God is Our Comfort
I am a writer of choral music. I love the mix of harmonies and the beauty of a good lyric sung by a choir. Over the last three years, I have had many opportunities and blessings to rub shoulders with some of the great church choral writers of our day. Men and women who craft a song to be sung to the glory of God. Over the last couple of weeks, I have started writing a new song. It is on this very subject of God as our comforter. In His great mercy, He brings us comfort even in the darkest of times. Comfort is something we have needed over the course of the last couple of years. Comfort because of loss, because of loneliness, because of helplessness… There is a wonderful song entitled “No Not One” by George C. Hugg and Johnson Oatman Jr. The words go like this: There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one, no not one. None else could heal all our soul’s diseases. No not one, no not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There’s not an hour that He is not near us. No, not one, no not one. No night so dark but His love can cheer us. No not one, no not one. Jesus can comfort us because He knows. There is nothing we have gone through or will go through that He already hasn’t. He has been lonely, saddened, without, beaten, and bruised. He has walked to the cross for us so we would have the gifts of mercy, grace, and comfort.
Vs. 1-7 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother: To God’s church at Corinth, with all the saints who are throughout Achaia. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise 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 as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so through Christ our comfort also overflows. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is experienced in your 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 share in the comfort.
Paul is writing his second letter to the church at Corinth along with Timothy. We also need to note, this letter is also addressed to the saints throughout the region of Achaia. It was a message Paul wanted to share among all the churches in the area. He begins with his regular greeting but ends with this: the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. God is a God of comfort, He sent Jesus to comfort and then has sent the Holy Spirit as our comforter. And God comforts so that we can also be a comfort to others. The Greek word for comfort is paraklésis. It is a legal term and refers to a calling to one’s aid. It is a holy urging for encouragement and comfort. God calls us, that holy urging – to comfort as He comforts and to stand close by as He stands close by. Paul explains it this way: the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, and through Him, our comfort will also overflow to others around us. The comfort we receive from God is to overflow to others. We can now empathize with the sufferings of us and become a comfort and encourager to others. As Paul says, the hope is the comfort we receive from God will be given to those who will then also give comfort.
What a powerful expression of faith – and it is so needed in the world right now. We can turn on the TV or read an online newspaper or magazine article and really get stressed or depressed or both. All around us are words that are meant to hurt or get us going. Our voice should not be added to that line of conversation. Instead, we need to speak words of encouragement, words of life, words of hope, words of comfort. A kind word will go a long way to defeating the words of hopelessness we hear every day. I know that when I speak a kind word, the person’s face and body language literally changes before my eyes. As people who have been comforted by God, let’s extend that same comfort to others.
Vs. 8-11 For we don’t want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction that took place in Asia: we were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life. Indeed, we personally had a death sentence within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and He will deliver us. We have put our hope in Him that He will deliver us again while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many. For this is our confidence: The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with God-given sincerity and purity, not by fleshly wisdom but by God’s grace. Now we are writing nothing to you other than what you can read and also understand. I hope you will understand completely— as you have partially understood us—that we are your reason for pride, as you are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.
Have you ever been overwhelmed by stress or struggles? Has life ever just beaten you down? Your strength is gone and you despaired even of life itself. I think many of us have been down a lonely road of hopelessness at some point in our lives. Maybe that’s where you are right now. Paul reminds us – when we are there – at the end of our rope – God is there right beside us. Things that are beyond our strength are right in God’s. When we are weak, He is strong. When we can’t go on, He will carry us. These are not just trite words. He is the God who parted the seas, healed the sick and raised the dead. He bore the burdens of world and he can bear your burdens as well. I believe that God is calling us, as His people, to look around and see who is in need of comfort. Who is in need of encouragement. Who is in need of someone else in their corner. God, who delivered Paul time and time again from death, is the same God who will deliver us as well. And then, we can walk along side someone else who may need God’s strength as well.
The last couple of weeks I have been reading about several people who have given up on life and committed suicide. Young people. I read about those who accidently overdose on drugs because they feel they need something to help them cope. People are crying for help. They feel they are drowning and can’t swim. I believe we need to be more and more aware than ever of friends and neighbors. Is there a need for comfort? It’s so easy to insulate ourselves in our own little world – I know I sure can. Instead, I have been encouraged to listen to God’s holy urging to be a comfort.
Vs. 15-24 I planned with this confidence to come to you first, so you could have a double benefit, and to go on to Macedonia with your help, then come to you again from Macedonia and be given a start by you on my journey to Judea. So when I planned this, was I irresponsible? Or what I plan, do I plan in a purely human way so that I say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” simultaneously? As God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes and no.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—did not become “Yes and no”; on the contrary, a final “Yes” has come in Him. For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in Him. Therefore, the “Amen” is also spoken through Him by us for God’s glory. Now it is God who strengthens us, with you, in Christ and has anointed us. He has also sealed us and given us the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts. I call on God as a witness, on my life, that it was to spare you that I did not come to Corinth. I do not mean that we have control of your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because you stand by faith.
In these verses, Paul is defending himself against an accusation from the church at Corinth. They have accused him of being unreliable because He didn’t come when he said he would, and instead, sent a letter. Paul’s first visit to Corinth became a visit filled with confrontation. There was a lot of things the Corinthian church needed to fix quite frankly. This wasn’t a pleasant visit, so, instead of coming back after his trip to Macedonia, he sent a very severe letter by way of Titus. This letter is mentioned later in chapter 7. Apparently this letter has been lost to us – perhaps because it was so severe. Paul then writes this letter to clear up any problems that have occurred. This is why he goes into great depth to remind them of God’s faithfulness. It is because God is faithful, that Paul has learned faithfulness. His yes means yes and his no means no. They can count on it. In fact, Paul reminds us, Jesus is our final “Yes”. God’s promises became Yes in Christ Jesus. He is the Amen. God is the One who strengthens. Christ has anointed and sealed us. His Spirit has been given to us – and He is our comfort. We can count on it.
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