Devotion from the Pastor: 2 Corinthians 1:1-7

2 Corinthians 1:1-7

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia: 

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

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 

4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 

5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 

6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 

7 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.

Paul always seems to express a varying degree of emotions in his letters and in this letter it’s no different. He is writing as one who has been through a life altering event and is thankful to have come out the other side. Although we don’t have a clear picture of what happened to Paul, we know something happened and he is speaking with sincerity. He repeats the word comfort 9 different times. The point is clear, God is a God of who comforts. The word comfort can mean “to call someone near”, or “to make a strong appeal or exhortation”. The whole idea is that a person is speaking words that change the outlook of things, altering the way they face the moment, the next day, and the rest of life. 

Paul immediately connects us to God who is our Father. God the Father is our starting point, he’s where we belong, we are his and he is ours. He also tells us that he is a particular kind of Father, he is “the Father of compassion”. God is a Father who suffers with us. He gets into the middle of our pain. He is wounded with us. He suffers with us. He sits with us. 

This knowledge moves Paul to comfort others with the comfort he has received from God. Instead of shrinking back Paul takes the same posture God had towards him. Sharing in the suffering of others can be an overwhelming and uncomfortable ministry. We need to be the embodiment of comfort and hope in a world that is deeply wounded and traumatize. 

Stephen Hanscom

Stephen pastors Divine Life church with his wife Karen. He has a love hate relationship with running and obsesses over keeping his fescue yard alive during the Oklahoma summer.