Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 12:2

"and she was the child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered." — Revelation 12:2 (ASV)

And she . . .—Better, And being with child, she cries, laboring, and is in anguish to give birth. All life dawns in anguish, according to the ancient decree (Genesis 3:16); but this is not all. There is an anguish of the Church which Christ laid upon her; it is the law of her life that she must bring forth Christ to the world. It is not simply that she must encounter pain, but that she cannot work deliverance without knowing suffering.

Thus the Apostles felt: the love of Christ constrained them; woe to them if they did not preach the Gospel; necessity was laid on them. They spoke of themselves as laboring in birth over their children until Christ was formed in them. This, then, is the picture: the Church fulfilling her destiny even in pain. The work was to bring forth Christ to men, and never to be satisfied until Christ was formed in them, that is, until the spirit of Christ, the teaching of Christ, and the example of Christ were received, loved, and obeyed, and men transformed to the same image, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

But there was to be opposition; the enemy is on the watch to destroy the likeness of Christ wherever it was seen.