The book of Second Corinthians holds a special place in my heart. I elaborated some on that in my previous post “intro”. I am consistently reminded of God’s grace and its constant presence in my daily life.
God’s grace is given to us, and as His grace flows to us and through us, it should overflow out of us to the world around us in a beautiful display of the Gospel.
We see in this next portion how this overflow of grace is used for his glory in our everyday life as believers and even in the lives of non-believers.
Read 1:3-7
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are afflicted, 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 that we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-7 CSB
Isn’t it life-changing to know that we are not alone. We are sharers in so much through the Gospel. In this passage I see 5 things that we as participants in the Gospel have as a common experience. We share in Comfort, Suffering, Deliverance, Promise, and Forgiveness.
We Share in Comfort & Suffering:
I know that we all have countless stories about these common life experiences. Everyone experiences suffering and loss, and we all seek and long for comfort at times.
Here Paul blesses God for His comforting nature. This type of adoration was not always a part of Paul’s letter greeting. I love that He included this, though. We should praise God with this type of blessing concerning His attributes. As we acknowledge this truth in his presence it builds our faith and strengthens our trust.
Prisilla Shirer said in a lesson that I saw long ago, (and I agree) that we all are either right in the middle of a storm, going into a storm, or just coming out of one.
Please note that we can only experience comfort because we experience suffering and storms.
I don’t think I have to ask if you have ever been in need of comfort. I am confident that we all are familiar with this need.
Verse 3 calls Him the “God of all comfort”. I love that!
Verse 4 expounds on this truth…
“He comforts us in all our affliction…”
While it is great to receive comfort from friends and our community of people, this cannot compare to the presence of God Almighty in a situation. His personal communication through The Comforter, the Spirit cannot be matched.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” His comfort is perfect and available, will you seek it?
In the book Gentle and Lowly you can read this:
“The minimum bar to be enfolded into the embrace of Jesus is simply: open yourself up to him. It is all he needs. Indeed, it is the only thing that he works with. Verse 28 of our passage in Matthew 11 tells us explicitly who qualifies for fellowship with Jesus: “all who labour and are heavy laden.” You don’t need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come. No payment required; he says, “I will give you rest.” His rest is gift, not transaction. Whether you are actively working hard to crowbar your life into smoothness (‘labor”) or passively finding yourself weighed down by something outside your control (“heavy laden”), Jesus Christ’s desire that you find rest, that you come out of the storm, outstrips even your own.”
Dane C. Ortlund – Gentle and Lowly -pg. 21-22
God wants to comfort us. Not only that, it is who He is. In the Gospel of John, Jesus spoke of the Comforter coming to work in our lives. This was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came to the church after Jesus’ ascension. He is referred to as “The Comforter”, and oh how we need Him.
“So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction,”
I’ve had conflicting feelings about this phrase so, let’s look at what this part doesn’t say first:
This doesn’t say that I have to have gone through the same trouble to comfort you. You don’t have to have experienced my exact pain to comfort me. There are times where we may bond over a common struggle, but this isn’t required for us to bear each other’s burdens. It says any kind of affliction. I’m personally glad about this! None of our stories or trials are exactly the same, but, thankfully, our God is!
If that is true then let’s look at what else must be true…
We do not suffer so that we will need comfort, but rather we receive comfort because we suffer. This verse is not saying that God has you going through this trouble because He is going to allow you to comfort someone else later with your experience. This kinda stings a little. I’ve been told this by well intentioned, Godly people, that were genuinly loving on me when I was in need of comfort. I’ve also thought and said this before. I quit saying this some years ago, just because it made me feel a little “cringy”. Now, after being brought back to this book again and again (God does that to me, probably because I’m thickheaded) I am seeing that this suffering we endure is so much bigger than the “cringy” thought that “I am suffering because someone else will need comfort later”. Please know that our suffering does have purpose. We are called to a life that will have suffering. Suffering can come in many ways and serve many purposes, and we can trust that all we endure is used for our good and God’s glory.
Comforting others may not be the purpose for our suffering but God’s glory will be displayed as we do comfort others.
So what is this sentence saying?
It does say that as we go through any affliction we can help comfort others in whatever they are going through. I believe that this is because we share in the suffering-any suffering, not the circumstance but the suffering itself. The fact that we suffer and survive, is testimony that there is victory and life in spite of suffering. So, we should suffer well.
Katherine Wolf (hopeheals.com) said ,in an interview that I saw, that the trail that you blaze through your suffering is illuminating the path for others who are walking in their own wilderness.
No matter the type of suffering, any of us can encourage and comfort one another.
God uses all of our life to display his glory. He uses the good and bad things that we endure.
Susannah Lewis said in her book, You Cant Make this Stuff Up…
“…God knew all along one day my words would have purpose and comfort others. He had it all planned out.
I look back on the events of my life–the happiness and the sadness and loss and redemption and restoration–and it’s like a book. God is writing the story of my life. He’s writing the story of your life. And just like any great read, there has to be plot development. There has to be a test for the testimony. Things have to happen or it would be a snooze fest, wouldn’t it? Sometimes the story leaves us crying, or on the edge of our seats, or laughing, or wondering what is going to happen next. In all of the ups and downs, the characters always have purpose.
When I write fiction, I am in control of the story. I never fear for my characters. I never think, Well, I’m going to allow her to go through some things, and I sure hope she perseveres! No, I already know how the story ends. I’m bigger than the protagonist’s problems. I can change the course of the story with one word. I am the author. I’m in control.
Just as God is the Author of our stories– of our lives
Embrace that. Embrace your purpose and trust the Author.
We can trust Him in our trouble. He is in control, even when we doubt. How we suffer will directly affect how and if we are able to comfort someone else. Strive to suffer well.
How can we possibly do that?
“Through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
We all share in suffering and comfort.
Teresa Hare 
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