Opening illustration: A medical school program in New York gives students who are training for geriatric medicine a unique opportunity. They experience life as nursing home residents for 10 days. They learn some of the struggles of maneuvering a wheelchair and being raised out of bed with a lift, as well as reaching the shower bar from a seated position. One student learned how little things counted for a lot - like lowering nameplates on doors so that patients can find their rooms more easily, or putting the TV remote in a reachable location.
Although the students still can’t fully relate, they will be better able to serve the elderly in their future endeavors.
Let us turn to 2 Corinthians 1 and check out what kind of training does God want to give us while comforting us …
Introduction: Where do you turn for comfort when you encounter loss, pain, or disappointment? Some people turn to food. For some reason, certain foods - like fried chicken, mashed potatoes, apple pie, and ice cream - seem to make us feel better. There’s actually some science behind comfort food. Fatty, sugar-laden foods slow the production of certain stress hormones, so we calm down. There’s some psychology behind it, too. Men typically turn to heartier foods such as meat loaf, pasta, mashed potatoes, or stew, because those were the foods their mothers used to make for them. Women, on the other hand, tend to avoid labor-intensive foods when times get tough, and opt for snacks—chocolate, chips, ice cream. If food doesn’t work, how about a drink? A cup of hot chocolate usually hits the spot. Some people go for the harder stuff. They don’t call it Southern Comfort for nothing.
Some people turn inward when life hurts. They pull back from the normal routine and relationships. They become introspective and take long walks in the woods, listen to music, or write in a journal. Others turn outward and get active; they socialize, volunteer, or visit family and friends. Some people say that comfort is simply a matter of time - keep up the routine, let the days pass, and eventually you’ll begin to feel better: time heals all wounds.
I suppose any one of these might offer a measure of comfort in a time of loss or pain, but are they really enough? Macaroni and cheese might offer some solace after a bad day at work, but it’s not going to cut it when something really bad happens. When life hurts, we need something - or someone - better than that.
Paul wrote 2 Corinthians in response to a difficult time in his life. ...
Why does God Comfort us?
1. Comfort those in trouble (vs. 3-4)
The Lord God is the source of all consolation. The Third Person in the Trinity is also identified and synonym with being ‘The Comforter.’ Paul delighted, as all should do, to trace all his comforts to God; and Paul, as all Christians have, had sufficient reason to regard God as the source of true consolation. There is no other real source of happiness but God; and he is able abundantly, and willing to impart consolation to his people. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - A solemn and beautiful introduction, highly suitable to the apostolic spirit. The Father of mercies, and God of all comfort - Mercies are the fountain of comfort; comfort is the outward expression of mercy. God shows mercy in the affliction itself. He gives comfort both in and after the affliction. Therefore is he termed, the God of all comfort. Blessed be this God!
Paul does not say that this was the only design which God had in comforting them that they might be able to impart comfort to others; but he does say that this is an important and main purpose. It is an object which he seeks, that his people in their afflictions should be supported and comforted; and for this purpose he fills the hearts of his ministers with consolation; gives them personal experience of the sustaining power of grace in their trials; and enables them to speak of what they have felt in regard to the consolations of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. It is only by personal experience that we are able to impart consolation to others. Paul refers here undoubtedly to the consolations which are produced by the evidence of the pardon of sin, and of acceptance with God, and the hope of eternal life. These consolations abounded in him and his fellow apostles richly; and sustained by them he was able also to impart like consolation to others who were in similar circumstances of trial.
2. Consolation & Salvation (vs. 5-6)
As we are called to experience the same sufferings which Christ endured; as we are called to suffer in his cause, and in the promotion of the same object. The sufferings which they endured were in the cause of Christ and his gospel; were endured in endeavoring to advance the same object which Christ sought to promote; and were substantially of the same nature. They arose from opposition, contempt, persecution, trial, and want, and were the same as the Lord Jesus was himself subjected to during the whole of his public life. We are to be “partakers of Christ’s sufferings.”
By means of Christ, or through Christ, consolation is abundantly imparted to us. Paul regarded the Lord Jesus as the source of consolation, and felt that the comfort which he imparted, or which was imparted through him, was more than sufficient to overbalance all the trials which he endured in this cause. The comforts which he derived from Christ were those, doubtless, which arose from his presence, his supporting grace, from his love shed abroad in the heart; from the success which he gave to his gospel, and from the hope of reward which was held out to him by the Redeemer, as the result of all his sufferings. And it may he observed as an universal truth, that if we suffer in the cause of Christ, if we are persecuted, oppressed, and calumniated on his account, he will take care that cur hearts shall be filled with consolation.
For whatsoever comfort God is pleased to communicate to us, it is not kept in our breasts, and for our own use, but we immediately and readily impart it to you, that you may share with us the advantage of it, and be comforted together with us; that your faith in the doctrine of salvation may be established, your hope of it increased, and that you may be more comfortably assured you are in the way to it, and shall enjoy it.
3. Enduring Suffering (v. 6)
By your enduring; or by your patience in such sufferings. You are called to endure the same kind of sufferings; and patience in such trials will tend to promote your salvation. So when we think about afflictions, we think about them as the things that we expect in the Christian life, and we think also about them as things that God had judged us worthy to experience, simply because he has implanted the divine life within us. It’s not any merit that we have, of course. It’s simply that by his grace, he’s brought us to Christ. And the Christian life is a life of affliction. How can it be anything otherwise? “The servant shall not be above his master,” the Lord said. And he said further, “If they hated me, they will hate you.” And so, consequently, if we are truly representative of him and of human nature, it’s still human nature, than we expect the same kind of response. It’s inevitable. It’s a privilege.
Now, Paul speaks of present afflictions. He doesn’t tell us precisely what they were. It would be nice if we knew. But I sometimes feel that the reason that the apostle doesn’t tell us precisely what his troubles are in given situations, may be because the Holy Spirit that guided him in his letter writing, particularly his inspired letter writing, did that so we may properly make application to all of the experience that are similar. And so, consequently, when Paul was in Ephesus, he had such an affliction there that it was almost the end of his life physically. He said he despaired even of life. What it was, we don’t know. Whether it was participation in the riot that took place there described in Acts chapter 19 - that surely would fit the bill - or whether it was one of those experiences described in the eleventh chapter - so many of them that it’s hard to think of any particular one. Almost any kind of affliction that we’ve ever suffered, the apostle can say, “I’ve suffered that also.” Was it illness? Contemporary New Testament scholarship tends to center upon that as perhaps the apostle’s affliction. Some even think it was violence and, believe it or not, the fear of being lynched, for that was not uncommon in those days either. God’s comfort is what keeps us going …
4. Comfort Sharing (v. 7)
It is evident from this, that the Corinthians had been subjected to trials similar to those which the apostle had endured. It is not known to what afflictions they were then subjected; but it is not improbable that they were exposed to some kind of persecution and opposition. Such trials were common in all the early churches; and they served to unite all the friends of the Redeemer in common bonds, and to make them feel that they were one. They had united sorrows; and they had united joys; and they felt they were tending to the same heaven of glory. United sorrows and united consolations tend more than anything else to bind people together. We always have a “brotherly” feeling for one who suffers as we do; or who has the same kind of joy which we have.
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. Many of us will find this in ourselves. We all struggle with it sometimes. I do not want to pray about a certain matter because, if I pray about it, that is admitting that I cannot handle it myself. Paul must have struggled the same way. I don’t want to share it with others for the fear that they might look down upon you … Just as we are called to partake in Christ’s suffering; we should partake in each other’s despairs too. 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 prayers of the righteous saints will bring great deliverance.
I believe the older you grow as a Christian the more this becomes true. 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. Older Christians easily forget that younger Christians are watching them all the time. When we give way to complaining and murmuring about our circumstances we are teaching these younger Christians, teaching them as if we sat down with them and waggled our fingers at them, that God is faithless, that the Scriptures are not true, that we can get no adequate support for what we 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."
Illustration: I was reading an article by Chuck Colson not long ago in which he said that he often asked himself why he had to go to prison as a result of Watergate. Legally, there was no reason why he should have been put in prison. Nevertheless, he ended up there, and, for a long time, he struggled with that. Why did he have to suffer the humiliation, the shame, the disgrace, and the discontent of prison? But then the answer began to come. While he was in prison he learned what prisoners go through. He saw these forgotten men and women of American society, the awful injustices they often face, the difficulty, even the impossibility of recovering themselves, and there was born in him a great sense of compassion and a desire to help. Since he has gotten out of prison, he has devoted his whole life and ministry to going back in and helping these men. Now wonderful stories are beginning to come out from prisons all over America of dramatic changes in human lives because Chuck Colson was sent to prison.
Application: Sometimes God gives us the opportunity to use the lessons we’ve learned and the comfort He’s given us during difficult times to help others in special ways. Paul indicated this when he wrote: “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 tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble” (2 Cor. 1:3-4).
Are you using the lessons you’ve learned in your trials to touch the lives of others? Remember - even little things can mean a lot.
The comfort God has given us
He wants us now to share
With others who are suffering
So they will sense His care. —Sper
God doesn’t comfort us to make us comfortable; He comforts us to make us comforters.
