‘We are pressed on every side, yet not pressed in; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.'
As earthen vessels that bear the message of the glory of Christ they are also subject to the sufferings of Christ (compare 2 Corinthians 1:5). As He suffered in this world, so must they. They bear about in their body the dying of Jesus. But this is so that they might openly reveal the life of Jesus, both by their teaching and their behaviour, and by what they are. So their sufferings actually demonstrate that they are true bearers of His light.
‘We are hard-pressed (afflicted) on every side, but not pressed in.' Here Paul is entering into the experience of the Psalmists. Compare Psalms 3:1 LXX; Psalms 34:19. There are no escaping the surrounding pressures, but he will not allow them to box him in. This includes the pressures of the Corinthian situation (see 2 Corinthians 7:5). ‘Perplexed, yet not to despair.' Often they do not know what to do, and wonder why they are experiencing what they are, but it does not lead them to despair. ‘Pursued, yet not forsaken.' They were persecuted and hunted down (as once Paul had persecuted and hunted down others), but God never forsook them. ‘Smitten down and yet not destroyed.' It is sometimes as though they have been wrestled to the ground, but they survive and rise up again. They are not destroyed (they do not perish).
‘Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus.' Paul may have in mind the treatment through which Jesus went from His arrest to His final breathing of His last, ‘the dying of Jesus', which could be seen as beginning when His ‘hour had come' (John 13:1). In His final hours He went through affliction and tribulation, and clearly bore their marks. So do Paul and his fellow-workers experience affliction and tribulation, which leave their marks on them, and even face the threat of constant death.