When Paul wrote II Corinthians, it was the darkest hour of his life. By the end of the epistle, he even resorts to vindicating his apostleship and presenting his credentials, answering his critics more thoroughly than he does in any other of his letters.

“He was depressed, discouraged; everything he did he second-guessed,” says Jordan. “His critics were at the most vicious. He had people going around who had pledged themselves to kill him. He says he ‘had the sentence of death’ and that he lived with this sense everywhere he went. . . He says he ‘despaired even of life.’ That’s a pretty low situation.

“He’s saying, ‘It looked to me like I was just going to die.’ That’s all mental attitudes that describe depression.

“You hear people say, ‘Well, it’s hard to understand how a Believer could be depressed more than about four or five minutes,’ and that’s a good theory, but it isn’t reality, is it? Well, maybe for you it is, but it’s not for me, and it wasn’t for Paul.

“There’s some real things going in his life and yet he learned the answer. The answer is, as he says, ‘We should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.’

“Paul expected his troubles to keep on going in the future. He’s saying, ‘I’ve got out of scrapes in the past; I’m okay right now. But the trouble’s still going to be out there in the future, and you know what I’ve learned? I’ve learned not to trust myself, but to trust in the one who raised Jesus Christ up from the dead. To trust in God. I’m not trusting my own self. I’m going to trust Him.’

*****

Certainly, a big chunk of Paul’s writings in general is aimed at teaching the Believer the different attitude they are to have toward sufferings.

Bottom line, Paul says we are to “glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope.”

In II Corinthians 4, he writes, “For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
[16] For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
[17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
[18] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Jordan explains, “If you are involved in being left here as a member of the Body of Christ, then you need to bring your (new) identity (in Christ) into your experience, so that when you’re suffering, it isn’t something that’s wasted on you.

“It’s always fascinated me the people who don’t want to have any problems and don’t want to ever have to suffer. The other side of it, of course, is tribulation works. God has equipped us (Believers) that no matter what happens in our lives, we can be productively benefited by the doctrine residing in us to handle these things.

“ ‘Tribulation works patience.’ In other words, you can grow through these things by letting who you are in Christ be the resource that enables you to work through the issues.

“With that in mind—knowing ‘tribulation works a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory’—trying to get out of problems so you never have any problems is like firing some of your best workers!

“Why in the world would you want to have all this understanding in your inner man and never have a place to apply it and bring it into your experience?! I know that’s sort of counter-intuitive to the way our flesh thinks, but it’s certainly not counter-intuitive to the way our inner man thinks.

“Paul tells us we have a different attitude toward sufferings than in times past. The great statement is that our attitude is different than when we just walked in human viewpoint!

“When you walk in human viewpoint, what do you think about human sufferings? It’s, ‘Let me out! Get me out of here! I don’t want it!’

“If you were in Israel’s program and you saw the sufferings come into life, what would that tell you? Well, it would tell you there’s something wrong because you’re out of fellowship with God. God’s program with Israel is that He would deliver them from those things.

“So human viewpoint says, ‘I want to be delivered,’ Israel’s program says, ‘You ought to be delivered,’ and Paul says, ‘He comforts us in our tribulations.’

“The provision there is not deliverance FROM but its encouragement and comfort IN the trouble. Now, that’s why you read Paul say in Romans 8:18 that ‘the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.’ See, it’s a different attitude. I’m not worrying about what the problems I’m having because there’s something bigger that none of this is worthy to be compared with.

“I love that verse in Hebrews 12:2 where the writer talks about Jesus Christ “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.’ Now, that’s a living example of Romans 8:18.

“There’s a realm of doctrine and understanding about who you are in Christ, and what God’s going to do with you in the ages to come, that when you put that doctrine in your mind, and you understand who God has made you, and what God says you’re a part of, compared to that anything you’re going through right now isn’t even worthy of comparing! That’s why Paul says, ‘Our light affliction is but for a moment.’

“See, that’s a different viewpoint. When you go through trouble, it doesn’t seem light. It seems like its all-consuming. Paul went through trouble that seemed all-consuming. He said ‘we despaired even of life.’ So, it isn’t that the troubles aren’t there; it’s just that there’s something to put into your mind to control your thinking that then transforms your attitude about what’s going on.

“There’s that (phrase) of Paul’s over in Col. 1: ‘Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you.’ I look at that and think, ‘Wait a minute, man! ‘Who rejoice in my sufferings for you’?! Now, there’s a real different mental attitude about it! In fact, he wrote the Philippians and said, ‘I want to know Him and the fellowship of His suffering’!

“I read all that and think, ‘Wow, that’s the attitude of a guy who had learned what we’re reading right here (in II Corinthians)!’ So, this information is designed to produce, and did produce in Paul, an attitude toward the vicissitudes of life from wherever they came.

“In II Cor. 1: 5, he writes, ‘For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.’ At this time, he’s going through tremendous persecution and so he says the consolations also abound.

“I love that expression ‘consolation.’ There’s a great verse back in Job where one of Job’s friends asks him, ‘Are the consolations of God too small for you?’ Isn’t that a good question? Paul’s saying, ‘There’s something bigger than what’s going on. There’s some advantage there.’ Consolation is the idea of explaining to you why it’s happening.

“You see, Paul had come to realize that he had been made an example of what God now wants you and me as members of the Body of Christ to understand about suffering, and Paul had come to appreciate how to endure suffering, and what it means when you do. And he had come to understand that he had been made a pattern. (I Tim. 1:16)

“Paul had come to understand that he was an example of the provisions God’s made available to the members of the Body of Christ. That’s why he says, ‘Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ.’

“There’s a verse back there (in I Corinthians) that’s just fascinating. He says, ‘Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.’ (I Cor. 4: 16-17)

“When he says he’s going to ‘bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, which I teach,’ he’s talking about the message that he received, but also about how that message lived in him.

“In II Tim. 3:10, he writes, ‘But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience.’ That’s stuff that’s happened to him in Acts 13 and 14, in the territory where Timothy came from. You see, we often read this verse and talk about ‘thou hast fully known my doctrine’ as if that was all there was to it.

“But he didn’t stop there. He said ‘my manner of life, my ways which be in Christ Jesus.’ You see, Paul not only gave us doctrine written in a Book, he gave us demonstration of it in flesh-and-blood terms of reality of life.

“And you’ll see this over and over again. Look at Philippians 1. He warns and tells us that what you see going on in him is what you’re going to see going on in you. You see, when you get the doctrine—and get established in the doctrine in Romans and have that mutual faith both of Him and us—that doctrine that causes Christ to live in you is going to produce the same life in you that it did in Paul, which is going to produce the same results in you that it produced in Paul. It’s going to get the same reaction out there too!

“Paul writes, ‘Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.’ (Phil. 1:30) He’s saying, ‘If you’re going to have the same Christ living in you, with the same doctrine living in you that’s living in me, you know what you’re going to have? You’re going to have the same impact and same result.’ Paul understood that.

“So, you and I can look at the life of Paul, and find not only the doctrines for us to believe and know and understand, but find in him an example of the way the Christian life functions, especially in II Corinthians with regard to the issue of the sufferings of Christ.

“As the sufferings of Christ abound in us. . . Hey, if the sufferings are there, I’ve got the consolations. ‘And if I’m suffering,’ Paul says, ‘it’s for you. So that you can have the same thing I’ve got.’ Now verse 6 is fascinating the way he says this: ‘And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.’

“The consolation is effective; it works in the enduring. You see the excellency of the power of God’s Word is to operate in your inner man and produce stability, contentment, happiness and joyfulness with longsuffering and all patience, as Col. 1 talks about, and that has more of an impact in the angelic realm than even the power they saw when they watched God create the heaven and the earth!

“Because it puts the superiority of God’s Word and wisdom on display in you. The excellency of the power of God’s Word working in your inner man glorifies God and it’s effectual. You can trust God’s Word to do what God says it will do, and it will give you the capacity to endure.

“I’ve said to you many times, ‘When you go through difficulties, remember you can endure.’ You know how you know? Because God says you will endure. I love that verse in II Tim. 2: ‘If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.’

“You can get in the place where you say, ‘Lord, I’m through, I want out! I’ve had it! No more!’ You ever get there?

“I’ve learned, haven’t you, that you can’t get rid of who’s inside of you. And not only are you inside of there, Christ’s inside of there, and though you quit believing, yet he cannot deny himself. That’s you as a member of His Body. You’re bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. He can’t deny himself.

“Even if you just want to quit, it doesn’t change the fact of who you are. Your momentary ups and downs aren’t the issue. You can endure because you will endure. That’s the point. You’re gonna endure! You know how you know? Because ‘he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.’ (Phil. 1:6)

“That’s what God’s doing. He didn’t ask your help, he didn’t think he needed your participation, or your cooperation, or your good spirit about it; He said, ‘That’s what I’m doing, and when you trusted me I put you in my Son and made you a part of what I’m doing, and that’s what’s going on. Now you can enjoy the ride, or you can go kicking and screaming, but you’re going.’

“You know I’m being kind of facetious about that, but you understand the fact is you can endure because you’re gonna endure! So since you’re gonna endure, why not enjoy it?! Why not enjoy the consolations. They give you the capacity to have comfort and salvation from the discouragement, the depression in it. Paul said, ‘I’m a living example of that.’