2 Corinthians 1:3-7 – God of All Comfort

 "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 receive from God."

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)


Our God can provide us comfort, because we can trust that He's experienced the same Sin that we do.

Comfort is very valuable. It's a great example of something that our flesh and spirit both constantly seek out, but something that can hurt us in a sneaky way if it's not kept in moderation. It's something that can motivate people to be selfish, but also something that be shared with good intention. I don't think it's inherently godly, but God can still work wonders with comfort.

You could argue that comfort is not necessarily the opposite of suffering, but the absence of it. Pleasure is closer to the opposite of suffering, but logically, pleasure on earth always comes with the possibility of that pleasure being taken away  which leads to suffering. So in a way, a world filled with nothing but comfort would be an "ideal" world for us. But we all know that the Lord would never allow things to be so simple, for us to feel fulfilled by only seeking out comfort. Otherwise, no one would need Him, and no one would think they had a reason to put their faith in Him. Jesus couldn't encounter anyone seeking to be healed, and man would see no consequence of sin. We would be comfortable all our lives . . . until they're over. Shoot, we'd have missed something pretty important.

Still, God created us with the ability to be comforted, like a glimpse of what living without sin is like. It can come from a lot of different things, too. Distraction, empathy, community. I want to focus on empathy, because that's where the comfort comes form that Paul is trying to give to the church in Corinth. Comfort in knowing that someone else has gone through the same afflictions that you're going through right now. There's peace in knowing that someone else has experienced what you're struggling with, and saw the other side of it. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians because he heard that the church was struggling. So he's encouraging them in the persecution that they're receiving, having gone through it himself because he cares for them.

We're called to share comfort just the same. We go through struggles. We can't possibly see what the purpose is for all of those struggles, but oftentimes we understand that they can help strengthen us and build us up. That's true, but we're so focused on our own development that we forget  we're not put through our struggles only for ourselves! We also experience hardships so that we can understand and give comfort to those who experience the same hardships. Love gives us an obligation to lift others up in the same way we've been lifted up  by God, through others or by God, through the Holy Spirit. For everybody.

Our God demonstrates a mercy that is so infinite that we're not even capable of fully understanding it. We have a God that sent His own son in human form, to bear the weight of our sins that He alone did not deserve. And you know what? He felt every single bit of it. No pain was passed by Him. No temptation was He spared from. He was never kept safe, or given any comfort outside of what is openly available to us to the Lord our Father. We have a God that has the power to create the universe, the wisdom to know every thing that happens in it, and the presence to communicate to us and us to Him. Yet, He willingly sacrificed to experience our afflictions just as we do. How's that for empathy?

"Let me not idolize comfort. But give me the heart to share the comfort I receive with the people around me that need it."

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