2 Corinthians 1:3-4 - “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
“He repeats the word ‘comfort’ in one form or another ten times in five verses. To say that this is obviously what’s on his mind doesn’t put it strongly enough; it sounds almost like an obsession…the word he uses is a bit more many-sided than ‘comfort’. It can mean ‘to call someone to come near’,’ to make a strong appeal or exhortation’, or ‘to treat in an inviting or friendly way.’
“The whole idea of the word is that one person is being with another, speaking words which change their mood and situation, giving them courage, new hope, new direction, new insights which will alter the way they face the next moment, the next day, the rest of their life. And when you put all that together in a bottle, shake it up, and pour it out for someone who is in the middle of deep suffering, the best word we can come up with to describe the effect is probably ‘comfort’.
“If we said ‘console’ or ‘consolation’ that would pick up one aspect of it; but when you ‘console’ someone you simply bring them back from utter despair to ordinary unhappiness. The word Paul uses here, over and over again, does more than that. It meets people where they are, and brings them right on to the point where they are strong enough to see new hope, new possibilities, new ways forward” (N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians).
Our Father of compassion is the source of all real comfort in every trouble we experience or have experienced. Let’s praise him today and keep receiving his superabundant comfort as it overflows to those who need his comfort but do not know him like this yet. Let’s pray for our campus fellowships and missional groups for God’s miraculous comfort to bring his incredible rescues, hope, healings and transformations in all our troubles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-auXYdMSGM
-AP
