| The Believer’s Apparent (Temporal) Defeat | The Believer’s Actual (Spiritual) Victory |
| For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death (1:8–9). | He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again (1:10). |
| When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ . . . my spirit was not at rest . . . (2:12–13). | But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession . . . (2:14). |
| We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies (4:8–10). | Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen (4:16–18). |
| A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited (12:7). | But [the Lord] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9). |