Learning From Life’s Trials

by Steve Cornell 

A rich treasure of teaching on how to understand life’s hardships and afflictions is found in the NT letter known as II Corinthians. Familiar passages like 1:3-4 have offered believers guidance and encouragement since the time they were written. These verses remind us of three things that profoundly affect our understanding of trials.

We learn:

1. Who God is (in relation to our suffering)

2. What God does (in relation to our suffering)

3) Why God does what he does —-all in relation to the afflictions believers endure.

Consider the text:  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 

In II Corinthians, we learn that our union with Jesus Christ includes union with him in his sufferings. We enter a rhythm of life based on death and resurrection. This is a daily experience for followers of Jesus. Again, consider the text:  

“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.”  (II Corinthians 4:10-11). 

We also discover a repeated emphasis on the purpose of trials. An excellent example is found in 1:8-9:  

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” 

Trials and suffering always assault the most formidable opponent to Godly living–self-reliance, self-centeredness, self-absorption. Consider also that we are fragile vessels—we who have the gospel. And God had a specific purpose for choosing such vessls: 

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (II Corinthians 4:7)

In the apostle’s personal struggles with what he called a “thorn in his flesh”, the purpose parallels the other passages about afflictions:  

7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh,….9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  

These examples of rich instruction to the first century Church of Corinth establish the enduring contribution of II Corinthians to God’s people. But are you aware of the occasion that brought this treasure to the Corinthians and to us? It was an attack against the character and ministry of the apostle Paul.

False teachers had infiltrated the Church of Corinth and launched an attack against Paul’s leadership.  These servants of Satan (II Corinthians 11:13-15) knew that to gain the loyalties of the hearts of the people to themselves they had to discredit the apostle and founder of the Church. Their attack focused on Paul’s suffering as a sign that God’s blessing was not on him. They promoted a triumphalistic version of the gospel that failed to embrace the fullness of union with Jesus in death and resurrection.

This placed Paul in the awkward yet God-ordained position of defending the integrity of his life and ministry. This defense was motivated by a desire to protect the Church not to promote the apostle. Yet it also led to the rich teaching about God’s purposes and plan in our suffering.

Here is an important lesson I have learned many times: What Satan designs to destroy the Church; God uses to bless and build his Church.   

For an audio version of this: 

“Learning From Life’s Trials”

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Steve Cornell

By Steve Cornell Click here for bio and archived articles