Aaron Denlinger has some helpful things to say about “Affliction Evangelism” in response to 2 Corinthians 4:7–12. When we suffer as a result of evangelism, we proclaim the power and value of God and His Gospel:
Christians suffer, first of all, because God delights to triumph in weakness. “We have this treasure in jars of clay,” Paul writes, “to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” The treasure that Christians possess and seek to share with the world is the Gospel and its fruits. But their efforts to share that treasure with the world generally reap trouble. Life as a clay jar ain’t pretty (see 2 Cor. 4:8–9). It’s not surprising, of course, that efforts to share the Gospel with others result in unpleasantness. The Gospel is an affront to those who would deny any absolute moral standard because they wish to live their lives without accountability or consequence. It’s even more of an affront to those who would acknowledge an absolute moral standard, but insist upon their own ability to meet that standard. The Gospel, in other words, is offensive....
God triumphed over sin, death, and hell through apparent weakness—an apparently deluded man hanging on a cross, Rome’s most despicable instrument of capital punishment. God brings sinners through faith into a share in Christ’s kingdom through equally apparent weakness—persecuted, perplexed, and suffering Christians, feebly testifying to the treasure that they possess and trying to share it with others. Jars of clay. Significantly for our theme, the weakness of the means (i.e., us) that God has chosen to advance his kingdom ensures that all glory and praise for the same will be returned to him in the final analysis....
But there is a further logic to suffering outlined in these verses, which is this: Suffering turns our lives into sermons. Suffering may or may not show us what we’re made of (as the saying goes), but it will definitely show us and others where our hope, where our identity, and where our confidence lay. The suffering Christian, in other words, becomes a form of Gospel proclamation to the world.
Read the rest of his post.