2 Corinthians 6:4

4. Ministers In the nominative. As ministers approving ourselves. This passage, in parallelism with 2 Corinthians 4:8-12, and 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, furnishes strikingly detailed pictures of apostolic sufferings, more or less applicable to St. Paul and his personal coadjutors, exhibited either as single points, or still more, doubled in contrasts. Paul’s pre-eminence, as stated in the latest of the three, is his certificate of apostleship. The present list is a fervent climax, beginning in particulars, and rising until it bursts forth in the apostrophe of 2 Corinthians 6:11, which becomes a turning point in the epistle. The climax is also a triad. First, a list of external endurances, 2 Corinthians 6:4-5; then a series of internal traits and endowments, 2 Corinthians 6:6-7; finally, antithetic contrasts of depreciations and excellences meeting in the apostolic characters, 2 Corinthians 6:8-10, and rising in fervour of description.

Much patience Much endurance, much firm undergoing,

Afflictions By persecution and oppression.

Necessities Compulsions against will.

Distresses Compressions into narrownesses and straits. The tenor of this list, thus far, is that of hard pressures. The following are of more active sufferings.