What does 2 Corinthians 4:14 mean?

Great suffering and persecution were part of Paul's life as a missionary of the gospel. He and his friends endured those hardships for their faith in Christ and their preaching about the truth. Paul has also described how God's great power has kept them from ever being fully crushed or defeated. His suffering has not stopped him from continuing to preach the gospel. In the previous verse, he said that he shared the same faith as the writer of Psalm 116, who wrote that he believed and so he spoke.

Paul now points to his confidence in his own future resurrection as the reason for his boldness to continue preaching about Jesus in the face of so much suffering. Paul is convinced that just as Christ was raised from the dead after the crucifixion, he and his friends would also be raised back to life and into Christ's presence even if they should die for proclaiming Christ to the world.

Resurrection from the dead for all believers was central to Paul's faith. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, in essence, that Christianity without resurrection was pointless. The truth of the resurrection, however, makes anything we suffer in this life worthwhile. The fact that Christians will be raised from the dead gave Paul confidence to keep facing danger and pain. It gave him motivation to keep telling more and more people about God's grace through faith in Jesus.