“The God of all Comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:1-11)
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The Nature of the God Who is Blessed (Verses 1-5)
Paul’s prayer for the Corinthians is that they would continue to receive grace (unmerited favor) from God, and the peace that comes with it, based on the person and work of Jesus Christ. We live in a pluralistic society that believes all religions experience the same God, only in different ways. However, we know that there is only one true God because He has spoken to us through His Word and through the person of His Son. This God is not characterized by aloofness, harshness, hardness, or severity, but by mercy and comfort as that which is found in His very essence and character. He is the God that gives consolation, encouragement and strength in the midst of afflictions, and it is given only and abundantly through Christ. The New Covenant that Christ inaugurated and the Kingdom He establishes is characterized by the experience of comfort for His people (Isaiah 40:1-2).
This comfort is particularly given to Paul and all other saints who suffer on account of their faith in Christ. While the false teachers used Paul’s suffering as a motive to question the legitimacy of his ministry, Paul says that it actually confirms it because it is analogous to His Lord’s ministry— abundant suffering and abundant comfort in God.
– When you are experiencing an affliction of any kind, do you shy away from God thinking that He is austere, harsh, or uncaring? Or are you able to look to God and receive strength because you know that He is a God who delights in giving comfort and encouragement? When you think you are making strides in your sanctification, but then have a momentary lapse into sin again, are you quick to look again to the God who gives copious comfort through His Son?
God Comforts So That We May Comfort (verses 4, 6)
Paul was willing to endure afflictions in order to bring the message of salvation to the Corinthians, and produce comfort in them. The comfort he received from Christ was shared with the Corinthians, resulting in their comfort. When we are comforted, the comfort we receive is not to terminate with us. However, we should not confuse comfort with comfortable. Paul is not referring to a life of ease and relaxation, but to the type of comfort that enables the Christian to persevere and remain steadfast in the face of opposition and hardship. Paul believed that the Corinthian church, though it was plagued by divisions, distorted doctrine, selfishness, immorality, etc., would receive comfort and grow in maturity when they suffered afflictions.
– When we receive comfort from God, we have the joy and privilege of being able to share that same comfort to other people and watch as they also are delivered from affliction. In what ways have you been comforted by God in any kind of affliction? What might it look like to share that comfort with others who are going through similar things?
So That We Might Trust in God and Give Thanks (verses 8-11)
Paul was in a very difficult, life threatening situation and God delivered him. The God who raises the dead continues to reveal His power in our deliverances, either by bringing us out of the affliction or by sustaining us with comfort while surrounded by affliction. Our afflictions reveal our deficiencies and inabilities in order that we might place our hope in the God of all comfort and repent of self-reliance. As a result of our hope set on Him, when He delivers us it produces thankfulness and praise to Him.
– Why is it foolish to trust in yourself or your own ability in the midst of afflictions? Why is it wise and essential to hope in God alone when you are passing through afflictions (or any other time!)?