Paul: His Life and His Teachings Blessings of Comfort
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No.12 Paul: His Life and Teachings – Blessings of Comfort (Part 1)
No.13 Paul: His Life and Teachings – Blessings of Comfort (Part 2)
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overview
We are told repeatedly in the Bible to bless the Lord. Basically, to bless means to “magnify or make big.” We need to make God big in our eyes. God also blesses us. He magnifies or makes us big as well. We are little on our own, but God blesses us. Therefore, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. To bless can also mean, “to congratulate or to salute and adore (Psa.16:7; 26:12; 34:1; 103:1).” In this lesson, we will talk about blessing by dealing with two of the richest passages in the writings of Paul. Let us start with 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 wherein Paul blesses the Lord because of His comfort for us all in. This epistle reveals a lot of information about apostle Paul. One of the things that come out is how grateful Paul is to God for all the blessings He has blessed the believers with. Blessings, which to this day, a lot of the believers still doesn’t know is theirs in Christ Jesus. To understand Paul’s words of blessings, we need to study some of the backgrounds of this book and Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians.
Paul came to Corinth during his 2nd Missionary Journey. This was after being roughed up in Philipp; chased out of in Thessalonica and Berea; and mocked in the courts of Athens. He was under considerable stress. He arrived alone in Corinth after He sent back companions, Silas and Timothy to Macedonia to strengthen the believers there. Paul stayed in Corinth for around 18 months (AD 50-51). He had good success there. Envy from his enemies made them prosecute Paul before Gallio, which the latter threw out of court. However, Gallio turned a blind eye when a mob turned against the Jews. When Paul left Corinth in 52 AD, he became ill and was taken care of by Phoebe (Rom. 16:1-2). Meanwhile, the Church he left fell prey to rivalries and squabbles, to a Judaizing cult, to pride, lawsuits, confusion, abuse of spiritual gifts and to immorality. This prompted Paul to write a scathing letter warning them against fornicators and immoral people. This epistle is lost, and was followed a 2nd letter, which we know as 1 Corinthians; and a third which we know as 2 Corinthians. All these make the initial words in his letter more meaningful.
So, Paul blesses God for being the God of all comfort. The word is used pertains to the Holy Spirit who is called Comforter. This is paternal in nature, like a child going through difficulties and struggles in life wanting to be comforted by their father/parents. While we can all comfort each other, God has the absolute monopoly of being the God of all comfort. To comfort is to come alongside and be of assistance or help. So, it is not just saying words, but being of assistance in any way possible. God can minister this kind of comfort because He is the Father of mercies as well. In fact, it is first mentioned, which brings to the truth that we can only truly give comfort when we are most merciful to the ones we are trying to comfort. It is comforting to know that our God of comfort is the Father of all mercies. An indication that we are receiving comfort coming from our Heavenly Father is we can return the favor and minister comfort to others as well. We will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves received by God.”
God, being the God of comfort, takes on a different meaning as we relate it to the prophecy concerning what Paul will go through in his encounter with Christ in Acts. Paul was a chosen instrument to bear Christ’s name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for Christ will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake." (Acts 9:15,16 NAU). This tells us that abundance of comfort is only made available for those who abundantly live out sufferings of Christ! This is why the Divine Comforter never let Paul down. His path was full of sufferings but Paul knew about the abundant comfort made available to him by the Comforter Himself right from the very starts. The blessing of this is the more we suffer the sufferings of Christ, the more we can give comfort to those who are truly suffering the sufferings of Jesus.
Looking at the sufferings that Jesus Christ went through – He grew up being misunderstood by those around Him. From being rumored to be born out of wedlock, Jesus grew up in the upper poor category of social status. Joseph probably died early on in life. Therefore, the burden of taking care of Mary and His siblings rested on his shoulders, while focusing on fulfilling His mission. His public ministry was opposed by the religious order of His day. He lost almost all His congregation at one time. His closest friends abandoned Him in His moment of need. He was accused of having an improper relationship with the women around Him. Yet, through it all, the Father of Comfort was abundant in mercy to Jesus and to those who suffered with Him. There is nothing that we are going through that Jesus did not already went through. He can comfort us perfectly. While not all our sufferings are made for Christ as some are our own doing, God enables us to suffer the consequences but in His mercies, He still provides and assures us of our salvation.
Paul did not teach the Corinthians that they will be spared from all kinds of sufferings, instead, he gave them assurance to cheer up and not be afraid for Jesus is going to make sure that they have all they need to go through all these and fulfill the call of God on their lives. As we serve God and suffer for Christ, we are assured that His mercy, His comfort, and His grace, will be always sufficient. He will always give us victory in all situations. Praise be to God!