2 Corinthians, 11:23-27

All righty. We're taking chapter 11, verses 16 through 33 in three sections. And last week, we reviewed 16 through 22. And today, I'm going to cover 23 through 27, and then how next week I believe Hal Correct is going to do 28 through 33, and then he'll continue on in the 2 Corinthians 12. So that's the plan. And I think just to do justice to this section, I do think it's probably prudent for us to read the entire section. So Margaret, how about you reading that for us? 16 through 33, this will take a few minutes, but let's do that.

I say again, let no man think me a fool, if otherwise yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly in his confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit wheresoever any is bold, I speak foolishly. I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?

I speak the truth. I am more in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons Of the Jews, five times I received I forty stripes, said one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwrecks, a night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the season, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

Besides these things that are without that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches, who has weeped, and am I not weeped? If I must need glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will be blessed forevermore, knowing that I lie not. Artreus, the king, kept the city of Damascus with a garrison desirous to apprehend me. And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hand.

Okay, now the distinction I think between verses 23 and 27 that we'll cover today and 28 through the end of the chapter is appropriate and You know, we all reflect on these trials that Paul had in the earth. And the statement in verse 28 is, beside those things that are without, all these perils that we're going to talk about today are things that are influenced by the environment around them. Whereas next week, Hal is going to look at some of the things that he internally needed to deal with in terms of the body of Christ. So, good dividing point, I think, to cover this.

Now, remember last week, We probably didn't spend enough time, but verse 22, you know, Paul is, remember, acting kind of foolish, if you will, to try to get those who are at the end of the teaching of the false brethren to really understand that he can play the same game they can. And this is not to be downgrading to Paul and his ministry, but simply to try to appeal to them, to their conscience, that in fact The wisdom of the world or the false brethren is not the wisdom that they should attend. So in verse 22, he really identifies with those who have been giving false doctrine. Paul's a Hebrew, Paul's an Israelite, Paul's a seed of Abraham. He's all that they claim to be, but in fact, as we clearly understand scripturally, he's more than this. I mean, the seed of Abraham to Paul represents something far different than the seed of Abraham that these false brethren are claiming. Could be both. Could be either. Well, how would you interpret someone teaching false doctrine? Could be either.

I'm not sure that we need to specify that so much. The issue is what's truth and what's not, right? And that's what Paul's concerned about, about making sure that the right doctrine and the truth of the Word of God is being accurately portrayed. Alright, then Paul then deals with this, and in effect, Margaret, here in verse 23, are they ministering servants of Christ, the Messiah?" I'm talking like one beside himself, but I am more with far more extensive and abundant labors, with far more imprisonments, with countless stripes, and frequently at the point of death.

So who are they? Well, it's who's ever teaching here? And Paul asked the question, are they ministering servants of the Lord Jesus Christ? In a sense, we've already answered that. We're not sure, but if they're teaching wrong doctrine, probably not. Not a lot of mystery here, I think.

Ministering servants comes from the Greek diakonos, which means, interesting, diakos, to run, such as on errands. This is a term that could be translated attendant and such as a waiter at a table or in other menial duties. And most appropriately within the New Testament text in Paul's epistles, it relates to a Christian teacher and pastor, technically a deacon or deaconess. So these presumably are people within their midst that are claiming to be in a leadership role, ministers, servants, deacons.

2 Corinthians 3.6 kind of reflects on that.

I'll just turn back there a second. It says, "...who also made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." Keep in mind that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

It's possible that some of this wrong doctrine simply relates to legal principles. The error of Galatians 1 returning to the law is a principle of the Christian faith? Very possible that's what Paul is relating here to. Some may have been believers, some in fact may not have been. All right. Now, besides oneself, really, I mean, Paul's kind of at the end of his ropes here.

I mean, he's really passionately defending his ministry. Remember he's claimed to be a fool to try to appeal to their level and now he's really, if you will, extreme in his response to this. Really in a position to defend the ministry that the Lord has given him. He's seeing the importance of the danger of wrong interpretation of scripture. Boy, do we have that same zeal for the Lord God? that the truth of the word is beyond anything, the most important thing in our lives?

Should be. Right? It would be very politically incorrect to tell all these other believers that we have a line on the truth. They don't want to hear that. That's for sure. But we were talking about this yesterday in our home is, you know, wrong doctrine. It's amazing how you know, cults like Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons have built a new foundation, kind of taken this book and picked the parts they liked, right? And now kind of rewritten it and established new doctrine.

And, you know, partial truth is almost more of a concern than true falsehood, right? Because partial truths get people confused. And I would suggest that the problem in the world today with religion is the fact that we've got multiple people claiming truth. And the issue is, I think, what does the word of God say? And we believe that that's truth, but yet there's somebody on the other street corner claiming that being an Islam or being a Muslim in the Islam faith is true. That's what Paul is so vigorously defending here, that the word of the Lord is being misinterpreted and falsely represented.

Any other thoughts about that? Yeah? In relation to the question, don't you think that actually believers could be played out both ways? Absolutely. It's happening day in and day out, is it not? So what's our response to that, Doug? If we have this... Paul is very concerned. He's beside himself. And if we're beside ourselves in terms of what's going on in other congregations, how do we deal with that? Right here. Okay. Do we act out on that?

The reason I ask, I have people in the Bible study that I have that come up with all the weird things. She goes to six different Bible studies and she's all mixed up. That's why I just take the Word. What does the Word say about that? She takes it out of context. What's the context?

Do you find that that often is a convincing way to bring somebody else around? I'm not sure. Sometimes it's hard for them to understand more than you can get across to them. What are the barriers there? I think one thing could be simply kind of an intellectual argument. If someone's not seeking truth, it's tough for you to be responding in a way that they're going to be receptive of what you're trying to get across. What might be some other barriers?

Yes, bud. Well, isn't there a scripture, I think Jesus said, in vain do they worship me, practicing the doctrines and commandments of men. It's one of the things he says about their manner. I think it's a question of this year. attitude of what worship is.

Okay. So the vanity and the power of the flesh, if you will, right? Right. Okay. Some of the problems that I encountered in the past, and I'm kind of careful with my conversations anymore, but not knowing the word well enough to defend the word where you're trying to point at someone there. Yeah. Like I'm in front of a co-worker and she had all the scriptures to back, but she would believe me. Okay. Well, that's true. The spirit has to lead, right? I mean, yesterday I was with my son.

My youngest child, my son Clark, is dating a girl who's a Jehovah's Witness. And this is death in the city, if you will. And he claims they have conversation after conversation, which I sense is argument after argument about the word of God and what is truth. But I'm not sure that that's the kind of way of reaching her, to have a confrontation, an argument about the word of God versus her word, if you will, the new Bible of the Jehovah's Witness faith. The spirit, I think, must lead, and in such an important way, I think the person has to at least be interested in finding out what's right. This is not an argument. This is a spirit-led revealing of the word of truth.

And Clark, I think, needs to take a step back and Get out of that relationship, number one. And number two, let time play out. If she's really for him and the Lord's got something there, ultimately time will play out favorably there. Yeah. No, they don't.

But, you know, just a request for prayer in this class. I mean, if you think about it, pray for my son, that the Lord will increasingly reveal to him what's important and what's the way about going in and approaching this situation. Well, I suggested what he do is get out of that relationship, right? Well, he needs to, you know, carry himself in the nature and spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? I mean...

A good question to ask someone like that, when you know their doctrine is all for their gospel as well, is if what you said is not true according to scripture, would you want to know what the scripture teaches? That way you find out if their will is, I don't want to know. And I've had this to happen where an old witness says to me, no, I don't want to know. No. In other words, I don't want to know the truth. If what you believe is not true, would you want to know it?

No, he says. That kind of ends the conversation there, doesn't it? Gene, you want to talk to my son a little bit? Okay, Paul goes on and says, I more. This is kind of a superlative, if you will. This is, you know, appears in the ancient Greek. It's frequently used in colloquial Greek. And it's not more than I, but I more than they. It's kind of an interesting twist on the Greek language.

And I think what Paul's doing is here, he's claiming superiority now to these self-proclaimed apostles. These people are proclaiming themselves to have the truth, and Paul's saying, I more than they are in a position to really represent the truth. Now, there's a fine line between, is Paul just overly confident and cocky? Is this of the Lord or is this of the flesh? What are your thoughts here? I mean, sometimes He thinks when we defend the truth, it's we that offend and not the cross, right? So, what's your sense here?

There's nothing wrong with us wanting to know the credentials of a doctor, for instance. I mean, there's nothing wrong with him stating what his credentials are. And so, this is essentially what Paul is doing, is giving his credentials, it seems to me. So, why shouldn't he tell them like it is?

I mean, this is it. In a sense, this isn't an atmosphere of self-promotion, is it? I mean, this isn't Paul really trying to make himself seem superior, it's the fact that his doctrine is superior, and this is the position the Lord's put him in. Back to verse 5, the Weymouth translation, why I reckon myself in no respect inferior to those superlatively great apostles. That's a sarcastic comment. Paul is saying these people are self-proclaimed, superlative, quote, great apostles. And I reckon myself in no way inferior to this. And remember, Paul is becoming, quote, foolish to get down to their level, right? He's using earthly tactics to appeal to the populace in Corinth in terms of their response to this false teaching.

Well, don't you think, too, that he's getting ready to tell them all of these things and his history. But these people already know his history. I mean, we know that they do. And I think he's probably reinforcing it. He's saying, you know, I'm Paul, and here is who I am in my history in the word Jesus Christ. And you know, Margaret, the things that follow here in terms of the long list of things we're going to review right now and how we'll continue next week are things you can guarantee these other people have not experienced in their lives. There's no comparison whatsoever in terms of the sacrificial life that Paul has lived compared to what they've been through. And yet, good Vicki, good. He loves these people. He loves the Lord.

He's at that point where he on that edge where between the angry that cannot, you know, and it would be like trying to talk to your teenager, excuse me, your nurse, trying to discuss situations of the world that we've experienced because we're older that they don't want to hear either, you know. It's almost, you get to that edge where you almost start defending yourself to make it point. Okay, that's a great comment. kind of Paul saying, if you were on colloquial terms, been there, done that, right? And he's been there and done that much more than they ever have.

And he's now going to represent the truth that the Word of God is exemplified in his life. Let's start looking at this now. Okay, the first thing Paul mentions here is, is labor's more abundant. Now the term labor, really it's interesting, it comes from the Greek kopos, which means to cut.

And it doesn't seem to fit, does it? But played out by analogy, this is a cut in a sense that it's a cut into a comfortable life, if you will. It's an interruption of what a comfortable life is about and really relates to toil as a process of reducing the strength of an individual. This labor is not something like, gee, I labored eight hours today and then I went home and had a good meal and went to bed.

I mean, this term figuratively means pains. and trouble and weariness. It's not a soft term that Paul's bringing across here. So what I'd like to do now is just for the conversation, and I think this is relevant, let's look at three other verses that are used here for the same Greek term kopos. labor.

First Corinthians 3.8. Let's read all three and then we'll discuss this briefly. We don't have a lot of time to spend here, but we can at least look at this. So in 1 Corinthians 3 it says, Now he that plants and waters are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. Okay, this is in the setting of the kind of the eternal merit of what a walk's all about. You know, wood, hay, and stubble versus precious gold kind of scenario.

1 Corinthians 15.10. Keep in mind the very strong term kopos.

In 1 Corinthians 15.10, it says, but by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored kopos more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. And then 15, I think 8 is incorrect. I think that may be 18. No. Yeah, I apologize for that. That's a mistaken quote.

But anyway, this idea of laboring This third verse, I think, I just don't have the right chapter and verse, but this third verse dealt with also laboring in the Christian faith. So, do we reconcile this, or is this something... Is the Christian walk supposed to be toil and weariness, or... I thought it was restful.

Don't you think Satan intervenes here a lot of times, discourages it? what you're talking about, do you know what you're talking about, then you know. You've got to do everything you can to break down our testimony, I think. And I've just said many times, you don't underestimate the power of Satan. Alright, Satan, world system, flesh, that all plays out in the same domain.

Other thoughts here? Is the Christian walk this labor that Paul describes here? Paul, remember, is describing this as labor's more abundant. I think, honestly, Paul's talking about a laborer of the flesh, to a large extent, here, isn't the toil and weariness of the life that he's living, but perhaps it relates to spiritual labor, too. Oh, 58? Oh, thank you very much. Okay, so why don't you read that, Sue? Do you have that there? always excelling in the work of the Lord because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Okay, good.

So let's just quickly summarize it. The work of the flesh can be labor, weary, there could be toil, but the work of the Lord Jesus Christ can also be difficult at times, can it not? So the Christ life lived out in a worldly environment also could have similar kind of sense of toil and weariness on our behalf. And I think probably that is not anything that we should look at as a contradiction. Sometimes the rest that we have is in fact truly, from an earthly perspective, restful. But in a heavenly perspective, it's always restful, despite the fact that the body is laboring.

And I think that in context probably best represents an interpretation. Now, it's interesting. In the Greek, the term stripes is not really an appropriate term. If you do a word study on stripes, you find about nothing. And so this is an italics actually in the interlinear Greek. And so presumably when it says that Paul was in stripes above measures, it says really in above measures.

It implies some sort of physical and probably very uncomfortable modus of punishment. It implies a plague or a wound or a stripe. And if you try to understand what it means to be beaten with a rod versus having stripes, it's really a difficult thing to separate. The only thing I spent a lot of time trying to sort this out, and I really didn't come up with much of an answer, except presumably when you have stripes having been stroked by whatever instrument, it implies perhaps a longer stick. Whereas beaten with rods is really probably a shorter stick. But I'm sorry, that's the best I could do for you. There really isn't a very good distinction of what stripes and being beaten with rods really means. But nevertheless, I think it implies something excessive. It's above measure, whatever this was. Bud? Does that sound like a cat of nine tails? That'd be a good interpretation, I think.

Paul also deals with his being imprisoned and it says here that he was imprisoned more frequently and then in death often. In terms of Paul's prison experience, I quote here Clement of Rome who claims that Paul was imprisoned seven times. Now if you look at this scripturally, there are only five that are represented, and I have the verses there for you. Paul was imprisoned in Philippi, he was imprisoned in Jerusalem, he was imprisoned in Caesarea, and then Rome is somewhat questionable. There's no doubt he was imprisoned once in Rome.

And some people can conclude from the Acts passage in chapter 28 verses 16 and 30 that there was a second imprisonment in Rome. But apparently, if there are seven imprisonments, we don't learn about the other two. There could well have been seven. There could have been four. There could have been five. Nevertheless, Paul spent some time in prison. And I don't think we need to really sort that out much further than what's claimed here. in death often, or in peril of death.

I think Acts 14.19 speaks well to that, and I'll just read that to you as a representative example of Paul's being subjected to death. This is when he's at Lystra in stone. It says, And there came there certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing that he had been dead. And there are other examples of this.

So Paul, I think, is just giving us a glimpse of moments in his life that really reflect his living out the faith. All right, verse 24. From the Jews five times I received 40 stripes minus one. Again, back to the issue of stripes. This is interesting historically. In terms of the New Testament foundation, the Jews, as respects to birth, origin, and religion, we covered that a little bit last week, had a tradition of delivering 39 stripes, which apparently, according to the history, was insufficient to kill, but leave the recipient near death.

Now, if we turn to Deuteronomy 25.1.3, we see that, and it doesn't describe there, that 13 of these, apparently this is the tradition, 13 of these were on one side, 13 on another, and 13 on the back. That was the distribution of these stripes being delivered.

But according to Deuteronomy 25, this is interesting, if there be a controversy between men, and they come under judgment, that may judge them, or the judges may judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certain number." And here in bold print, 40 stripes he may give him and not exceed, lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.

So there's, and this whole and not exceed really implies not more than 40, which was typically 39 apparently. So how's that for the law applied? You're going to be beaten, you know, 38 and 40 are different, so we're going to follow the law. There's going to be 39 strikes that Paul's going to get. But the reason for 39 is that because the law says you can't exceed 40, so they want to be on the safe side.

Isn't that absolutely incredible, if you think about that? I love that, and your brother shall seem vile unto thee. Does that mean that the person who's getting the stripes will think badly of the people giving them the stripes? I mean, is that what it means? It looks like if you receive the free, then... Yeah, you should be thought badly of by the person receiving the stripes. Well, I think it could imply... They always watched it publicly, so... Yeah, I think... But see, if Steve were going to deliver 41 stripes and the guy died, his brethren might not think much of him either, right? You've delivered one more than the law and here the guy died. What's the matter with you anyway, Steve?

In a sense, in many ways, our text today is an Acts text, because much of the scripture that relates to this takes us back to the book of Acts, and that's where a lot of these things are recorded. You know, this reflected, in my mind, Mark 13, 9, what Christ proclaimed was really fulfilled in Paul. And the Lord Jesus Christ said, but take heed for yourselves. He's speaking to his disciples at that time, fully knowledgeable the Lord Jesus Christ was that Paul would one day join them in terms of his apostleship. But take heed for yourselves, for they shall deliver you up to the councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake for a testimony against them." Boy, I mean, that was not only Paul's fate, but that of many of the other disciples, was it not?

Verse 25, thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day in the deep I had passed. Now, again, beaten with rods, again, I can assure you I spent a fair amount of time here, and the only thing I could come up with, these were shorter sticks.

Now, which implies that maybe stripes were longer sticks, and I can't even be certain of that. Hal, do you have any more insight on that at all? Very interesting, because stripes is a word, if you look at it in terms of during a word study, you come up really short. You really don't get a good explanation of this. And it's interesting, because stripes is used fairly frequently in Scripture.

The Lord Jesus Christ, and the garden rite, and before Pontius Pilate. Anyway, to be beaten with rods apparently was forbidden in Rome. How interesting. But it was carried out in Philippi and in Jerusalem. So we have two references to that we don't need to look at here. And where Paul was stoned was actually in Lystra. So we've got a variety of locations where Paul was really in prison. He wasn't in prison in Lystra, but he was in Philippi and Jerusalem, where he was also beaten with rods and stoned. Now, the shipwreck is kind of interesting here. Steve, do you have a question? Did your research indicate it was some sort of an official punishment or might that be more a mob act? I didn't come up with that. Do you have some insight into that?

Yeah, Bud. In the book that strikes up, I think by Isaiah, but it strikes the ideal. Isaiah. Isn't that right? You know, that's a good point. I did not go back and look at that Isaiah passage to see if that... Well, I think Paul's talking about the physical offense here. I don't sense that this is a spiritual thing, although it has spiritual implications for sure. But if any of you have more insight in that, it would be great to have you bring that back next week before Hal's lesson.

Shipwrecked is interesting, and it's interesting, if you look at the evidence of shipwreck in the Scriptures, you don't find any evidence of shipwrecking occurring before Paul would have written this letter to the Church of Corinth. There is the recording, and by the way, if you look at Scripture, there's no less than 18 journeys Paul took by ship.

So you've got a vision back in you know, what, 40 AD, 50 AD, that ultimately he's going to shipwreck. I mean, you know, the vessels at that time, if he took 18 or more journeys, are likely not all going to get where they're going safely. But the only one that really really relates to a shipwreck that's described in detail, would have occurred after Paul would have written this epistle. And that's recorded in Acts 27 verse 14, I believe. So we're having a little trouble documenting that, but we have to believe that Paul, in fact, did undergo shipwrecks. Oops, wrong direction. And as I pointed out, certainly a shipwreck would not have been a rare happening for Paul.

And again, the Acts 27.14 would have occurred much later historically than at the time that this epistle was written.

Now, night and day is kind of a rare word. There it is in the Greek. And I won't try to pronounce it for you. This is kind of a vivid, dramatic, perfect, active, indicative. That's a lot of description of what night and day means. It kind of indicates, I have done a night and a day in the deep. And of course, you know, Paul reflects this now. It's kind of like a nightmare that he's describing this night and day in the deep.

But I think it's important to see, even though the Greek term means at the bottom or the depth of the sea, you know, this, as I've indicated, the bottom is not a Jonah experience. I mean, we have no evidence that Paul was down at the bottom of the sea for a whole day and night. I guess the Lord could have sustained him through that. But we don't have any evidence of that.

I think what it really implies is that he was far out at sea, which was deep. In other words, the sea is deep when you're far out into it. And ultimately, he was shipwrecked in that kind of scenario. Any other thoughts about this? Because clearly, we don't have any evidence that Paul was down 5,000 meters at the bottom of the sea like Jonah was. I'm not sure Jonah was that deep either.

All right, verse 26. In journeyings often in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. The term journeyings is a locative case of an old word here used only in the New Testament in addition to John 4-6.

So this is a term that's not used very often and it reflects on Paul's being a wayfarer. Certainly Paul fits that description, doesn't he? He's on the move. So in his journeyings, his many journeyings, I think it's important to realize that all of these ends are not in the scripture. Those are implied.

And the term peril or condunos is, again, a locative case, meaning at a particular place at a particular point in time is what's being referred to. And here it implies that this point in time for Paul was a danger or a peril. Something's going on that's not very comfortable for him. And again, this term peril is not used very often.

It's used in Romans 8.35, a verse that I think will be familiar to many of you. Let me just pull that here a second.

Romans 8.35 says, What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? So these perils, if you will, in Paul's walk in the Lord Jesus Christ, obviously were insufficient to separate him from the Word of God. And I think the repetition here is very effective without the preposition to make the point that these are ongoing events that are defined in time and that Paul's now going to reflect individually on these to some extent.

Now, interestingly enough, I don't know what perils of rivers means. But the point that comes out as you review this, there's no evidence, I think, that Paul was in a situation where the The Jordan River was flooding, for instance. But the points made here is that the rivers of Asia Minor are still subject to sudden swellings from floods in the mountains. But Paul doesn't refer to any specific circumstance here where perils of rivers really played out in his own life.

Perils of robbers, thieves, or bandits, such as what the Lord Jesus Christ referred to in the garden and what Paul referred to in the temple in Acts 19.37.

Cicero and Pompeii won fame fighting the Cilician pirates and robbers. So this was probably an ongoing kind of circumstance at the time. And perhaps in his journey from Perga to Antioch and Pisidia, Pisidia was notorious apparently for robbers. In addition, in fact, the mountains surrounding them made a good place for the robbers to hang out.

So you have to kind of read between the lines here a little bit. Paul would not have made this statement had there not been some relevance to it, but we certainly don't have details here in the Word of God. Now, perils from countrymen we got all kind of detail on. And what Paul is talking about here are his Jewish brethren, unquote, quote unquote brethren. And really the Jewish perils are from people of his own race, is the way it comes across in the scripture.

And I just thought, you know, I bolded Acts 9.23 and 23.12. Let's look at those two now, but those other verses are there for you to look at later.

So Acts 9.23, and this is when When Paul, remember Acts 9 is Saul's conversion to Paul, it says, and after many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. Very simple statement. No beating around the bush there, right? Here's Saul having been converted and he's witnessing in Damascus and the Jews response, let's kill Paul. All right. And then we've got the Acts 23, 12 passage.

In Acts 23.12, it says, this is a conspiracy to kill Paul. And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till Paul had been killed. So, I mean, these are just exemplary of the other things here that shows that his own countrymen really didn't think a lot of Paul. But in addition, there were perils from the heathen or the Gentiles.

And again, maybe time-wise we'll not look at these, but Acts 9.29 and 14.5 both reflect on those perils from those in the world system.

Perils from the city. Now here again, as a list we don't need to go into, but for your later reference, Damascus, Jerusalem, Antioch, Lystra, Philippi, Corinth, all these are examples. wherein Paul in various municipalities around Asia Minor was persecuted. And there are different examples in each one of those texts.

So you can take a look at that. Perils from the wilderness. You have to kind of read between the lines a little bit again. Wilderness implies solitude and typically represents an uninhabited region or a wasteland. And I think in scripture, it often refers to the desert. It wouldn't have to be the desert. I mean, you could think of mountainous areas where you were in solitude and in a wasteland, if you will. So I think it really covers a wide variety of locations.

And in Hebrews 11.38, just to reflect on this, of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered, talking about faith, remember all the icons of great faith described in Hebrews 11. It says, they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.

So this is, I think, a fairly good reference to what Paul's referring to here. We don't have the specifics as to what Paul's referring to. And then perils from the sea, again, just listed for your interest are a series of verses that talks about some of the sea storms What's interesting there, Bob, is that in terms of his view of these people of faith, that the world was not worthy of them. That is good, Hal.

I focused more on the second part in terms of the wilderness, but you're absolutely correct. Of whom the world was not worthy. And what a reminder to us in terms of our citizenship, right? What a tremendous statement of our identification. We're not of this earth. That should be said of us. But our mindset is to make ourselves worthy of the world, right? And it fit in, right?

Paul did anything but fit into the world system. I noticed you had Pompeii listed among them. Was that before the time of the Greek burial of Pompeii by Vesuvius? Temporally, I'm not sure I can place that, Bud. I mean, that was just an example. I thought you said Pompeii.

No, just an example of the types of scenarios that could have related to the robbers and thieves of the age. Alright, perils from false brethren. Goodness, chapters 10 and 11 of 2 Corinthians is really what we're talking about here. We don't have to look any further than the text we're actually examining.

And Galatians 2.4, among many others, I just listed these for for example, and in Galatians 2.4 it says, "...and that because of false brethren, unawares brought in, who came in secretly to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ, that they might bring us unto bondage." And then, Doug, back to what we were talking about early on. I mean, in a sense, the false doctrine, if you will, really is a bondage to legal systems. That could be, in fact, very common among the brethren, too, right?

I mean, it doesn't necessarily have to be someone brought in from the outside, although Galatians 2.4 seems to imply that. The question I'd have for us today is how relevant are these perils today? Are these relevant to us, the robbers and thieves and perils of the sea and wanderings and all these things? I mean, are we... The interstate. The interstate?

That's what Hal's going to deal with next week. But are there not believers around the world who are threatened by environmental circumstances, don't you think? I mean, these still go on today. She didn't mean interstate, she meant I-25. interstate, rather than inner state. I was going to say, well, the House is going to deal with the interstates next week, right? I-25 and I-70. No, that's fine. Okay, the interstate. Yeah, the interstate is an environmental influence. Peril. Peril, right. Particularly in Russia.

It would seem that more than us in the United States, missionaries would In a sense that allows them to represent the Christ life played out under trial in terms of the environmental circumstances. We're really, if you will, privileged or unprivileged to live a life of relative comfort today, aren't we? I mean, if you think about it. But you know, God's still God for a time, right? I mean, he's He doesn't want martyrs, does he?

I mean, we could all give up what we have and go elsewhere in the world and have very little and live off the land. I suspect that would teach us more than it would teach others. But I mean, the Christ life is meeting us as we walk day by day where we're at, right?

There's fortunately those that are called abroad and who sacrifice a lot in terms of the world system to be able to spread the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful for them. But you know, your ministry and supporting them, praying for them is no more less relevant or no less relevant than their ministry there. It's not an excuse.

I always remember J. Vernon McGee and Hal knows him a lot better than I do, but I listen to his tapes each day and he mentions frequently the fact that he never wanted to be out of the United States under any circumstances and he was, you know, He never called to the missionary field, but yet here's a guy who's portrayed the Word of God for a long time, reached a lot of people through the radio, right? First of all, I want the comforts of where I live, right? And I don't know if I can serve the Lord here, but that's where I'm going to do it. And it's kind of neat, because I think he's got a lot of neat things to say about the Word of the Lord.

Alright, verse 27, I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, and cold and exposure. So 2 Corinthians 6.5 says, "...in strife, in imprisonment, in tumult, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings."

In many ways, 6.5 really recapitulates this verse 27 in chapter 11, and also represented in 1 Corinthians 4.11 and Philippians 4.12.

Labor and hardship. We're back to this idea of toil and weariness. Paul, for the second time in the last five verses, has indicated that this ain't easy. This is tough stuff. prevail, a beating or intense labor associated with trouble and toil. Both old words for severe work are also reflected elsewhere in the New Testament.

Sleepless nights dealt with in Acts 20-31. The idea here is being engaged late, either in preaching or praying or staging psalms or sometimes obliged to work early and late with his own hands of supplies and necessities. Again, detail is somewhat lacking, but yet we have to believe that Paul had some sleepless nights over the years. And probably when he was in prison, probably didn't sleep well either at times, I would think.

Hunger and thirst, not synonymous with foodlessness. And foodlessness comes up a little bit in the next section, often without food. But this is beyond fasting voluntarily. Paul's not hungry. He doesn't have food. It's not a matter of deciding to fast for spiritual reasons, quote unquote. But he's in a position now to be without food and water.

Now, often without food implies more a voluntary situation where Paul is fasting for the benefit of the church. And there are several examples that we can turn to where the church fasted to pray for for Paul and other brethren at the time. So this is not the same as hunger and thirst, but just periods of foodlessness for the ministry.

And cold and exposure is dealt with in Acts 28.2.

We'll not take a look at that now. But what we will take a look at in closing, I think, and spend a few minutes here, is why should all these things have been endured by Paul? Seems like a fairly simple question. What are our thoughts about that? Why is Paul using all of these examples here in the circumstances in which he finds himself? How does this deal with false teaching by brethren or false brethren? Don't you think it's indicating that he sacrifices a lot to that this ought to really reinforce his love for the church here at Corinth, that he's willing to go through all of these things which probably all of the false teachers are certainly not willing to go through. They have another agenda and motive for their false teachings, and it may be greed or whatever, but he's obviously showing them that this has to be from his heart, it has to be from Christ, because who would endure all this?

Yeah, I mean... Well, but I think history is full of examples of martyrs, is it not? I mean, what's the difference between Paul and a martyr? Is this martyrdom here? I mean, sometimes you think of martyrdom in its most extreme example of giving your life for a cause.

It looks like Paul just about did a number of times. How? One of the keys is that he's living, he's allowing Christ to live his life through him. So what you're seeing is the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're seeing that life. And if it means persecution, Christ is persecuted. Because Christ said, yeah, you're going to be persecuted for my sake.

Yeah, and along that line, Hal, as you think about Paul's experience and what he's reflecting here in his comments, is there anything there that doesn't relate to the Lord Jesus Christ himself in terms of the things that he experienced? I mean, you think of most of these examples, I mean, the difference is Christ walked on the water and calmed the storm, right? I mean, but yet all of these things in some way relate to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Don't you think that educational period of Paul having Jesus said in the Lord and His Baptist conversion.

Learned an awful lot of things that maybe we don't have to do in fact to comprehend yet. Absolutely, you know, that's a special aspect of the Word of God I think we're all interested in learning more about when we go to heavenly places, right? God gives the details of Paul's being educated by the Lord Jesus Christ.

If that comes up, maybe it won't come up, I don't know. So remember the situation of Paul's in here. He's kind of saying, by the way, I'm acting foolish. And by the way, I'm a Hebrew, an Israelite, and a seed of Abraham. And now he's using all of this experience as a trump card, isn't he? He wins the trick by being superlative in terms of his experience versus anything they've been through.

And you know, as it reflects the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll share what I consider, for me, one of my favorite texts in 2 Corinthians 4, which we covered a long time ago in this class. But Paul, I think, said to the Corinthian church a little earlier, for our light affliction, notice Paul said light affliction, which is, but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are unseen or not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

And put that on for size in terms of the frustrations and perils that we face on a day-to-day basis. In my opinion, this reflects citizenship and nothing else. Paul's citizenship is in heavenly places, like each one of our citizenships is. And when that citizenship really relates to our life, and I wish I could say this with more experience, when that citizenship becomes our life, then these things seem like light afflictions. Because, as Paul himself said in Inflections, for me to live is Christ, and to die is reflected in many of these perils. is the game.

Bud, what we were talking about right before the class, right? Okay, let's turn to the Lord in prayer. Father, we're grateful for your word that makes us realize that the world around us is not friendly. And if it's not the environmental perils, it's the perils that relate to our interaction with the world system that surrounds us. But yet, as our citizenship becomes real, your life becomes increasingly real in us. fully realizing that the Lord Jesus Christ is about His business growing us in grace and truth. In His name we pray, Amen.