Bible Strands
2 Corinthians 6:4
Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities;
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writes to the Corinthian church, defending his ministry against rivals who dismiss his credentials. This verse opens a catalogue of sufferings (6:4–10) he offers as proof of genuine service.
The words — συνιστάντες (sunistantes), a present participle meaning "we are commending" or "we are presenting ourselves," marks this as an ongoing, active practice rather than a single claim. The Greek ἐν παντί ("in everything") is blunter than the BSB's "in every way," leaving no category unmentioned.
The thread — The same catalogue recurs in 2 Corinthians 4:8, 11:27, and 12:10, where Paul repeatedly lists hardship as the evidence that his ministry is God's and not self-generated.
Why it lands — It asks the reader to stop treating comfort as the default sign of a legitimate ministry and to read endurance as the credential instead.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
Cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 12:10 That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
- 2 Corinthians 4:8 We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
- 2 Corinthians 11:27 in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
- 1 Corinthians 4:11 To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.
- Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
- Romans 5:3 Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
- Philippians 4:11 I am not saying this out of need, for I have learned to be content regardless of my circumstances.
- Joel 2:17 Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
- 1 Corinthians 3:5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.
- 2 Corinthians 3:6 And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.