“We boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and this hope does not disappoint us.” (Romans 5:3–5)
I suspect that this one‑liner from Saint Paul has been quoted by any number of motivational speakers, alongside other classics such as:
- “Those things that do not kill us make us stronger” (Nietzsche)
- “Where there is no struggle, there is no strength” (Oprah Winfrey)
- “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” (1950s American football)
Would Saint Paul have succeeded on the motivational speaker circuit? I’m not sure. He has indeed inspired many of us, yet his message is a long way from anything we get from Oprah or Tony Robbins. Moreover, he didn’t present well.
“For some say, ‘His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.’” (2 Corinthians 10:10)
Those are Paul’s own words, reflecting on the feedback he received from the church in Corinth. People found him more impressive on paper than in person, and when you read the list of injuries he’d suffered by that stage, it’s little wonder:
“Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea… etc.” (2 Corinthians 11:24–25)
Even if we only consider the first item on that list — receiving the “forty lashes minus one” five times — that’s incredible. As I understand it, the reason the Romans limited their lashing to 40 minus one was because 40 lashes was enough to kill you. So 39 was something you were expected to survive… but only just. Paul experienced this five times, along with multiple other beatings, stonings, drownings, and more!
It is a miracle that Paul survived as long as he did, but he must have been deeply disfigured. After thirty years of apostolic ministry, I imagine Paul looking like one of those prize fighters who never knew when to quit. He’d turn up at your church on a Sunday to preach, and the kids would recoil when they saw him. And no, he wasn’t a great speaker, but how eloquent can you be when your jaw has been shattered multiple times and you have no teeth?
Paul’s opponents clearly got a lot of mileage out of this. The “super apostles”, as he sarcastically calls them (2 Corinthians 11:5; 12:11), probably did look and sound a lot more like Tony Robbins and Oprah – sophisticated, well-spoken, nicely dressed, and doing well, which is what we’d expect, for doesn’t the Good Book say, “Prosperity pursues the righteous”? (Proverbs 13:21)
Indeed, the Torah repeatedly tells us that godly, clean living leads to a quiet, happy, and prosperous life. Paul’s life as an apostle had never been quiet, and he certainly wasn’t prosperous. As to being happy, Paul claimed to be full of joy, but how joyful can you be when you’re constantly being stoned, flogged, drowned and beaten?
Paul wasn’t just controversial. He was notorious. Many of his beatings were official punishments. Others were mob violence. A lot of influential, sophisticated people really hated him. Looking back, it’s remarkable that the early church stuck with Paul when his opponents were better spoken, better looking, and were preaching a far more palatable message.
Can we imagine a debate between Tony Robbins — slick, sophisticated, the kind of man we all admire — and the Hunchback of Notre Dame, a spluttering wreck of a man, telling us that we have to share in Christ’s suffering if we want to share in His glory (Romans 8:17)?
“We boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…” (Romans 5:3–5)
I think the key to grasping Paul’s message here is recognising that he’s not giving a motivational talk. He’s not offering us the keys to success. He’s not our business coach, helping us to get ahead. No. First and foremost, Paul is trying to come to terms with his own wounds and failures in the light of the sufferings of Christ.
Christ is the visible image of our invisible God, Paul believed (Colossians 1:15), yet Christ suffered. This means that suffering is not necessarily a sign of God’s displeasure. Indeed, for us it may signify alignment with the life of Christ. This changes everything, and it invites us to reassess our own history of pain.
I think of all the things that have gone wrong for me over the years – broken relationships, lost opportunities, financial hardships, and betrayals. Are these signs of my own human frailty, or could they be indicators that I’m sharing in the life of Christ?
I’ve been grieving having been deplatformed by YouTube recently. “Where did I go wrong?” Is that even the right question? Would a better question be, “How long would Saint Paul’s YouTube account have lasted?” “Would Jesus have been deplatformed?” Did I do something wrong, or am I sharing in the life of Christ?
I’m not suggesting that there’s a single, simple answer to every question like this — not in my life, nor in yours. Even so, what I see Paul doing is taking control of his own life narrative by taking himself off centre stage, and instead of seeing himself as the star of his own life story and trying to make sense of his relationship with God from that perspective, he sees himself as a supporting actor in Christ’s story.
Once he does that, his pain and sins and failures take on new meaning! They become a participation in the life of Christ, and weakness becomes not a failure but a portal through which Christ can mould our character and teach us endurance.
The world still admires the polished, the prosperous, and the well‑presented, but where God connects with us, now as then, is in our brokenness. Suffering is never the end of the story but the place where Christ meets us. So we do not lose heart. Rather, we boast in our sufferings because we recognise that this is how Christ is shaping us, strengthening us, and preparing us for glory.
If we suffer with Him, we will rise with Him. And that hope will not disappoint us!
First published on Father Dave’s weekly newsletter – June 12th, 2026
