²³Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. ²⁴Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. ²⁶I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; ²⁷I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

Let the comparisons begin! Paul may anticipate that some of his readers will think he has gone insane by writing like this, so he inserts parenthetically, “I speak as if insane.” Or he may be asserting that to boast in this way is to court insanity. Either way, he continues his faux boasting by turning the narrative to a different nature about what is boast-worthy.

Rather than boasting about his superior knowledge or his position as an exalted apostle, Paul instead lays out all the suffering he has gone through to get the word out about the gospel. He says elsewhere, “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). Because of the cross of Christ, we see here in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians how his relationship to the world system and its fleshly way of living worked out in Paul’s life. When he boasts in his sufferings, he is boasting in the cross, for that is the only reason why he could go through so much.

Read the list above and ponder it. Imprisonments, beatings, near-death experiences, whippings, stoning, shipwrecks and continuous dangers confronting him from his many travels, river crossings, and highway robberies. And these were not just in the ungoverned parts of the world but in the cities and villages. There was the constant concern of so-called believers who were really spies to harass the apostles. He describes his experiences as labor and hardship, sleepless nights, suffering hunger and thirst, exposure to the elements. This gives us more of a personal autobiography of Paul’s missionary journeys recorded in Acts 13–28.

These are the things Paul chooses to boast about, the things which most people complain about. In today’s popular Christian culture, one might assume he must have missed God’s perfect plan for a wonderful life. But going through that was necessary to bring the love and forgiveness of God to the Corinthians.

Lord, thank You for those who have suffered to preach the news about Christ.