Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort also. If you are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. {2 Cor 1:3-7 RSV}
Two words, affliction, and comfort, stand out repeatedly in that passage; and the two always go together: Affliction is what we today would probably call pressure, or stress. It is what many of you, perhaps, are feeling right now when you think about going to work tomorrow. It is whatever ties knots in your stomach and makes you feel anxious or troubled about what lies ahead. It is what makes for hectic days and for sleepless nights. It gnaws continually at your mind and threatens your well-being; it refuses to go away and leave you alone; it depresses you and darkens the future with forebodings of disaster. Now that is pressure, stress, and we all live in it. But they were not any different in the 1st century. They lived under pressure and stress just as we do. Paul experienced it as well, but along with it he experienced the comfort of God.
Now, comfort is more than just a little cheer or friendly word of encouragement. Paul does not mean that. The word basically means "to strengthen." What Paul experienced was the strengthening of God to give him a peaceful, restful spirit to meet the pressure and the stress with which he lived. That is what Christianity is all about. "Strengthen," in the Greek, is a word that is used also for the Holy Spirit. Your Bible frequently calls him "The Comforter," but really it is "The Strengthener," the one who strengthens you. This is God's provision for affliction.
It is amazing to me how many thousands of Christians are dreading facing their daily lives because they feel pressured and stressful and tied up in knots, and yet they never avail themselves of God's provision for that kind of pressure. These words are not addressed to us merely to be used for religious problems. They are to be used for any kind of stress, any kind of problems. God's comfort, God's strengthening, is available for whatever puts you under stress.
Listen to Paul: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." He praises God for the circumstances of his life even though there are afflictions. He calls God the "Father of mercies and God of all comfort." He sees God's hand as having sent these very things into his life, therefore he never prays to have them removed so that he might escape from them. He sees them as opportunities for the release of the strength of God. That suggests the first reason why Christians go through suffering.
We are supposed to suffer as Christians, but why does it hurt so much? There are four reasons in this passage to answer that question: First, it hurts because that is the way you discover what God can do. How are you ever going to find the comfort of God, the strengthening of God, if you are not under any pressure or stress? It takes that to discover what God can do, and God will keep on sending it until you begin to understand that, and begin to count on him, and find the release from within that he provides. Do not try to run from it -- like everybody else is doing. Face up to it, and do as Paul does, by seeing these as opportunities to understand and experience anew the strengthening of God. Notice how Paul puts it in Verse 5:
For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. {2 Cor 1:5 RSV}
The strengthening is exactly equal to the pressure. That is a Christian lifestyle; that is what every Christian ought to be able to experience. The truly Christian reaction to troubles and pressures is to see them all as sent by a loving God who is still in control, who will limit them as he promised so they will not be more than you are able to bear. He has sent them deliberately in order that you might discover the inner strengthening that can keep your heart at peace, no matter what the pressure is. That is the first reason why they are sent. A second reason for suffering is found in Verse 4:
...so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. {2 Cor 1:4 RSV}
Your sufferings are not sent for you so much as they are for someone who is watching you, and seeing how you handle the pressure that you are going through. When we have sufferings sent to us they are often sent so that others watching us will know that they can be sustained. That is what Paul says to this church. "When I suffer," he says, "it is for your comfort; it is that you might see what God can do, and, what he can take me through, he can take you through. Therefore, as you watch me, you will see how to handle this." The lesson to learn there is set forth so clearly, in Verse 6:
If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure... {2 Cor 1:6a RSV}
Patiently endure, trusting God that he is in charge and he is taking you through this. He is not taking it away, he is taking you through it, so you patiently wait, rejoicing that the end is in sight; this too shall pass. Someone once said his favorite Scripture was, "And it came to pass." It did not come to stay, it came to pass. This will pass, you will be strengthened by it, therefore, patiently endure and discover the strength that God can give. Paul then goes on to say this is an encouragement to him, in Verse 7:
Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. {2 Cor 1:7 RSV}
They need to experience the suffering so they can also experience the comfort.
So Paul says to these Corinthians, "Our hope for you is unshaken. We've heard you are going through trials and difficulties and pressures and persecutions, but we're not disturbed. We know that if you share our sufferings you will also share our comfort, and the comfort is worth the suffering always," So he encourages them to go through this.
Then notice that, in this remarkable interdependence of the Body, we are encouraged to share with one another what we have gone through. This is why Christians ought to share their problems, their struggles, their failures and their successes with each other, freely and openly -- thus we encourage one another.
That is why God sends us into difficulties at times. Not always for our sake, but someone else's sake. We have been brought along and matured to the point where we can take it, and rejoice in it, and handle it rightly. When we do, what a lesson we are giving to those who are following along behind. Now, still a third reason for Christian affliction is given in Verses 8-10:
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he is delivering us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. {2 Cor 1:8-10 RSV}
We do not know what this was that Paul went through. One of the major reasons God sends us suffering is to break the stubborn spirit of self-will within us that insists on trying to work it all out by our own resources, or run to some other human resource, or in some way refuse to acknowledge that we need divine help. Paul must have struggled the same way. Here is this mighty apostle, who so plainly and clearly understood the principles of how God operates, and still he had to be put through a time of testing like this that he might again learn not to rely on himself. It is the pressure that is designed to destroy our determined stubbornness. God delivered us -- in the past; He is delivering us -- in the present; He will deliver us -- in the future. Paul has learned to trust God to take him through whatever life throws at him, no matter what it is. Now that is a Christian lifestyle. It is about time that some of us Christians quit acting like the world around us, constantly complaining, and murmuring, and griping about everything that comes our way. We should see these as opportunities to display an alternative lifestyle, and release in our own lives a quiet power that will keep our hearts at peace, because we know that an adequate God is handling the situation; he will take us safely through. Then a final reason for suffering is given in Verse 11:
You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to many prayers. {2 Cor 1:11 RSV}
Once again, suffering is sent to us to show us that we are not individuals living all alone in life. We are members of a family, we are members of a Body, and we need each other. When you have a difficulty or a trial, share it with others so that they can pray with you, for many prayers will bring great deliverance. That is what that verse says. In answer to many prayers, God will send a blessing which will awaken thanksgiving in many, many hearts. Paul says, therefore, "You must help us by prayer," so that there will be great thanksgiving for the great blessing that comes from many prayers.
That is the reason for requests for prayer, for sharing our needs with one another, and for enlisting the aid of others in praying us through times of pressure, as we ought to be ready to respond to those who are going through pressure with prayer for them ourselves. Now that is the way the Christian community ought to respond to stress and pressure, to difficulties and trials and disasters. God has sent them. God has allowed them to come as opportunities that you might learn again this amazing secret of inner strength, inner comfort, inner peace that can keep your heart quiet, even though you are going through troub |
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