The Big Idea
For suffering to result in worship, we must face our woundedness and our weaknesses.
The Expanded Big Idea
In order for suffering to produce worship, we must face our woundedness (the sins that happened to us) and our weaknesses (the struggles occurring within us) face-to-face with Christ.
Paul’s Candor: 2 Corinthians 1:8-9
Paul insisted that we not live in denial. The Christian life is a life of truth—even truth about the evils that happen to us, and the struggles that dwell within us.
Paul honestly faced his suffering face-to-face with Christ. He never pretended. He was never so heavenly minded that he denied earthly reality.
Paul candidly faced what happened to him—his external wounds.
Wounds: “We do not want you to be agnostic [agnoeō] [denying reality, refusing to face truth], about the troubles we experienced.
Paul lamented to God, to others, and to himself what was happening in him—his internal weakness. These weaknesses were not sin. They were normal, human, finite responses to the evils of a fallen world.
Weaknesses: We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt the sentence of death.
Paul never denied
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