‘Wherefore I ask that you may not faint at my tribulations for you, which are your glory.'
Some of his readers were clearly very constrained at what Paul was enduring. They were dispirited and concerned. Why did God not step in and deliver him so that he could carry on with his powerful ministry. What would happen when he was gone? How could the church survive? Do not worry says Paul, my sufferings are your glory. Either a cause for them to glory, or will result in glory for them, or both. Without his imprisonment there may well have been no letters, and what would we have done then?
‘Tribulations.' The word means literally ‘squeezings' or ‘pressings', being pressed in and afflicted by circumstances.