The paradox of suffering and glory : A discourse analysis of 2 Corinthians

The letter of 2 Corinthians is suffused with suffering. There are no fewer than six passages that dwell on Paul and his coworkers’ suffering and countless other minor references. For Paul, suffering in 2 Corinthians is broad, encompassing physical pain, emotional distress, persecution, penal disciplines and deprivations. Amidst this suffering, however, is a discussion of the greater glory of life under the new covenant of Christ and the Spirit over the old covenant of commandments and condemnation. Glory – evidence of God’s power and presence – is to be found in the transformation of all believers, having free access to God, into God’s image. However, this glory does not appear luminous like the radiance of Moses’ face. This glory is seen in the suffering, inglorious humanity of believers who share in Jesus’ suffering.

This study adopts and adapts M. A. K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) for Koine Greek and for studying specific leitmotifs in a text. SFL is an approach of discourse analysis that views language according to three metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and textual. The ideational metafunction is the content function of language; the interpersonal metafunction is the relational function of language; and the textual metafunction is how language is shaped to emphasise and nuance the ideational and interpersonal message. This study’s nuanced SFL incorporates analysis of Greek semantic domains using Johannes Louw and Eugene Nida’s lexicon, the theory of ad hoc categories by Lawrence Barsalou, examination of clusivity, and Greek word order analysis by Helma Dik, Dejan Matić, David Goldstein and Tom Recht. An SFL analysis of 2 Corinthians examining five passages regarding suffering and glory reveals that Paul crafts the following message for his audience. Suffering is the grounds for a revelation of God’s glory. God allows and at times orchestrates suffering in Paul’s and the believers’ lives. God’s glory is revealed through the comfort of God that is generous and proportional to suffering; there is no suffering that is beyond the reach of God’s comfort for the believer. Paul understands suffering as sharing in the suffering of Jesus and this understanding leads to the simultaneous revelation of the dying and resurrection life of Jesus in the believer. This life of Jesus is a further revelation of God’s glory and is characterised by the virtues of great endurance, purity, knowledge, patience, goodness, love without hypocrisy, truth and righteousness. Paul’s personal journey of suffering and the resulting revelation of glory leads him to boast only in his suffering. In fact, he rejoices in his suffering because suffering brings a revelation of God’s power and presence – God’s glory. This is not an ascetic belief of seeking suffering per se but embracing the opportunity that suffering with Jesus allows in order that the glory of God be revealed.

This work © 2025 by Emma Leitch. All Rights Reserved.