2 CORINTHIANS

Chapter 1, Verses 1-10

Comfort From “the God of All Comfort” In Pressure Packed Trials!

[2-12-17]

 

This Week’s Lesson: “Comfort From ‘the God of All Comfort’ In Pressure Packed Trials!”

2 Corinthians 1:1-10) [KJV] Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:

“Achaia” – “Under the Romans Greece was divided into two provinces, Macedonia and Achaia; the former including Macedonia proper, with Illyricum, Epirus, and Thessaly, and the latter all that lay south of these” [Vincent].

QUESTION: Why was Paul called to be an apostle?

ANSWER: Paul was called to be an apostle simply because it was God’s will.

2) Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

QUESTION: What did Paul always desire for his readers, which include you and me?

ANSWER: He always desired that his readers experience God’s amazing grace and abundant peace.

3) Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort {3874};

(GNB) Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help comes!

(GW) Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is the Father who is compassionate and the God who gives comfort.

QUESTION: Besides being the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” what else is God the Father of?

ANSWER: He is the “Father of mercies,” “the merciful Father,” “the Father who is compassionate.”

QUESTION: What else does vs. 3 show us?

ANSWER: There is a kind of “comfort” that only God can give us!

4) Who comforteth {3870} us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort {3870} them which are in any trouble, by the comfort {3874} wherewith we ourselves are comforted {3870} of God.

{3870} – “1) to call to one’s side, call for, summon; 2c) to console, to encourage and strengthen by consolation, to comfort” [Thayer].  

{3874} – “1) a calling near, summons, (especially for help); 4) consolation, comfort, solace; that which affords comfort or refreshment ” [Thayer].   

John 14:16-17) [KJV] And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter {3875}, that he may abide with you for ever;

17) Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

{3875} – “1) summoned, called to one’s side, especially called to one’s aid; 1a) one who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate; 1b) one who pleads another’s cause with one, an intercessor” [Thayer].   

QUESTION: What kind of “comfort” is there that only God can give us?

ANSWER: God, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, comes along side of us [or calls us to His side] to personally comfort us with a comfort that originates with God.

4) Who comforteth us in all our tribulation{2347}, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble{2347}, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

{2347} – “1) a pressing, pressing together, pressure; 2) metaphorically oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, straits” [Thayer].  

QUESTION: When does God do this?

ANSWER: God does this whenever we face trouble/tribulation.

NOTE: The words “tribulation” and “trouble” are the identical words in the Greek text. That word speaks of a “pressing,” a “pressing together,” a “pressure.” When you and I are facing “pressure” in life God is calling us to Himself so that He can give us “comfort” in those moments.

QUESTION: There are many reasons preachers, and other believers who minister to their friends, face pressure packed trouble in this world. What is the specific reason Paul is drawing our attention to in this passage?

ANSWER: God, in His great mercy, takes advantage of the pressure packed trials we face, so that, when we experience His amazing comfort we will be able to direct others who are experiencing that kind of pressure to the very comfort we ourselves have experienced from the very hand of God.

NOTE: More on this as we continue:

5) For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

(NLT) You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.

QUESTION: What encouragement is Paul giving us?

ANSWER: When the “pressure” we are facing is related to our Christian faith we can be certain that God will overwhelm us with His comfort.

NOTE: He is always there to comfort us; but when our trials are a result of our faith in Christ His comfort is even greater than normal.

6) And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

(RSV) 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.

QUESTION: What is Paul basically saying here?

ANSWER: Whether he, and his crew, were suffering persecution, or enjoying the comfort only God can give, God would take either situation and enable them to encourage their readers through the sharing of their personal experiences.

NOTE: I don’t believe God puts us through hard times so that others can benefit from our experiences as we share those experiences of suffering and healing; but rather, I believe the world beats us up and God uses those painful experiences we endure to enable us to encourage others who are suffering the beatings this world gives.

7) And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

(NIV) And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

QUESTION: What does Paul fully expect God will do for his readers?

ANSWER: God will:

• God will pull the readers of Paul’s writings that are going through tough times to His side.
• God will, through the work of the Holy Spirit, bring soothing comfort to those individuals.

8) For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

 (NLT) I think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we would never live through it.

QUESTION: When were Paul and his companions fearful for their very lives?

“What with “the lying in wait of the Jews,” plotting his death wherever he went, he seems never to have felt secure of his life for a day, and at times to have given up hope of escape” [Popular].

ANSWER: Some suggest that those fears came from the constant attempts of the Jews who hated Paul and his companions to have them killed, especially Paul.

9) But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

10) Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

QUESTION: What lesson did God teach them in the midst of the worst time of their lives, up to then?

ANSWER: He taught them that they must ultimately trust God with their lives, and not themselves. They reasoned that God could raise them from the dead if necessary in this life; but if not, He would most surely raise them from the dead to receive them into Heaven.

NOTE: God delivered them time and again! They were trusting that God would continue to deliver them.

 

 

2 CORINTHIANS

Chapter 1, Verses 11-24

Yes! Amen!

[2-19-17]

 

Review: “Comfort From ‘the God of All Comfort’ In Pressure Packed Trials!”

2 Corinthians 1:1-10) [KJV] 3) Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort {3874};

{3874} – “1) a calling near, summons, (especially for help); 4) consolation, comfort, solace; that which affords comfort or refreshment ” [Thayer].   

NOTE: There is a kind of “comfort” that only God can give us!

4) Who comforteth {3870} us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort {3870} them which are in any trouble, by the comfort {3874} wherewith we ourselves are comforted {3870} of God.

NOTE: God, in His great mercy, takes advantage of the pressure packed trials we face, so that, when we experience His amazing comfort we will be able to direct others who are experiencing that kind of pressure to the very comfort we ourselves have experienced from the very hand of God.

6) And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

NOTE: I don’t believe God puts us through hard times so that others can benefit from our experiences as we share those experiences of suffering and healing; but rather, I believe the world beats us up and God uses those painful experiences we endure to enable us to encourage others who are suffering the beatings this world gives.

7) And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

8) For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

NOTE: Some suggest that those fears came from the constant attempts of the Jews who hated Paul and his companions to have them killed, especially Paul.

 

This Week’s Lesson: “Yes! Amen!”

From Last Week”: 9) But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

10) Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

2 Corinthians 1:11-24) [KJV] Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.

QUESTION: What is Paul telling his readers in vs. 11?

ANSWER: Yes! It was God Who delivered Paul and his companions from death, but, the Corinthians believers played a part in that deliverance by praying for Paul and his team.

QUESTION: What was God’s will for Paul and his companions up to the time he wrote this letter?

ANSWER: It was God’s will that they survived those life-threatening trials they had face up to that time.

QUESTION: How does a Sovereign God do His will on planet earth?

John 15:16) [KJV] Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 

ANSWER: Sovereign God has chosen to do His will on earth by including His children in that process. So, He laid it on the hearts of His children to pray for Paul’s safety and then answered those prayers.

12) For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

13) For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end;

NOTE: Verses 12-13:

• Our consciences are clear that we lived our lives in genuine honestly and sincerity among you [vs. 12].
• We didn’t act out of some so-called human wisdom, but were directed by the grace of God [vs. 12].
• We wrote in our first letter to you things you came to acknowledge were the truth [vs. 13].
• I trust you will continue to acknowledge that to the very end [vs. 13].

14) As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

“Paul wanted the Corinthian Christians to know he had no “hidden meanings” in his letters. His meaning was right out on top, for all to see.

• A cynical heart will always think, “You say this, but you really mean that. You aren’t telling the truth.” Paul assured the Corinthian Christians that he really was telling the truth, and he wasn’t communicating with manipulative hidden meanings.
• “In Paul’s life there were no hidden actions, no hidden motives and no hidden meanings.” (Barclay) [Guzik].

NOTE: Paul seems to write vs. 11-14 for 2 reasons:

• He wanted to stress the point to his readers that he was directed of God, and of his love for them, to write what he wrote in his first letter to them.
• He wanted his readers to understand that everything he had ever said to them he meant, even though circumstances might have prevented him from doing what he said.

1 Corinthians 16:5) [KJV] Now I will come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia: for I do pass through Macedonia.

NOTE: Paul wrote to his readers in his first letter that he was going to see them again when he was in the region.

15) And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have a second benefit;

16) And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way toward Judaea.

QUESTION: What were Paul’s intentions in the above verses?

ANSWER: He wanted to stop and minister to them when he passed by that way, and then again when he was heading back to Judaea; and he was hoping to receive an offering to help him on his journey.

17) When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?

18) But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.

19) For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.

QUESTION: What is Paul saying here?

ANSWER: I meant it when I said it because the God I serve always means it when He says it.

Matthew 5:34-37) [KJV] But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:

35) Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.

36) Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

37) But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

NOTE: Jesus wants us to say what we mean and mean what we say!

20) For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

QUESTION: What do we learn here?

ANSWER: The life of Jesus fulfilled around 355 O.T. promises. Because of that we can trust all of God’s promises to us! Also, Everything God says is absolutely true; absolutely certain!

21) Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;

(GW) God establishes us, together with you, in a relationship with Christ. He has also anointed us.

22) Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

(GW) In addition, he has put his seal of ownership on us and has given us the Spirit as his guarantee.

QUESTION: Who called Paul to be an apostle?

ANSWER: God! His authority came from God, Himself.

23) Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.

24) Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

NOTE: Paul hadn’t went back to Corinth yet because he didn’t want to have to confront them.