“While we see a list of hardships, there is one statement that sticks out to me in 2 Corinthians 11:28 where Paul makes a statement about his anxiety regarding the churches. While we can be sure that Paul was promised to suffer for Jesus (Acts 9:16) and after being imprisoned in Rome he was beheaded for his faith…”
(Josh Buice – Delivered By Grace) It is well documented that the apostle Paul had a hard ministry. He didn’t exactly have an ivory palace gig where he studied the ancient writings of Moses and churned out volumes of commentaries. …
Instead, he was God’s chosen instrument for the work of spreading the gospel to the world—to the Jew first and also the Greek (Rom. 1:16). Paul was used by the Lord to write nearly half of the New Testament. Paul, in my opinion, is the greatest pastor-theologian and church planting missionary in church history. However, he experienced great difficulties—from the beginning among the Jews who rejected him to his beheading in the streets of Rome.
At one point, in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, we find a list of Paul’s sufferings. Notice what he states:
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant (2 Corinthians 11:24–29)?