Today we begin our study of the book of 2nd Corinthians.
During the last few months, as we have studied through the book of 1st Corinthians, the extent of the problems at the church in Corinth became apparent to us. The church was characterized by disunity, dissention, arguing, and immorality. Factions had developed, with each faction promoting the leader it followed and arguing with the others about whose theology and teachings were supreme. Some people desired the more visible spiritual gifts, and the miraculous spiritual gifts became like prideful badges of spiritual maturity.
During our study of 1st Corinthians, we recognized that many of these problems are still with the church now 2,000 years later. In Corinth, however, the problems had simply gotten out of hand. The church’s meetings were disorganized, even chaotic, as various people shouted for recognition to demonstrate their spiritual prowess by speaking in tongues, demonstrating their gifts of preaching and teaching, or even asking questions or giving opinions. Even the fellowship meal and Lord’s Supper, which were celebrated weekly when the church met, were chaotic, as people sought to impress others with their lavish meals, refused to share their food with other Christians who had less. Perhaps worst of all, some Christians got drunk at the Corinthian church’s weekly fellowship meal!
Paul had established the church at Corinth just a few years before and had stayed at Corinth for a year and a half, most likely in 52-53 A.D. (see Acts 18:1-19). When he had left Corinth, the church was functioning smoothly and was well-grounded theologically. Less than two years later, it had lost its love for the gospel, had lost its witness in the culture, and was on the point of breaking apart. It’s no wonder his first letter to the church at Corinth, most likely written in the spring of 55 A.D., contains some blunt--even harsh--criticism and instruction. We know this letter as the book of 1st Corinthians.
The book of 2nd Corinthians has a different tone. It was written a few months later, after the Christians at Corinth had read his first letter. They had taken his criticisms to heart and had implemented many of his instructions. In this 2nd letter to the Corinthians, Paul expresses his joy that things have turned around, and he encourages them to grow even deeper in their faith. He also encourages them to be generous with their gifts to the Christians in Jerusalem, who were very poor and under great persecution. (Paul first discussed the collection for the Jerusalem church in 1 Corinthians.)
But the book of 2nd Corinthians is not all praise for the church at Corinth. The first 9 chapters are full of joy and thankfulness for what they have accomplished in so short a time. In the latter part of the book, however, Paul does not pull any punches. Some of the Christians in Corinth continued in their resistance to sound teaching. He calls them false teachers and urges the church to reject them.
In 2nd Corinthians, we see what we might call Paul’s devotion--pure devotion to the gospel and his Savior and his pure devotion to theological and doctrinal truth. We also see a human, personal side of Paul here more than we see in any of his other letters. While many of Paul’s writings are more quotable--for example, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 13, and Ephesians 2 & 5--nowhere else in his writings do we see so much of the inner Paul, as he frankly discusses his own weaknesses and gives us the prescription for dependence on Christ alone. That is expressed in what we might call the key passage of 2nd Corinthians: 2 Corinthians 12:10--When I am weak, then am I strong.
Paul begins his 2nd letter to the Corinthian Christians in this way:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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 though 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.
Paul chooses to open this letter with remarks about suffering and comfort for two reasons. First, as was the case with Christians everywhere at that time, the Corinthian Christians were suffering. They expressed their faith in a culture that did not accept it and, indeed, dealt with Christians harshly and openly. In the pluralistic, philosophical culture, neighbors and even family rejected those who believed in the Savior of the world to the exclusion of pagan gods and religious ideas. Christians were regularly ostracized in the community, Christian laborers were often not hired, and businesses operated by Christians were shunned. There was, indeed, an economic and social price to being known as a Christian.
The second reason Paul opened this letter with a discussion of suffering and comfort is that he wanted his readers to know that he, too, was the subject of discrimination and suffering. He was opposed at ever stop in his missionary journeys, mobs gathered and threatened him and his followers, and many times he was forced to flee. In reminding the Corinthians of his own plight, he sought to let them know that he was not immune to the same suffering--or even worse suffering--they were enduring, and that God gives comfort in the midst of suffering and persecution.
It is also obvious from these opening verses of 2nd Corinthians that God allows suffering to be used for positive purposes in the Christian’s life.
People look differently at suffering and persecution. Some Christians attribute suffering to sin. If I suffer, they say, then there must be sin in my life. All I need to do is confess it and ask for forgiveness, and the suffering will end, people will respect me, my business will prosper, my health will improve, and so forth. Christians, some will tell us, are meant to experience the good things--comfort, freedom from pain, loving respect in the community, prosperity in all they do, and to have health and wealth. This is not a new attitude. In fact, we see it in the frustrated friends of Job in the Old Testament who were struck by the fact Job must have harbored some secret sin to be suffering the way he suffered. We also see it in the history of the church. In the middle ages, to be born into a wealthy family or into nobility was seen as a blessing of God. After the reformation, there was the idea in much of the Protestant movement that leaders in the church should come from more prosperous members, and that material prosperity signified the hand of God and spiritual maturity.
Some people hold that suffering and persecution are simply not necessary for the Christian. If I suffer or if I am the victim of discrimination or persecution as a Christian, they will say, then I have just not accepted what God has already done for me. All I need to do is get right with God, accept His will and do His will, and then the suffering will end because suffering is not in His will for me.
Others blame God, either for causing suffering or for being unable or unwilling to end it. Some of you may remember a book several years ago entitled Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. The author reasons in that book that if God is all-powerful, then He is not good because He allows His people to hurt. In other words, in His lack of goodness He causes me to suffer. On the other hand, the author continues, God may be completely good, in which case He cannot be powerful enough to end pain and suffering, because if He were powerful enough, He would not allow me to suffer.
Our passage today does not teach any of these viewpoints. Rather, Paul gives us great insight about suffering and comfort and states the eternal truth that God uses suffering in our lives.
God uses pain & suffering in His plan for us
Usually, if we are in the midst of negative circumstances and persecution, this idea is hard to accept. We tend to focus on ourselves, our pain, our discomfort, and pray for God to intervene and end it. That’s the natural response.
Paul reminds the Corinthians, who evidently were in the midst of persecution and hardship, that he himself had suffered even greater hardship. We know of many of the perils Paul endured in his work for the Lord. Perhaps in this passage, Paul is referring to these physical hardships, threats from those who opposed the gospel, and, as well, perhaps even sickness. His suffering was an object lesson for his readers, who also were suffering. Paul lets them know that his own experience was even more painful than theirs, even to the point of feeling his life was nearing an end.
For more on the biblical perspective of this subject, turn to the book of 1 Peter for a moment. In chapter 4, Peter tells his readers not to be surprised that they will suffer as Christians and reminds them that if they suffer because of their faith, they should consider themselves blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you (1 Peter 4:15). He adds that Christians suffer according to God’s will, and that when this happens, they should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good (4:19). Indeed, suffering because of faith seems to be the norm, not the exception, for the Christian, according to the New Testament epistles. Peter’s advice to continue to do good in the midst of suffering and trials is the basic job of the Christian. Notice that both Peter and Paul talk about suffering as a Christian. Peter makes the point--and I am doing some interpreting here--that if you suffer because you have done wrong or broken the law . . . well, that’s the consequences you’re going to get and you should expect them. To put it in a modern setting, there is a great difference between the Christian whose business declines because he or she has taken a stand for righteousness and the Christian who has tried to cheat in business and loses income because of it. For the one, the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you; for the other, you reap what you sow.
Suffering can increase faith & dependence
This point seems to me to be the heart of Paul’s message. In my own life, I look back at the 26 years I spent working in corporate and organizational management. Every two weeks, just like clockwork, I received a paycheck. It didn’t matter if I had been sick part of that time or even the entire two weeks. The paycheck arrived on time. It didn’t matter if I had achieved great things or had made little progress. The paycheck came as scheduled. Trouble was, I had a lot of faith in that paycheck’s arrival. My greatest fear was that some day, that paycheck might not arrive. There would be a layoff or a business downturn, or I would be transferred to work for a manager who might not be pleased with my work enough to keep me on the payroll. I was focused on me, and not God, and my greatest fear was the prospect that some day I might not have the security of a paycheck.
So where am I today? No corporate paycheck. In 1986, I quit and entered seminary because God had moved in my life to desire to do understand more about Him and how to tell others about Him. While attending seminary, I worked in the seminary’s marketing department--still earning a paycheck, though it was quite a bit smaller--so much smaller I learned quickly the experience of depending on God rather than on myself. After graduation, God did not provide a pastoral ministry right away, so I again entered organizational management for awhile, and during that time we became involved in this church. Meanwhile, God continued to work on my perspective, and in 1996 I left my paycheck-dependence altogether, ever more involved in this ministry as part of the teaching team. I did not know exactly what God was calling me to do, but it involved a greater role in our church. Since we do not have a vocational or paid pastorate, I still work in a vocation, but it’s a commission-based income. No paycheck; just month-by-month dependence on God for our needs. But the biggest purpose of my life, other than my personal relationship with God and responsibilities as husband, is this ministry, for which God prepared me and into which He thrust me suddenly in August 2000. When I say He prepared me, I mean a great deal of that preparation was showing us how He, and not we ourselves, cares for our every need and comforts us when life isn’t going our way.
As many of you know, we have struggled in other ways as a family, through some pretty serious difficulties. Twice in the last decade I have been at death’s very door. Shara and I well remember that night back in 1992 when I went into cardiac and respiratory arrest. After I was revived, the doctor told my wife he doubted I would live through the night. That night, in the ICU, it was God and I alone together, it seemed, because I was conscious the entire night and knowing my life, minute by minute, was His continuing gift of grace and care. It was during those hours when I learned to know completely the dependence on Him and the peace that comes when we put ourselves in His hands without reserve. It was that night, too, I learned His will was not for me to cry out for Him to save me from the peril, but simply to submit to His will. Yes, the reality of our dependence on God totally can be very, very real.
Similarly, Paul addresses the purpose of the problems he encountered. They happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God (1:9). Paul relied on God and His will, not Paul and Paul’s own will. And in case some of his readers might doubt the power of God to care and comfort His children, Paul adds that God, on whom they depend, is the God Who raises the dead. The message is clear--when we put it in that context, dealing with our needs and our suffering must be a no-brainer for God, because His powers include the defeat of death itself!
Do you endure suffering and trials? Do you encounter situations and difficulties you can’t solve yourself? Have you experienced life in such a way that the outcome is completely up to God and not up to you? I hope so. Situations in which we are completely dependent on Him enable God to care for us and allow us to realize just how much He cares for us. They make us God-reliant, when our human nature is to be self-reliant. Paul understood this as he faced his trials, even to the point of believing he was about to die.
Suffering equips us to help others
Paul gives us another purpose for suffering and trials: 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 our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
In other words, God expects us to pass it on! . . . by experiencing God’s comfort ourselves, we can share it and reflect it when we seek to help others in the midst of their suffering and trials. Paul was reassuring the Corinthians that he understood what they were going through and what they were feeling, and he let them know he had experienced the same pain and the same feelings and now sought to give them the comfort he himself had received.
This is a strong and effective principle. It makes us able to know and even feel the depth of despair and pain another is experiencing, and thus to be more understanding and effective in giving assistance and comfort to them. It is a powerful principle for the Christian.
As we think about what God has told us this morning through the words of Paul, remember suffering and trials are natural for the Christian. Sometimes, bad things do happen, and every negative thing that occurs is not because we have sinned or somehow lost God’s grace or favor. The trials help us. In the midst of them, we are blessed, for the Spirit and glory of God rests on us. We become stronger. We learn to empathize with the trials of others and to help them through those trials. We experience dependence on God in place of self-dependence. We grow deeper in our faith, and we can have the assurance that we are in God’s plan for us.
