Comfort One Another

II. Comfort One Another

There is no room for what I described earlier as far as how I "prefer" to be the one comforting verses the one being comforted in God’s eyes. Through God’s Word it demonstrates clearly that our ability to comfort comes from our being comforted. One of the means in which God comforts us is through other Christians. Turn to 2 Corinthians 1:3-7.

"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." 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

In the verses above, Paul lays out the foundation for our comforting of one another. In verse three he says that "…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." When we have received comfort, it is then that we are able to go out and offer up that which we have freely received from God. Have you ever heard anyone say that they had to work through their own troubles so they expect others to do the same? I remember several years ago when a good friend of mine was called into the ministry. He went to his friend who was also a pastor to ask for help in setting out to do what God had told him to do. The pastor (his good friend) told him that he had to develop on his own because that was the way it had been for him. In other words, since no one helped him develop into the ministry, he expected others to find their way as he found his. Can you imagine what both of these men of God would have developed into if someone had been there to assist them in the early stages of their ministry? This is similar to how some of us respond to those who are in a crisis. We expect them to work through it as we worked through our own crises. But is that God’s way? No! That is the way of our flesh and although sometimes it may feel good to do it, it is not of God. God desires for us to be a vessel through which His blessings flow. One of His blessings is comfort.

In verse five Paul says that "for just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows." When we experience the sufferings of Christ through our daily experience with the cross, we become conduits for Christ’s comfort. You see, when the comfort we receive from Christ overflows us, it is for the benefit of others. Some Christians today have what I will refer to as the cereal bowl mentality (a Rodney term). What happens when a child (or an adult) eats cereal from a small bowl? They fill the bowl up forgetting to leave room for the milk. When they pour the milk in, the bowl sometimes overflows. Well after doing this a few times, the individual knows that they want to have a certain amount of cereal so they move on to a bigger bowl so they can have more without the overflow. These Christians are taking the overflow of Christ’s comfort (and other blessings) which should be shared with others who are in need and are trying to find bigger bowls to put it in so they can keep it for themselves. Again, this is not God’s way.