luster (Heb. 2:10). His whole life was an experience of dying to self. Nothing tended to reveal more clearly His own love, and that of His Father, for sinners. Similarly, for the Christian the trials, sufferings, and disappointments of the Christian life provide a background for the beauty of divine patience, the fragrance of a Christlike character, quiet submission to the will of God, firm trust in God’s guidance. Thus the light of God is reflected upon the Christian’s countenance. Christlike living will always be met by hostility and hatred from the followers of the prince of darkness. But it is not God’s plan for the Christian to glory in suffering for its own sake, to court hostility and opposition so as to call attention to one’s self-sacrifice and courage.

Cast down. Gr. kataballō, “to cast down [to the ground],” “to lay prostrate,” as a man worsted in personal combat.

Not destroyed. Again and again it may have appeared that Paul was not only “down” but also “out.” He admits that he has repeatedly been “cast down,” but emphatically declares that he was never “destroyed.”