2 Corinthians 11:30-33 - A humiliating experience of Paul

While Paul’s opponents boasted of their superiority according to the flesh and their superior speech, Paul would rather boast about his weaknesses. He would rather talk about the hardship he had experienced while laboring for the gospel. He would rather share about what he had to endure while moving from place to place in his quest to bring the gospel at no cost to the people. To Paul, these experiences marked his calling as an apostle of Christ.   

In verse 31, just one verse, he harmonized his past and his present belief about God. As a Hebrew, he acknowledged the God of his forefathers and exclaimed that “He be blessed forever.” And then as a Christian, he now addressed this same God of His past as “The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul maintained that this same God could be his witness and attest to the truth that he was sharing.

Paul then brought up a humiliating episode in his life, how he had escaped King Aretas’ men, who were guarding the city seeking to arrest him. It was his friends who had helped him to escape. They put him in a basket and led him down through a widow in the wall to elude those who sought his life.

What was Paul’s point? He was simply saying He had his humiliating moment too. Yet He would gladly be at what God had called him to do. He would rather obediently discharge the commission of the Lord. What about us? What has God called us to do? Let’s be found to be at it obediently!