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. He was not a faithful minister because he did not care about the people. They were even making accusations that when he was collecting money for the poor of Jerusalem he was not really collecting it for the poor, but for himself. They said Paul was growing rich at the Corinthians’ expense. They even said that Paul was inconsistent.
Now from what we know about Paul it is hard to imagine that he could be accused of this. But they said to the Corinthians, “Look, Paul told you he was going to come to see you, and then he did not come. He is not a man of his word.” In response to this, Paul wrote part of 2 Corinthians to answer these accusations, as well as to explain why he acted the way he did in his change of plans.
The first eleven verses of chapter 1 focus on the comfort God gives to us in our suffering. While some commentators view verses 3-11 as an introduction, I agree with others who maintain that it is not an introduction, but is really the first part of Paul’s argument. There seem to be two reasons why Paul did not come to the Corinthians when he said. The first is that he wanted to spare them pain concerning how to correctly handle the man who had caused Paul himself pain. The second reason is that he experienced great difficulties in Asia, some kind of severe suffering that he does not explain, but which was so bad that he despaired even of the loss of his life.
We do not often think of Paul in that way. Here he is, an apostle engaged in God’s work, caring for the churches, who is, nevertheless, so distressed by his suffering in the province of Asia that he is concerned about his very life. We look at our lives, and we talk about all the things that are not going well. Maybe our morning did not at all go as planned, or perhaps we are having trouble with someone at work. Or we have a pain in our back that is bothering us. But then we look at all the problems Paul had to endure, and it makes probably most of our problems fade into insignificance. That a servant of the Lord like Paul suffered is important because it shows us that God allows things to come into all of our lives for a variety of reasons.
I have looked at this subject in Scripture from time to time because like any pastor, I often am talking to people who are suffering from one calamity or another. And a question they rightly ask is this: “Why is this particular thing happening to me?” Someone is stricken with cancer at a young age. Or someone has lost a close member of their family, such as a husband, a wife, or a child. Perhaps it is a loss of a job. They all say that they are trying to live as a Christian, and are trying to be obedient to the Lord. They want to know why these things are happening to them.
