A verb meaning to suffer hardship, endure affliction, or bear up under difficult circumstances. It combines kakos (evil/bad) with pathos (suffering/experience) — literally, to experience bad things. Paul uses it as an imperative for Timothy and as a description of the missionary life.
Paul's command to Timothy — 'join with me in suffering for the gospel' (2 Timothy 1:8) and 'endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus' (2 Timothy 2:3) — uses kakopatheo as a core descriptor of faithful Christian ministry. The willingness to embrace hardship for the sake of the gospel is not masochism but mission: the message is worth the cost. Paul himself models this in James 5, where the prophets are held up as examples of kakopatheia — patient endurance under suffering. The theology is consistent: suffering is not random but redemptive when embraced for the right reasons.