We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
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Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
Only let us preserve free-will and love: "troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed."
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. Not made anxious. Physically he was distressed, hemmed in, and pressed down, but in the midst of adversity the Apostle"s mind was serene and lofty. Song of Solomon , in Ps. iv1 , David says. "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress."
We are perplexed, but not in despair. The Latin Version gives "We are in want, but not destitute," or, as Ambrose, Theophylact, Erasmus, and Cajetan explain it: We are pressed with want, but not oppressed. There is a similar play on words in the Greek. Poverty gives sufficiency, nay, plenty, to a soul that is patient, wise, serene, and fixed on God. To say nothing of Christian writers, this was taught by Favorinus, who says. "It is true what wise men have said as the result of their experience, that they who have much want much, and that indigence takes its rise from abundance, and not from want. Much more is desired in order to guard the abundance you already have. Whoever, therefore, has great rich...
We are straitened. This, by the Greek, seems the sense of the Latin word, which is taken to signify, one perplexed, and in a doubt. See John xiii. 22.; Acts xxv. 20.; Galatians iv. 20. (Witham)
The afflictions come not only from enemies but even from our own households and friends. These things are permitted by God, not for our defeat but for our discipline.
We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken.
He still dwells upon proving that the whole work is to be ascribed to the power of God, repressing the highmindedness of those that glory in themselves. 'For not this only,' says he, 'is marvelous, that we keep this treasure in earthen vessels, but that even when enduring ten thousand hardships, and battered on every side, we [still] preserve and lose it not. Yet though there were a vessel of adamant, it would neither have been strong enough to carry so vast a treasure, nor have sufficed against so many machinations; yet, as it is, it both bears it and suffers no harm, through God's grace.' For, we are pressed on every side, says he, but not straitened. What is, on every side?
'In respect of our foes, in respect of our friends, in respect of necessaries, in respect of other needs, by them which be hostile, by them of our own household.' Yet not straitened. And see how he ...
Rather, dishonour and weakness will accrue to him, because the earthen vessels with which he had nothing to do have received all the excellency! Well, then, if it be in these very earthen vessels that he tells us we have to endure so great sufferings.
He also says, in verses occurring in a previous part of the epistle: "Our condition is such, that we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; and are in need, but not in utter want; since we are harassed by persecutions, but not forsaken; it is such that we are east down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in our body the dying of Christ."
