2 Corinthians 1:3-11
God Brings Comfort

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

New International Version

Paul seems to pound this word "comfort" into the minds of his readers in this passage, so we know there's something important that he wants to get across. The repetitiveness in English translations is accurate, because Paul does the same with the Greek word parakleseos. If that word sounds familiar to you, it is probably because you've also heard the name Paraklete, which is a synonym for the name Comforter in John 14:16 and John 16:7. Jesus in those passages was teaching his followers that God would send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Paraklete, to be with them always.

Now we can understand that Paul is referring to much more than a "shoulder to cry on" when he speaks of comfort. Paul is telling us the Holy Spirit is active in us any time we receive comfort from another in God's family. God always knows, and God always cares, and God always finds a way to take care us when we're hurting.

But Paul doesn't stop at the "grammar school" level in this lesson on comfort, he pushes on to the "collegiate" level. It was the suffering that he and his group had faced recently that gave them the gift of parakleseos to share with those in Corinth and elsewhere. It was reaching the point where they sorely needed God's comfort that allowed them later to share that comfort. The source of their comfort was in an experience where they had been so down-trodden that they were in total despair, so that their only hope was in God. Only in that circumstance, where they were already counting themselves as dead, would it be all about God's power to raise the "dead." There was no question for Paul that he had no hope in any of his skill, strength, eloquence, knowledge, experience, insight, or any other attribute followers would recognize in him. There was nothing Paul could do. There, at the "end of his rope," was God.

We have a way of trying to rationalize the bad that happens to us. We want to understand it so that we can feel some control over it and explain it away. If we have difficulties, we want to see the "gain" we've earned for the "pain," because we don't otherwise want to put up with pain.

Paul looked at pain differently. He went into painful circumstances, and through them, because that is where God led him. Sometimes, as in this passage, he rejoiced when he could see a benefit to others in his pain. In his later letters, he was no longer certain of the beneficiaries of his struggles, but it was still sufficient for him that God called him to continue. In all those times, Paul had learned to trust that God would provide all the resources he needed. God would provide the Comforter to help bear the load, just as God had provided financial resources, spiritual coworkers, and countless blessings over the years.

Our calling is the same. God calls us, sometimes to "green pastures," and sometimes into desperate, painful circumstances. We are to answer that call faithfully, knowing that following God may lead to disappointments, difficulties, struggles, separations, hardships, loneliness, and agony. We know that God is working all things out for Good, even when we're suffering while doing what is right -- and even when we fail God and sin. We know that when we experience pain, God always provides comfort to hold us and carry us through the Holy Spirit.