2 Corinthians 11:23

Reluctantly speaking 'as a madman,' Paul claims to be a servant of Christ far beyond his rivals, pointing not to privilege but to suffering. It matters because genuine ministry is measured by costly labor for Christ, not self-promotion.

Cross-references · 38

• 2 Cor 6:4–5but in everything commending ourselves, as servants of God, in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
• Col 1:24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly;
• 2 Cor 6:9as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and not killed;
• 2 Cor 1:9–10Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,
• 1 Cor 15:10But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
• 2 Cor 11:24–25Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one.
• 2 Cor 3:6who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
• Acts 9:16For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
• 2 Tim 2:9in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained.
• Col 1:29for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.
• 1 Cor 3:5Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?
• Phil 1:13so that it became evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my bonds are in Christ;
• Phlm 1:9yet for love’s sake I rather beg, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
• Eph 6:20for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
• 1 Cor 15:30–32Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
• Phil 2:17Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.
• 1 Th 3:2and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the Good News of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith;
• 1 Tim 4:6If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which you have followed.
• 2 Tim 1:16May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain,
• 2 Tim 1:8Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God,
• Heb 10:34For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens.
• Rom 8:36Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
• Acts 24:26–27Meanwhile, he also hoped that money would be given to him by Paul, that he might release him. Therefore also he sent for him more often, and talked with him.
• Acts 20:23except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me.
• Acts 27:1When it was determined that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners to a centurion named Julius, of the Augustan band.
• Acts 14:19But some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
• Acts 16:23–24When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely,
• Acts 28:30Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who were coming to him,
• Acts 28:16When we entered into Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him.
• Acts 21:11Coming to us, and taking Paul’s belt, he bound his own feet and hands, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit: ‘So will the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”
• 2 Cor 10:7Do you look at things only as they appear in front of your face? If anyone trusts in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also we are Christ’s.
• 2 Cor 11:5For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.
• 2 Cor 12:11–12I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.
• 2 Cor 4:11For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.
• Eph 3:1For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles,
• Eph 4:1I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,
• Acts 25:14As he stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix;
• 1 Cor 4:1So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants, and stewards of God’s mysteries.

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