2 Corinthians 1:3-7 ESV
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.”
Mercy, Compassion, and Comfort
Our God is the God of mercies (compassions) and the God of
all comfort, so I want to look first of all at what that means. Mercy is “compassion
(pity), i.e. a deep feeling about someone’s difficulty or misfortune. It is
used of the deep feelings God has for all of us, and powerfully shows and
shares in those who are following him” (source: https://biblehub.com/greek/3628.htm).
The Greek word for “comfort” is “paraklesis” which means: a
call (personal urging), a personal exhortation, a legal advocate, a close call
that reveals how the Lord weighs in the relevant facts (evidence), a holy urging
which is used of the Lord directly motivating and inspiring believers to carry
out his plan, delivering his particular message to someone else; it means
exhortation, warning, encouragement, and comfort (source: https://biblehub.com/greek/3874.htm).
So, this comfort never involves lying to people to make them
feel better. It does not encourage them away from walking with the Lord in
order to ease their suffering, either, which is what many will say. It doesn’t
ignore the circumstances, either, and thus lead people to just go watch a movie
or to escape into something else so that they don’t have to feel the pain,
which resolves nothing, and sometimes actually adds to the suffering.
This comfort is biblical comfort as God supplies us when we
are going through times of difficulty and/or persecution and/or hardships. And
it is a holy urging to respond to our circumstances in the way in which God
instructs us to respond. And that involves trusting him through it all,
believing in his sovereignty, believing that he has a plan and a purpose for it
all, and yielding our lives to his control and to carrying out his purposes for
our lives through our suffering and in spite of our suffering, too.
And this comfort incorporates compassion and mercy and deep
feelings about other people’s difficulties or misfortunes, so it is not cold
and unconcerned, and it is not just throwing out a formula to someone and telling
them to just go do this and that everything will be ok. It involves sympathy
and love and sometimes crying with them and hugs and just listening to their
cries. And then comes the comfort, but with sensitivity to their emotions while
not giving them a false message of hope.
For, if we do not give people true hope and godly solutions
for their difficulties that is no comfort at all. Lies do not comfort. They may
feel good temporarily, but they resolve nothing and the pain is still there.
So, we need to speak the truth in love, but it must be in love with tenderness
and compassion towards those who are hurting and with sensitivity to know when
to just listen and when to speak. But to never speak, and to never help, and to
never urge is not true comfort. We need to be Jesus to people.
Our Sufferings Have Purpose
God does not arbitrarily just throw us out there into the
world and just tell us to figure it out. If we are his children, by God-given
faith in him, meaning that we have died with him to sin that we might live to
him and to his righteousness, he has a plan and a purpose for our lives. And he
gives us guidance and direction in how we are to live those lives for his
purposes and for us his glory via his written word (the Bible) and via the Holy
Spirit.
And he tells us in his word that if we follow him with our
lives that it is going to be a life of suffering for the sake of his name, for
the sake of his gospel, and for the sake of righteousness. That is the reality!
For through suffering we learn to depend on God and not on ourselves. We also
learn humility, compassion, mercy, tenderness, love, forgiveness, perseverance,
and steadfastness in faith, and we grow to maturity in Christ through
suffering.
[Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet
4:12-17; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4;
Matt 5:10-12; Lu 21:12-19; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12]
And one of the reasons he allows us to go through times of suffering
is so that we can be compassionate and merciful and helpful to others who are
going through similar sufferings as we have had to suffer through in our lives.
We can feel what they feel because we have gone through it ourselves, and so we
should have great sensitivity in knowing how best to respond to them in their
suffering.
And we should understand that just giving someone a pat on
the back is not helpful. They need godly counsel, too. We should share with
them a Scripture verse or a hymn or a spiritual song or a spiritual poem or a writing
or a speaking of some kind that would be biblical and that would lift their
spirits and/or that would urge them to seek God’s counsel and wisdom. Even just
an encouragement to keep looking to God for their help is good!
We do not want to give worldly and ungodly counsel to them,
though, no matter how good it may sound. For it is not true comfort if we
comfort them with lies and with counsel not of God, which is often opposed to
God. I see a lot of this on Facebook memes which have a hint of Christianity in
them but which give out ungodly and worldly and fleshly counsel, and that is
not good, and it is not helpful.
We want to lead people to God, to Jesus Christ, and to his
word and to the truths contained within, for there they will find true comfort
and true solutions for what they are going through. Only through walks of faith
in Jesus Christ where we submit to his Lordship, and we trust in his counsel
and wisdom, and we follow him in his ways and in his truth will we find true
peace, comfort, encouragement, and hope that will last.
Then, no matter what any of us are going through, no matter
how hard the trial may be, we can say with the writer of this song, “It is well
with my soul.” All glory to God! Only in his strength, power, and wisdom!
It
Is Well with My Soul
Lyrics by H. G. Spafford, 1873
Music by Philip P. Bliss, 1876
When peace, like a river, attendeth my
way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to
say,
It is well; it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless
estate,
And hath shed his own blood for my
soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious
thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it
no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my
soul!
And, Lord, haste the day when my faith
shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord
shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul,
It is well; it is well with my soul.
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