2 Corinthians 11:22-25a Imprisonment and Beatings
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: May 15, 2020 2 Corinthians 11:22-25a
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.
(Understanding the Text) Here is where we learn a little more about the false apostles. They were Jews who claimed to be following Christ. This is definitely not the situation of factionalism from 1 Corinthians where the people were fighting over Apollos, Peter, and Paul. Now, they have descended into following other Jewish Christians who have come in and started making claims against Paul. Apollos and Peter would not have done this. These are other people from Jerusalem. Paul is not focused on refuting their false teaching here. He is focused on refuting their claims to respect.
Paul says that his pedigree is just as good as theirs with respect to his family background. Then Paul says that his pedigree of service to Jesus far surpasses the false apostles. Evidently, they had not suffered much for their service to Christ. They were going in to places that were already opened to the gospel and trying to take over leadership. They were not going to new places to open them up. They were trying to take the easy way, which meant that they were looking for power. They were trying to do a hostile takeover of the Christians of Corinth, and Paul was not about to give up the ground that he had already worked so hard to gain for Jesus.
“with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death” Paul lists service as working hard, being imprisoned, beaten, and almost dying. He experienced these situations not just once, but many times. Paul always went to a synagogue first to open up a new area. He was taking the message to the Jews first, not because he felt that the Jews were superior human beings and deserved the first chance. He might have gone there first partly because it was Jesus’ example, but I think that it was also a strategically intelligent move. When a lot of Gentiles came in to the church, there needed to be knowledgeable, mature believers present to shepherd them. Many of the converts from the synagogues would not only have the knowledge, but they would also already have a relationship with God and an understanding of His character that they could communicate. However, Paul paid a price for going to a synagogue first. He was punished by synagogues with 39 stripes on five different occasions. Going in to a new city and a new synagogue, Paul had to know what the result would be, but he went in anyway because the few initial converts that he made would form the backbone of the church that he would leave in that city. When it comes to the number of times that Paul was imprisoned, he does not say. The SDA commentary says “The Bible does not record the number of times Paul was imprisoned (cf. Acts 16:23). Clement of Rome observes that Paul was imprisoned seven times (The first Epistle of Clemet to the Corinthians 5).”
Paul also received punishment from Gentile authorities. Paul says that he was beaten with rods three times. One of those is mentioned in Acts 16. “The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods” (Acts 16:22). This took place at Philippi after Paul cast out the demon from the fortune teller. I’m not sure of when the other times were. I need to look up the commentaries. The SDA commentary says “A Roman form of punishment. To rule with ‘a rod of iron’ denoted extreme severity (Rev. 2:27). The rods were the slender staves, the official insignia, of Roman lictors, or magistrates. The only recorded instance of such a beating occurred at Philippi (Acts 16:22,23). At Jerusalem he claimed exemption on the basis of being a Roman citizen (acts 22:24, 25).” “The suffering and persecution enumerated in 2 Cor. 11:23-27 occurred between the incidents recorded in Acts 9 and those in Acts 19. The worst was yet to come. This recital gives some idea of what Paul means by sharing with Christ ‘the fellowship of his sufferings’ (Phil. 3:10). And how much of Paul’s dangerous living for Christ is hidden from view!”
Paul says that he was stoned only one time, which was described in Acts 14. “But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead” (Acts 14:19). This time it was at the instigation of the Jews. Paul was hurt so badly that he appeared dead. He may have been dead, but God raised him up and healed him enough to walk back to the city and walk out of it in the morning all the way to the next town.
(Application / Revelation of God) My application for myself is that no matter how bad things appear, it does not mean that God is not with you. This is proof that God does not interfere to keep humans from hurting you. However, He interferes so that you are healed and can keep working. It’s not proof that we need to be hurt to be good servants. Paul says that he is being foolish to list these as qualifications. What this means is that I need to remain a loyal active servant no matter what happens.
(Prayer) Paul knew that You were worth any amount of sacrifice. I know that also with my head, but I am weak physically and emotionally. I pray that I will know that You love me and that I will be able to love others also.