2 corinthians 1:8-11 Study Guide: The God of Hope

Community Group Study Guide — The God of Hope

2 Corinthians 1:8-11

Study Information:

Throughout 2 Corinthians we will have an opportunity to ponder the many reasons why God allows suffering and affliction in our lives. In our last study guide we discussed how God comforts believers so that they can be a comfort to others, so the suffering we experience is never really wasted. Many people raised in a Western culture struggle to form a worldview around suffering and our culture often views suffering as random and an interruption. If you grow up without a belief in a God and you’re here by random circumstances beyond your control it would be hard to form any positive view of suffering. For followers of Christ we can take hope that God responds to the evil and sin in this world and promises to use it for his glory. Paul teaches us in our passage that sometimes affliction comes into our lives so that we learn to not rely on ourselves and find strength in God.

One interesting thing to note is that the Corinthians had formed critical views of Paul based on his previous letters, all the while, we learn that Paul was fighting for his life as the Corinthians basically sat on the sidelines. We will discuss this more in the next study guide, but we should be cautious to jump to conclusions about the sincerity and integrity of others because we often do not know what’s happening in their lives. 

Paul’s Affliction in Asia

2 Corinthians 1:8

Receiving comfort from God in affliction was not a theory to Paul, it was was reality. Paul underscored his point from 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 with a real world example he experienced in Asia. In the ancient world Asia was what the Romans called the region of Turkey and the capital of that region was Ephesus, a place where Paul spent a lot of time. We’re not 100% sure what affliction Paul was referencing but it is quite likely that Paul was referring to either the events of Acts 19, a general season of persecution (he mentioned fighting with “wild beasts” in 2 Corinthians 11 likely human opponents and not animals), or possibly the imprisonment mentioned in Philippians, though we taught that imprisonment was in Rome and not Ephesus during our Philippians series. The timeline would match for Acts 19, but Paul gives us very little detail about the event in 2 Corinthians. Acts 19 tells us how the preaching of the gospel led to a collapse in the economy around the making of idols and that led to public outrage against Paul and his companion. Though Luke does not mention Paul being in personal harm in Acts 19, we are told that he was prevented from intervening out of concern for his safety and that a few of his companions were taken into the town theater by the mob (Acts 19:29). The crowd was shouting for two hours in the public square against the Jews and the Christians. The mob was only dispersed when the civil authorities threatened to charge them with rioting (Acts 19:40-41). This is just a sample of one of the many times Paul was afflicted for the gospel and in 2 Corinthians 1:8 he wrote that “we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” Sometimes follow Christ feels like a burden beyond our strength… 

We have to appreciate how real Paul is in this section of 2 Corinthians. Paul owned up to feeling despair for life itself and he expressed his human weakness. We can sometimes project this vision of stoic strength on Paul and other people in the Bible and forget that they are humans who struggle, express weakness and even despair. Have you ever despaired of life itself? Has your burden felt beyond your strength to handle? You have a friend in Paul. Why would God allow for his people to be so utterly emptied of this kind of strength and hopefulness through affliction? Paul tells us it is so that we do not rely on ourselves, but instead rely on God. 

Burdened Beyond Strength To Rely on God

2 Corinthians 1:9-10

Paul described this affliction as feeling as if “we received the sentence of death.” They felt like they were dying or would die as a result of the trial they were going through, but it was not without purpose. God allowed this affliction so that they’d rely on God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9). This is such an important thing for us to grasp. First, suffering can lead us to despair and feel like death. Second, suffering is not without purpose and that purpose is to empty us of self-reliance. Third, God raises the dead. Those three things can be true at the same time. It can feel awful and it can be for our good. Our world emphasizes self reliance and strength but to be a Christian includes actually needing God. There will be many times in your life where you feel empty of power and resources to make it through the day or the trial and God says that it is to draw us to himself. The hope of the Christian is that even if the trial ends in your death that the good news is that God raises the dead. God the Son took on a human nature and died a human death so that the power of death would be undone and we can share in eternal life forever. This does not fully explain all the mystery to our suffering, but it is a promise that in every trial and affliction we can expect comfort from God (2 Corinthians 1:3) and that God does this to lead us away from relying on our own strength and instead relying on his (2 Corinthians 1:9). God’s power and God’s presence have no limit, our strength and our human capacity does. 

Hope and Prayer

2 Corinthians 1:11

Affliction can lead to hope as we look outside ourselves and to God. Paul mentioned that God delivered them, which does fit the picture of Acts 19, and that God would deliver them again. Sometimes God’s deliverance looks like the trial ending after a season of endurance, sometimes it looks like rescue but let’s remember that ultimately Paul would lose his life to martyrdom from Roman persecution of Christians and that deliverance would be from death to life. Our hope ultimately looks out of this world and into the next. So in response to affection we can look to the promises of God for deliverance from trial even if that means the end of our earthly life. Another thing we can do is pray. There are a handful of times in the New Testament where Paul directly asks for prayer and this is one of those times (2 Corinthians 1:11). The Corinthians have been critics of Paul, without knowing all the details of his suffering, what is one way to help people be part of God’s mission even if they are you critics? Ask them to pray. Paul desired prayer that many would give thanks on their behalf. Essentially he asked for prayer for their mission, and that God would raise up people who were grateful to God even in hardship. It is always humbling and amazing that God desires the prayers of his people and uses us to accomplish his mission in the world. Prayer can feel passive or inactive but again and again in the Bible we learn that it is one of the most proactive things we can participate in and that God desires it from us. We can pray for one another in seasons of trial, we can pray for the persecuted church and we can pray that God prepares a heart in us that is ready when suffering comes and through prayer we lean on God’s strength and not our own. 

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 1:8-11

How did Paul describe the affliction they experienced in Asia? What are some reasons someone might find this surprising for Paul to talk this way?

What did Paul say was the outcome of this kind of suffering for them? (Why did God allow or purpose this?)

Why do you think that Paul included the line “God who raises the dead?”

What are some spiritual benefits of learning not to rely on ourselves but on God? How does prayer demonstrate that?