The actions recently of major Nidal Malik Hassan on Fort Hood in Texas, have been shocking. The US army psychiatrist, who was charged with providing hope and comfort to distressed soldiers, turned on them, shooting 51.
In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul rejoiced because God has so recently delivered him from a grave peril in Asia. This recent trauma brought him to the edge of despair as he felt unbearably crushed with all hope for life draining away (1:8). A break in the clouds of this unrelenting suffering and the ray of hope afforded by the comforting news from Titus about the Corinthians’ response to his “severe letter” (7:5–11) evokes his praise for God’s unexpected grace Paul talks about his own suffering and the comfort that God provides that they may have hope. (Furnish: The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 65–68).
What do you do when the difficulties arrive? Do you avoid them, secretly blame God, or try to hide? Although we may not completely understand the difficulties we find ourselves in, we can continue to trust God, receive His comfort and praise Him even in the midst of the difficulties.
Looking at 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 we can see the nature of difficulties in: 1) Giving Hope (2 Cor. 1:3-7), 2) Getting Hope (2 Cor. 1:8-9), 3) Praise for Hope ( 2 Cor. 1:10-11)
1) Giving Hope (2 Cor. 1:3-7),
2 Corinthians 1:3-7 [3]Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, [4]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. [5]For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. [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 the same sufferings that we suffer. [7]Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (ESV)
1:3 Paul launches his letter with a classic Jewish liturgical formula that praises God for his benefits. This affirmation has two implications. First, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is no longer to be known simply as the Father of Israel. Through Jesus Christ all, both Jew and Greek, have access to the Father (Eph 2:18). One can only truly know God as Father as the Father of Jesus Christ. Second, it declares that Jesus is the foremost blessing God has bestowed on humankind (see Col 1:12).
Paul identifies God as the God of endurance and comfort (Rom 15:5), the God who gives endurance and encouragement (Rom 15:5). Here he identifies him as the Father of all mercies and God of all comfort and implies that mercies and comfort are brought to realization through Christ (1:5).
The word “comfort” in the Old Testament refers to God’s concrete intervention (O. Hofius, “ ‘Der Gott allen Trostes.’ Παράκλήσις und παρακαλεῖν in 2 Kor 1, 3–7,” Theologische Beiträge 14 (1983) 217–27.)
Please turn to Isaiah 51
The divine commission that the prophet Isaiah:, “Comfort ye, my people” (Isa 40:1), does not have as its end simply consoling the people in their affliction. God intends to intervene and deliver them out of their affliction.
Isaiah pleads to God:
Isaiah 51:9-12 [9]Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? [10]Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?[11]And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. [12]"I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass,
For us, the word “comfort” may connote emotional relief and a sense of well-being, physical ease, satisfaction, and freedom from pain and anxiety. Many in our culture worship at the cult of comfort in a self-centered search for ease, but it lasts for only a moment and never fully satisfies. The word “comfort” “has gone soft” in modern English. In the time of Wycliffe the word was “closely connected with its root, the Latin fortis, which means brave, strong, courageous.”( N. Watson, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Epworth Commentaries (London: Epworth, 1993) 3.)
The comfort that Paul has in mind has nothing to do with a lazy feeling of contentment. It is not some tranquilizing dose of grace that only dulls pains but a stiffening agent that fortifies one in heart, mind, and soul. Comfort relates to encouragement, help, exhortation. God’s comfort strengthens weak knees and sustains sagging spirits so that one faces the troubles of life with unbending resolve and unending assurance.
Christians also learn that, unlike the Greek pantheon of gods who are quite unconcerned about human anguish. Israel’s God, by contrast:
Exodus 3:7-8 [7]Then the LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, [8]and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (ESV)
• The Gr. word for “comfort” is related to the familiar word paraclete, “one who comes alongside to help,” another name for the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; Phil. 2:1). The Holy Spirit is God’s instrument of comfort (MacArthur, John Jr: The MacArthur Study Bible. electronic ed. Nashville : Word Pub., 1997, c1997, S. 2 Co 1:3).
Paul is keenly aware that God has acted decisively in Christ to deliver humankind from the bondage of sin and that in God’s saving action Christ also revealed to him how God delivers—even through death. That God is the Father of the one who was crucified reveals that God intimately knows our suffering. God may not always remove the afflictions that come our way, but God always comforts by giving the fortitude to face them.
In 1:4 Paul gives the reasons for his blessing God in the first half of this verse: “God comforts us in all our affliction /troubles.” In the second half he gives the purpose behind the comfort he receives: “so /in order that we can comfort those who are in any affliction.” Paul does not theorize in general terms about God’s comfort. He has in mind specific incidences in which he experienced God’s deliverance from affliction: the definite article in the first phrase suggests “in all the affliction we have faced,” (N. Turner, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. III, Syntax (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1963) 199–200.).
Paul uses the word “affliction” to refer both to external distress (4:8; Rom 8:35) and inner torment (7:5; Phil 1:17). Both may be involved here, though he does not detail what exactly these afflictions were. We can only guess what they were from the hardship catalogs in this letter (4:7–12; 6:4–10; 11:23–29) and from the accounts of his persecution in Acts: plots, riots, and mob violence (Acts 9:23–25; 14:19–20; 17:5–9; 19:28–41; and 21:27–36), false accusations (Acts 16:20–22; 17:6–7; 18:13; 19:26–27; 21:20–21; 21:28; and 24:5–6), imprisonments (Acts 16:16–40), and stoning (Acts 14:19). So far, God has delivered him from every peril. But when God delivers Paul from one distress, the apostle tumbles into another.
Paul’s response to these afflictions teaches us several things. First, he does not view this affliction as something alien to faithful commitment to Christ. These are not chance happenings that occasionally arise and catch the unlucky. God promised Paul suffering when he was called (Acts 9:16), so persecution is normal (see Mark 4:17; Acts 11:19; 14:22; 1 Thess 1:6; 3:3). These are also not the average troubles that hit Christian and non-Christian alike, such as worries about money, relationships, or illnesses. Nor are they the disasters that seemingly strike persons at random. These are afflictions that come from serving Christ.
Affliction and suffering comes for anyone who preaches the gospel in a world twisted by sin and roused by hostility to God. If God’s apostle experienced so much distress in carrying out his commission, then we can see that God does not promise prosperity or instant gratification even to the most devoted of Christ’s followers. Paul makes clear that the comfort comes from God. God can deliver us “out of affliction” or encourage us “in affliction” so that we can endure it.
Afflictions serve to deepen Paul’s faith in God’s power rather than to weaken it.
Quote: Hanson cites S. Weil that Christianity did not profess to cure suffering but did profess to use it: Christianity faces [suffering] by making suffering the means by which healing and rescue were brought to the world, and the very stock-in-trade and accustomed diet of Christians. Yet to Christians suffering is not a deliberately contrived instrument for atonement as it is to the … fanatic who tortures himself in order to gain the peace of detachment, but an evil force in the world which yet by Christ’s atonement can be used for redemption and healing, even in the individual’s personal life (Hanson, II Corinthians, 34.).
This conviction helps explain why Paul never tried to explain the problem of suffering as many try to do today. He did not welcome it, but he never asked why bad things happen to good people. He does not try to flee from it or shield himself from it but instead embraces it. He never becomes resentful or embittered because of the tribulations he endured as an apostle for Christ.
Quote: Nouwen’s observation on pruning is a fitting commentary on Paul’s attitude toward his suffering: Pruning means cutting, reshaping, and removing what diminishes vitality. When we look at a pruned vineyard, we can hardly believe it will bear fruit. But when harvest time comes we realize that the pruning enabled the vine to concentrate its energy and produce more grapes than it could have had it remained unpruned. Grateful people are those who can celebrate even the pains of life because they trust that when harvest time comes the fruit will show that the pruning was not punishment but purification (H. J. M. Nouwen, “All Is Grace,” Weavings 7 (1992) 40.).
Severe adversity can cause one to be frightened about the future and bitter because others do not seem to care or because they add to their woes. Paul’s suffering did not cause him to doubt his faith in God but served only to confirm it. He needs to convey this lesson to the Corinthians who use false standards and false hopes to evaluate his sufferings.
We also learn from Paul who the true source of comfort is. Affliction can come from many sources, but real comfort in every affliction can only come from God alone. Abandoning Christ might seem to offer an escape from suffering, but suffering comes also to unbelievers, and abandoning Christ means that one has also abandoned the only source of comfort. God’s comfort does not always remove the affliction, but God gives us the grace to face it through, such as when Paul learns that the thorn in the flesh will not be removed but also that grace is sufficient for him to bear it.
• The Greek tenses here are significant. “Sufferings” is plural and “comfort” is singular. The sufferings that Christians bear on behalf of Christ are numerous, yet the comfort that is channelled to them is singular through Christ (Simon J. Kistemaker. 2 Corinthians. Baker Publishing House. 2004. p.44)
Fourth, and most important, Paul’s experience has taught him that God comforts him so that he can be a comfort to others. God’s comfort is not intended to stop with us. God always gives a surplus, and God intends it to overflow to others. It is given not just to make us feel better but to bolster us for the task of fortifying others to face suffering. God does not comfort us to make us comfortable but to make us comforters.
• Comfort is derived from the Latin con and forte, meaning to make strong together. It shows a relational aspect that greatly overshadows the idea of individualistic comfort that prevails today. The word implies that one party strengthens another (Simon J. Kistemaker. 2 Corinthians. Baker Publishing House. 2004. p.45).
Some in Corinth may have cast doubt on Paul’s sufficiency as an apostle because he was a victim of such great suffering (2:16). One thing is clear. Paul’s inordinate suffering is met by a superabundance of God’s comfort that makes him more than sufficient to shower divine comfort upon others. On his own, Paul cannot comfort anyone. The comfort is God’s, and it merely flows through him. Paul is not the source of comfort for the Corinthians, but, as Christ’s apostle, he is the relay station. God the Father is the source of the comfort (1:4); Christ is the channel (1:5); and that comfort multiplies through our comforting others (Barnett, The Message of 2 Corinthians, 30).
We experience God’s comfort in various ways. Since Christians are united to Christ, they are also bound together. Christianity is not a religion of the alone communing with the alone. Paul identifies with all those who suffer:
2 Corinthians 11:29 [29]Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? (ESV)
• We therefore experience God’s comfort when other Christians express their care for us. Suffering becomes an unbearable burden when we feel alone and abandoned. His sense that the Corinthians were on the verge of deserting him, coupled with the terrible affliction he experienced in Asia, acted like a pincer movement to make him almost despair of life. Paul will relate later in the letter that God comforted him with the news from Titus that the Corinthians felt a deep longing and ardent concern for him (2 Cor. 7:6–7).
We also experience God’s comfort by caring for others even when we are in the midst of suffering. Sometimes the sudden onslaught of affliction may tempt one to retreat into a shell, to shut oneself off from others. The suffering, however, then becomes purposeless. Those who focus only on themselves are the most miserable of people. The persons who turn their pain to helping others can redirect and conquer that pain. Paul set his hope on God who delivered Christ Jesus from death and has faithfully delivered him in the past and will deliver him in the future. He shared this hope with others.
• We are not comforted to be comfortable but to be comforters (MacDonald, William ; Farstad, Arthur: Believer’s Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995, S. 2 Co 1:4).
We can also experience God’s comfort by witnessing its power in the lives of others. Quote: Kruse reminds us, “The testimony of God’s grace in one’s life is a forceful reminder to others of God’s ability and willingness to provide the grace and strength they need.” (Kruse, 2 Corinthians, 61.)
In 2 Cor. 1:5 Paul offers an explanation (“because,” hoti) of how he is able to comfort others through his affliction (1:3). In describing his sufferings in Christ, Paul pictures a balance sheet of two columns: sufferings of Christ versus comfort through Christ. Ministering in this present evil age brings him a surplus of suffering that becomes almost unbearable. But the consolation column also shows a surplus, and it more than balances the suffering. Paul’s hope of our final deliverance melts the pain away:
Romans 8:18 [18]For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (ESV)
• The future governs his understanding of everything in the present.
Please turn to Philippians 3
What are “Christ’s sufferings”? Most likely, it refers to sufferings Christ himself endured as mentioned in 1 Pet 1:11; 4:13; and 5:1. This would mean that the solidarity between Christ and his followers applies also to his sufferings. Christians are baptized into Christ’s death (Rom 6:3) and are called to endure the same sufferings, to go to dark Gethsemane with Christ (see Mark 10:38–39). Paul speaks of being “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Rom 8:17).
Paul tells the Philippians, that he does what he does:
Philippians 3:10-11 [10]that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, [11]that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (ESV)
• Paul not only preaches Christ crucified, but he lives it. And his suffering brings him joy because he recognizes it to be an irrefutable confirmation of his close tie to his Lord.
Hanson’s comments are on the mark:
… because Christians do not merely imitate, follow or feel inspired by Christ, but actually live in him, are part of him, dwell supernaturally in a new world where the air they breathe is his Spirit, then for them henceforward suffering accepted in Christ must bring comfort, death accepted in Christ must bring life, weakness accepted in Christ must bring strength, foolishness accepted in Christ must bring wisdom (Hanson, II Corinthians, 32.).
In 2 Cor. 1:6 Paul explains how he can comfort those in any affliction (1:4b). “If we are distressed/afflicted”, (thlibometha) may allude to one of the Corinthian complaints; some think that he is too much afflicted. Paul turns it around and argues that his affliction is for their “comfort and salvation.” He came to them in suffering but brought them the gospel. How can they disdain what brought them their new life in Christ? Paul has suffered much, but he has been comforted much and passes it along to them. His comfort therefore becomes their comfort.
We might ask, however, how does his suffering affect their salvation? First, his afflictions come from his proclaiming the gospel by which they are saved. If Paul had chosen to shrink from the dangers he faced and to retreat unscathed to safer places, many in the Gentile world would not have heard the saving word of the gospel when they did. This does not suggest that Paul’s suffering for them has any vicarious effect as Christ’s death for us does (5:14–15, 21). Paul’s sufferings simply became a channel through which God’s salvation and comfort reached them.
Paul clearly implies that he benefits the Corinthians at great cost to himself, and therefore they are indebted to him. The problem was that the Corinthians did not appreciate the significance of his suffering. They considered that all this suffering cast doubt on the power of his apostleship. His life seemed to be filled with suffering, not with the Spirit.
Please turn to Romans 5
He argues, however, that his comfort produces endurance in them to suffer the same sufferings. We should not understand endurance as some human power that can last through hard times. The word hypomonē translates the Hebrew terms (qāwâ [in the piel], tiqwā, miqweh) that signify “expectant waiting, intense desire,” and this intense desire is usually directed toward God (see Pss 39:7; 71:5; Jer 14:8; 17:13). This virtue to one “who is counting on help from someone else.” That “endurance” is a “constancy in desire that overcomes the trial of waiting, a soul attitude that must struggle to persevere, a waiting that is determined and victorious because it trusts in God (Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, trans. and ed. J. D. Ernest (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1994) 3:414–15, 418)
Romans 5:1-5 [5:1]Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. [2]Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. [3]More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, [4]and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, [5]and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (ESV)
• This understanding of endurance as something that comes from God and is focused on God (see Rom 15:5) runs counter to a do-it-yourself religion. If Christians endure without complaining or growing weary or despondent (see Matt 10:22; 24:13; Mark 13:13; Luke 21:19), it is because God enables it, not because they are extraordinarily heroic.
The “same sufferings” refer to “the sufferings of Christ (1:5). Paul believes that all those connected to Christ crucified will experience suffering, and he implies that they should therefore not disparage Paul for his suffering. They share these sufferings because they share Christ and because they live in a fallen world, inundated by malevolent powers that have pitted themselves against God.
In 2 Cor. 1:7 Paul gives a dire picture of the Corinthians’ disobedience in this letter, but he never loses confidence in them (see 2:3; 7:4; 9:3) because his hope for them centers on what God has done and will do in them. Paul repeats that they share in the sufferings. The sufferings directly refer to the sufferings of Christ. Since the sufferings are connected to Christ, they will receive the same wealth of consolation that Paul has received. Since they share Christ, they share Christ’s sufferings. Since they share Christ’s sufferings, they also share Christ’s comfort.
Paul shares the intensity of his suffering with the Corinthians so “they will regard their own sufferings more patiently, and will also appreciate his own present comfort and derive comfort from it.” (Plummer, The Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, 15.)
We have seen: 1) Giving Hope (2 Cor. 1:3-4), the final two points only briefly: Getting Hope (2 Cor. 1:8-9)
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 [8]For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. [9]Indeed, 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. (ESV)
Having spoken in general terms of affliction and comfort, Paul now mentions more specifically a severe testing through which he had recently gone.
In 2 Cor. 1:8 Paul does not present theological speculation divorced from his own real life experience. He begins this section of the letter with a recent example of his experience of affliction and God’s comfort. He can quote the evidence when time and again God has been faithful to deliver him (2 Cor 4:7–15). “All our afflictions” (1:4) are narrowed down to a specific affliction that took place in Asia. “Asia” refers to the Roman senatorial province that included most of the western part of Asia Minor and its coastal islands in the Aegean Sea. As a senatorial province it was ruled by a governor appointed by the Senate, and Ephesus had become the provincial capital.
When Paul says that he despaired of life itself, Paul faced something that was beyond human survival and was extremely discouraging because he believed it threatened to end his ministry prematurely. The Gr. word for “despaired” lit. means “no passage,” the total absence of an exit (cf. 2 Tim. 4:6). The Corinthians were aware of what had happened to Paul, but did not realize the utter severity of it, or what God was doing through those circumstances (MacArthur, John Jr: The MacArthur Study Bible. electronic ed. Nashville : Word Pub., 1997, c1997, S. 2 Co 1:8).
In 2 Cor. 1:9 Paul continues his description of the affliction in Asia by saying that “we [emphatic with autoi] felt that we had received the sentence of death” The verb eschēkamen (translated “felt” in the NIV) is in the perfect tense, and it may convey the traditional idea of completed action with continuing results or consequences. (P. Barnett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997) 86, n. 32.).
Paul received “the sentence of death” “in order that” (hina) he might rely solely upon God, who raises the dead.
The roots of human pride grow deep, like those of the Acacia trees in the Serengeti desert, and they are not easily dislodged. And Calvin reflects that “we are not brought to real submission until we have been laid low by the crushing hand of God.” (Calvin, The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, 12.)
• We frequently need a good dose of helplessness when we are reduced to extremities and stripped of all false self-confidence before we learn humility and open ourselves up to God’s power. Deep certainty of death for Paul led to a deeper trust in God. (Barnett, The Message of 2 Corinthians, 34.)
This brush with death and God’s deliverance taught him again that all we have comes from God and we cannot rely on our own puny strength but on the God who raises the dead (1:9). Those who rely on themselves for their strength, their righteousness (Rom 10:3; Phil 3), and their wisdom (1 Cor 1:30) cannot rely entirely on God and thus doom themselves to failure. Those who rely on God may appear to be weak and even to be failures, but God does not fail to deliver them. This statement undermines the self-confident rivals who boast of their virtuosity and seem sufficient unto themselves. Paul is the first to acknowledge his own insufficiency (3:5); what sufficiency he has comes entirely from God. What power he has comes from God, not from himself (4:7).
The affliction was so great that it required the direct intervention of God to overrule it in favor of life, and this divine intervention led him to recognize God’s great power even more. When things are at their worst and all human resources are exhausted, then one is most receptive to learning about the power of God.
Paul characterizes God in this verse as the one who raises the dead. The use of the present participle means that he understands this to be a permanent attribute of God God is the one who raised the crucified Jesus from the dead (Rom 8:1; 10:9; Gal 1:1; Col 2:12; 1 Thess 1:10).
Paul does not take the abundant suffering that comes his way with a gloomy stoicism but with a sense of triumph because of the power of Christ’s resurrection. That resurrection insures his own, and he now interprets all that happens to him in life from that perspective. In the midst of suffering he experienced God’s empowering presence and became convinced that it created an even more intimate bond with Christ, who had suffered and died for him. That is why he boasts in his afflictions (11:30; 12:5) and continues to expose himself to unrelenting danger and incessant hardships.
We have seen: Giving Hope (2 Cor. 1:3-4), 2) Getting Hope (2 Cor. 1:8-9), and only briefly:
3) Praise for Hope ( 2 Cor. 1:10-11)
2 Corinthians 1:10-11 [10]He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. [11]You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. (ESV)
Please turn to 2 Timothy 4
In 2 Cor. 1:10 Paul is no less ambiguous about the nature of his deliverance than he is about the nature of the affliction. He has received a temporary reprieve from such a menacing peril. This is not the first time he has been in trouble, nor will it be the last if he continues his ministry.
2 Timothy 4:16-18 [16]At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! [17]But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. [18]The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (ESV)
• When God has rescued you once from great danger, you are confident that God can and will rescue you again. Paul is not simply expressing wishful thinking as one would if one says, “I hope that God will deliver me.” He voices his fundamental confidence that God will deliver him.
The prayers of the Bible that praise God as a deliverer have clearly influenced Paul’s language here (1 Sam 22:2; see Pss 18:2–6; 40:17; 70:5; 72:12; 91:15; 140:7; 144:2; see also Pss 32; 38; 116). He is confident that God will continue to deliver him, but the verdict of death has not been removed. His hope is set on God’s final deliverance from death. The perfect tense of εἰς ὃν ἠλπίκαμεν, “on Him we have set our hope,” places the emphasis on the continuing effects of his confidence in God.
Quote: Barnett comments: “We should remember … that God’s ‘deliverances’ in this life are always partial. We may recover from an illness, but there is no way to sidestep our last enemy, death. We are inextricably tangled in the sorrow and suffering of the world, whose form is passing away. Only in the resurrection of the dead is there perfect deliverance” (Barnett: The Message of 2 Corinthians, 34).
Finally in 2 Cor. 1:11 Paul believes that deliverance comes through intercessory prayer. One gets the impression that the Corinthians have not been faithful in their petitions to God on Paul’s behalf.
Paul does not hide behind the facade of a superman who pretends that he can survive quite well on his own without help from anyone else. He has no qualms about expressing his desperate need for their prayers. Paul is firmly convinced of prayer’s power because he knows that God listens, responds, and delivers. Paul’s personal deliverance is not the sole goal of the prayer but the giving of thanks to God for his joyous deliverance (Wolff, Der zweite Brief des Paulus an die Korinther, 27.).
United thanksgiving to God is one of his great aims. After listing the hardships he has suffered in 4:7–12, he declares in 4:15, “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching ever more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God” (see 9:11–12). Paul is not soliciting their prayers for his benefit alone. The surplus of suffering brings a greater surplus of comfort that overflows into the lives of others. This enrichment leads to prayers of thanksgiving that redound to the glory of God. Paul’s ultimate concern is not his rescue from danger but that God will be honored more and more. The pattern of suffering and deliverance drives him further into the arms of God, who alone has the power to raise the dead, and increases the volume of prayer.
Our difficulties are God-given opportunities to prove His compassion (v.3), comfort (vs. 3-5, 7), power (v.9), deliverance (v.10) gracious favor (v.11) and willingness to hear the prayers of His people (v.11). Answered prayers prompt thanksgiving to God, and thanksgiving honors and glorified Him (Ps. 50:23). Looking back, Paul saw how the deliverance God afforded him and his companions through answered prayer brought praise to God. In this he glimpsed another of God’s purposes in our troubles and sufferings: He uses them to bring praise to His name. God can have no higher end than His own praise. We can have no greater goal than God’s glory (Derek Prime. Let’s Study 2 Corinthians. Banner of Truth Trust. 2000. p. 10).
(Format Note: Some Base Commentary from Garland, David E.: 2 Corinthians. electronic ed. Nashville : Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001, c1999 (Logos Library System; The New American Commentary 29), S. 52)
