Comfort

Every one of the letters of the apostle Paul, and indeed all of the books of the Bible, have their own particular appeal, and that is no less true of this great second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. What is the appeal of this book? I suppose it appeals to different people in different ways. When we read the Bible through the context and turmoil of our own lives, there are things that speak to us and we appreciate the material for that reason.

When they met in Macedonia, Titus told Paul that the church had dealt properly with the man whose sin had caused a significant problem (2 Cor. 2:5-11). Paul’s letter was well received, and the Corinthians were encouraged in that. But Titus would go on to inform Paul that apparently people had come to Corinth who were telling the church there that Paul was not really an apostle.

As I have studied this, it seems to me that there are a variety of reasons why different forms of suffering come into our lives. One is that such things are just common to humanity in our sinful world. Job was expressing that idea when he wrote, “Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” (5:7).

We have another example in the New Testament of how suffering results in God’s glory. In John 9 we have the story of the man who was born blind. The disciples saw this man who had been begging by the gate. They assumed that sin was the cause of his blindness, and so they asked Jesus whether it was the man’s sin or that of his parents. Since the man was born blind, perhaps the disciples were wondering if God had foreseen that the man was going to sin and punished him before he committed it. Jesus replied in a very profound way. He said that the man’s blindness was not caused by sin, but that the glory of God might be revealed.

As I read here about God’s comfort, I think Paul also says that because God comforts us in our suffering, we learn to trust Him. If you look back over your life and conclude that in the midst of a horrible situation, you knew that God was there upholding you and strengthening you, then you also know that you can trust God now.