“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” II Corinthians 4:8-9 NKJV
“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” II Timothy 3:12 NKJV
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” John 15:19-20
Remember the Kingdom of God is against the grain of the world system
Because of this it’s not all easy!
“strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22 NKJV
We must prove faithful in the wilderness
Modern warfare of the believer!
1 Corinthians 10:1-12
Hard Pressed
Barnes commentary-It properly means “to crowd into a narrow place; to straiten as to room; to be so straitened as not to be able to turn oneself.” And the idea is, that though he was close pressed by persecutions and trials, yet he was not so hemmed in that he had no way to turn himself; his trials did not wholly prevent motion and action. He was not so closely pressed as a man would be who was so straitened that he could not move his body, or stir hand or foot. He had still resources; he was permitted to move; the energy of his piety, and the vigor of his soul could not be entirely cramped and impeded by the trials which encompassed him. The Syriac renders it: “In all things we are pressed, but are not suffocated.” The idea is, he was not wholly discouraged, and disheartened, and overcome. He had resources in his piety which enabled him to bear up under these trials, and still to engage in the work of preaching the gospel.
Perplexed-to know not what to do; to hesitate; to be in doubt and anxiety, as a traveler is, who is ignorant of the way, or who has not the means of prosecuting his journey. It means here, that they were often brought into circumstances of great embarrassment, where they hardly knew what to do, or what course to take. They were surrounded by foes; they were in want; they were in circumstances which they had not anticipated, and which greatly perplexed them.
Not in despair-When they did not know what to do; when all resources seemed to fail them, in some unexpected manner they would be relieved and saved from absolute despair
Persecuted not abandoned
Struck down and not destroyed
Cast down – Thrown down by our enemies, perhaps in allusion to the contests of wrestlers, or of gladiators.
But not destroyed – Not killed. They rose again; they recovered their strength; they were prepared for new conflicts.
“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” II Corinthians 4:6-7 NKJV
