2 Corinthians 1:3-7 Study Guide: The God of All Comfort
Community Group Study Guide — The God of All Comfort
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Study Information:
Many of us treat suffering as an unexpected interruption to our lives. Part of the cultural air we breath is an expectation of ease and progress. 2 Corinthians stands out compared to Paul’s other letters with how much Paul wrote about suffering and in a surprise Paul’s opening words are focused on God’s nature to comfort his afflicted people. Usually at the opening of Pau’s letters he began by offering thanksgiving to the church but instead Paul talks about God’s mercy and comfort to the afflicted while using himself as the example. This sets the tone for the letter in that Paul immediately addressed the themes of suffering and criticism of his apostleship. In this section we have some tremendously good news about why we suffer and the nature of God in relationship to our suffering.
God Does Not Promise to Keep Us From Harm
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
In these eight verses the word comfort is used ten separate times and the words affliction and suffering are used seven times. That gives us a good idea of what this passage is about.
Why does Paul open the letter this way? An undercurrent to the letter is that the Corinthians questioned why Paul could be suffering so much and at the same time be an apostle. They seemed to assume that the kind of people God used would have visible success and be kept from this kind of harm and persecution. Paul tied this theme of affliction to his own life, 2 Corinthians 1:6, “if we are afflicted it is for your comfort and salvation;” Paul and his missionary companions experienced suffering and affliction so that they’d be able to bring comfort to the people they served and as a way of identification with Christ (2 Corinthians 1:5). It is important to remember that God does not promise to keep us from harm. That kind of assumption can only really develop in a culture that valued outward appearances or where comfort and ease were the norm. Ironically many works based religions teach that visible blessing of health and wealth are promised when you follow and obeying God. Christian faith does not allow that kind of thinking because if that was the case then Jesus would never have suffered since he was the only perfectly righteous human to ever live.
Paul was confident that even though his life was marked by affliction it was also marked by God’s comfort. First it was in God’s nature because God was the God of mercy and comfort. Mercy means that God does not deal with us according to what we deserve and God’s comfort points to the relief and encouragement that God promises us in and through our relationship with him as father. Second, notice the extreme language that Paul used when he said that God was the God of ALL comfort and that he comforted us in ALL our affliction. Likewise, we share abundantly in Christ suffering and in his comfort too. God was not limited in his ability to bring comfort to any circumstance. This does not promise that we will be removed from the hardship, often God’s comfort comes in the form of God’s strength to endure the hardship. Finally, Paul himself experienced God’s comfort in meaningful ways. Two examples we have are his deliverance from a harsh trial in Asia and his painful visit to the Corinthians that resulted in their repentance (2 Cor 1:8-11, 7:6-7). Paul gives us many examples when things were just really really hard in 2 Corinthians 11 but even in those circumstances he was confident that God’s grace was sufficient for him.
Followers of Jesus are not promised a life free from affliction, but they are promised comfort. How does that comfort come to us?
God’s Comfort in Our Affliction
2 Corinthians 1:4, 7
How does God comfort us? Often God uses people, people who have been through the trenches of suffering and developed a closer relationship with him through it. One reason you may be going through a particular hard season of affliction or suffering is so that God can use you to comfort others in a similar trial. It would be nice if no one had to endures such things but we live in a world marked by sin, evil and death and God responds to that by growing us in our faith and enabling us to use our story to comfort others (Romans 5:3-5). Paul endured his suffering with the good of the Corinthians in mind, sharing in suffering so that they can share in his comfort which came from God (2 Cor 1:6). This means that no suffering is wasted in the Christian life and every follower of Jesus has the chance to minister to other followers whether that be enduring unjust criticism like Paul did, or going through cancer, work place persecution, miscarriage, strained family relationships or any other suffering that is part of living on this side of eternity. We can comfort one another by praying with one another, sharing our experience of God during that trial, being with the each other in the same physical space or sharing scripture. Often, we just need to know that someone else cares and in doing so we learn and remember that God cares.
Another way that God comforts us in our affliction is with the Holy Spirit. Jesus called the Holy Spirit a “comforter” in John 14:16. The word Jesus used for comfort is paraklete and is translated in the ESV as “helper.” This word carries the idea of someone who is side by side with us. Taking this all in, the Holy Spirit is the very presence of God given to his followers to be their helper, advocate and comforter. This language in 2 Corinthians about comfort from God would likely have brought this teaching of Jesus to mind.
Finally, God comforts us with endurance through the trial. 2 Corinthians 1:6-7 is a call to patient endurance and an unshakable hope. Paul’s experience with Jesus and knowledge of God’s word gave him an unshakeable confidence that the Corinthians would experience the hope and comfort of Christ in their suffering because that is what God promised and how God had been for him.
Do you expect comfort from God? We know that following Christ will involve affliction and suffering because it did for Jesus and he has called us to follow him and take up our cross. As you experience suffering, know that it is not wasted and God promises to comfort you and will use you to comfort others in Christ.
At your community group:
Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.
How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week?
Discussion Questions:
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
What are some ways our culture teaches us to expect comfort and ease? Do you think these kinds of expectations have creeped into Christian faith? Why or why not?
How does 2 Corinthians 1:4 give us insight into why God may allow suffering into our lives? How does our suffering have the potential to bless others?
The background of this passage includes Paul fighting the assumption from the Corinthians that suffering was a sign of punishment from God. How does Paul refute that idea, look specifically at verses 5-6.
Why do you think God uses people to comfort us? What are some ways you have experienced comfort from God through others?
