II Corinthians 1
By Pastor Neil
2 Corinthians 1:3—7
You Think You’ve Got Troubles?
One of the fascinating studies of Paul’s correspondence with the Corinthians is the study of just how many different letters we can see represented in what we call 1 and 2 Corinthians. Most scholars find solid evidence of at least four different letters in these two parts of what we have today. Take a close look and see if you can find them. If you need some help, find a book or a commentary or a Bible Dictionary about Paul’s Corinthian correspondence and they may untangle it for you. It’s quite a puzzle.
Today I want to concentrate on verses 2 – 7 in this first chapter of 2 Corinthians. A quick read through may leave you a bit puzzled, wondering what in the world is going on here. When you take a step back, take a deep breath and look closely, it will become very interesting to you. Let me make a few suggestions to you today that may just put the troubles you are facing into perspective.
Paul begins with giving all praise to God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ. He identifies God particularly with respect to His attributes of compassion and comfort. We know that this is the very nature of God because of our personal experience. None of us has faced loss or trouble apart from the presence of God to be with us. That’s a solid promise, that we won’t face our problems alone—even if nobody else shows up to care, God is there. In fact, Paul claims that what we know about compassion and comfort has come from our experience with God. We would be so self-centered that we would not even notice others who are in trouble if we had not been aware that Someone cared about and for us. And that “Someone” turns out to be God Himself.
One of life’s great experiences is to share the love of God that has come to us in our time of need with someone else who now needs God’s love. What a privilege it is to receive God’s love and compassion and comfort in the person of family, friends or others who love Jesus. Several years ago I experienced something I had delivered many times to others—a pastoral call in the hospital. A pastor friend came to see me following my back surgery (want to see my scars?). I was alone and feeling very uncomfortable and wondering if all the connections to restore feeling in my lower leg would be returning any time soon. When he walked in the door, smiled, visited a few minutes and then prayed for and with me, it a bit like “warm oil” being poured over my head (now I’ve never experienced warm oil literally, but it sounds nice in my imagination). It was a glorious interlude. As a minister I’d visited many, many people in hospitals to try to deliver the presence of Christ to suffering people. I just hadn’t had the tables turned on me before. I really, really liked that!
This is the kind of thing Paul is talking about here. We deliver God’s love to others and sometimes the tables turn and the comfort comes to us through others. In the end, Paul reminds us that Jesus Christ, Himself, experienced suffering beyond what anyone has suffered before or since. And so when He speaks to us, we can’t say “you don’t know how much I hurt” or “you just don’t understand”.
When we think about this, it can help us be patient with others. It can help us endure the suffering that has come to us. It can help us know that Christ has gone through suffering before we got into our sufferings, and He is now walking through our sufferings with us. Paul puts an interesting twist on this in the end by noting that comfort comes to those who suffer. You don’t get the comfort without the suffering. And the compassion and comfort of God the Father through Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit makes what appears to others to be a terribly negative thing (namely, our suffering) into something that brings the presence of Christ in all His comfort into our lives. Apparently Paul finds this to be a good trade. Yes, you and I suffer and hurt and are lonely. But it is these sufferings that occasion God’s presence in our lives. When I think of it now, that is what makes me patient and teaches me endurance in the times when loss cannot be undone for now.
