4:9-13 How are we to understand what Paul says here?
4:9-13 How are we to understand what Paul says here?
Here Paul ironically compares the humility and sufferings of the apostles with the puffed-up factional infighting of the Corinthians (CP V6). The apostles were exhibited as a spectacle in the world to both men and Angels to demonstrate the sufferings of Christ. They faced death daily, were scantily clad, and suffered hunger and thirst. Paul himself was lashed five times with thirty-nine lashes.
He was left for dead from stoning, but God raised him up again. Three times he was beaten with rods. Three times he was shipwrecked - once he was in the water for a night and a day. He was attacked by robbers. He was attacked by unbelievers. He was attacked by his own countrymen, and he was imprisoned may times (CP Ac 14:1-20; 2Cor 6:1-10; 11:23-33). Paul suffered many things for the sake of the gospel but he never once deviated from its salvation message.
Paul did not write these things to shame the Corinthians, but to warn them not to accept everyone who pretended to be an apostle and reject those truly raised up by God with the real salvation message of the gospel (CP 1Cor 4:14-17; 2Cor 12:10-12). See also comments on 2Cor 12:7, and author's study Paul the Apostle - a Chosen Vessel unto God in his book Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith (Volume 2).