Paul's Joy at Corinth's Repentance

2 CORITHIAS 1 COMMETARY
Written and edited by Glenn Pease
INTRODUCTION
1. BARES
In the Introduction to the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the situation and character
of the city of Corinth, the history of the church there, and the design which Paul had in
view in writing to them at first, have been fully stated. In order to a full understanding
of the design of this epistle, those facts should be borne in distinct remembrance; and
the reader is referred to the statement there made as material to a correct
understanding of this epistle. It was shown there that an important part of Paul's
design at that time was to reprove the irregularities which existed in the church at
Corinth. This he had done with great fidelity. He had not only answered the inquiries
which they proposed to him, but he had gone with great particularity into an
examination of the gross disorders of which he had learned by some members of the
family of Chloe. A large part of the epistle, therefore, was the language of severe
reproof. Paul felt its necessity; and he had employed that language with unwavering
fidelity to his Master.
Yet it was natural that he should feel great solicitude in regard to the reception of that
letter, and to its influence in accomplishing what he wished. That letter had been sent
from Ephesus, where Paul proposed to remain until after the succeeding Pentecost,
(1 Corinthians 16:8;) evidently hoping by that time to hear from them, and to learn
what had been the manner of the reception of his epistle. He proposed then to go to
Macedonia, and from that place to go again to Corinth, (1 Corinthians 16:5-7;) but he
was evidently desirous to learn in what manner his first epistle had been received, and
what was its effect, before he visited them. He sent Timothy and Erastus before him to
Macedonia and Achaia, (Acts 19:22; 1 Corinthians 16:10,) intending that, they should
visit Corinth, and commissioned Timothy to regulate the disordered affairs in the
church there. It would appear also that he sent Titus to the church there in order to
observe the effect which his epistle would produce, and to return and report to him,
2 Corinthians 2:13; 7:6-16Evidently, Paul felt much solicitude on the subject; and the
manner in which they received his admonitions would do much to regulate his own
future movements. An important case of discipline; his authority as an apostle; and the
interests of religion in an important city, and in a church which he had himself
founded, were all at stake. In this state of mind he himself left Ephesus, and went to
Troas on his way to Macedonia, where it appears he had appointed Titus to meet him,
and to report to him the manner in which his first epistle had been received. See
Barnes 2:13. Then his mind was greatly agitated and distressed because he did not
meet Titus as he had expected, and in this state of mind he went forward to
Macedonia. There he had a direct interview with Titus, (2 Corinthians 7:5,6,) and
learned from him that his first epistle had accomplished all which he had desired,
2 Corinthians 7:7-16. The act of discipline which he had directed had been performed;
the abuses had been in a great measure corrected; and the Corinthians had been
brought to a state of true repentance for their former irregularities and disorders. The
heart of Paul was greatly comforted by this intelligence, and by the signal success
which had attended this effort to produce reform. In this state of mind he wrote to
them this second letter.
Titus had spent some time in Corinth. He had had an opportunity of learning the views
of the parties, and of ascertaining the true condition of the church. This epistle is
designed to meet some of the prevailing views of the party which was opposed to him
there, and to refute some of the prevailing slanders in regard to himself. The epistle,

therefore, is occupied to a considerable extent in refuting the slanders which had been
heaped upon him, and in vindicating his own character. This letter also he sent by the
hands of Titus, by whom the former had been sent; and he designed, doubtless, that
the presence of Titus should aid in accomplishing the objects which he had in view in
the epistle, 2 Corinthians 8:17,18.
II.---THE SUBJECTS TREATED OF I THIS EPISTLE
It has been generally admitted that this epistle is written without much definite
arrangement or plan. It treats on a variety of topics mainly as they occurred to the
mind of the apostle at the time, and perhaps without having formed any definite
arrangement before he commenced writing it. Those subjects are all important, and
are all treated in the usual manner of Paul, and are all useful and interesting to the
church at large; but we shall not find in this epistle the same systematic arrangement
which is apparent in the epistle to the Romans, or which occurs in the first epistle to
the Corinthians. Some of the subjects, of which it treats are the following:
(1.) He mentions his own sufferings, and particularly his late trials in Asia. For
deliverance from these trials he expresses his gratitude to God; and states the design
for which God called him to endure such trials to have been, that he might be better,
qualified to comfort others who might be afflicted in a similar manner, 2 Corinthians
1:1-12.
(2.) He vindicates himself from one of the accusations which his enemies had brought
against him, that he was unstable and fickle-minded. He had promised to visit them;
and he had not yet fulfilled his promise. They took occasion, therefore, to say that he
was unstable, and that he was afraid to visit them. He shows to them, in reply, the true
reason why he had not come to them, and that his real object in not doing it had been
to spare them, 2 Corinthians 1:13-24.
(3.) The case of the unhappy individual who had been guilty of incest had deeply
affected his mind. In the first epistle he had treated of this case at large, and had
directed that discipline should be exercised. He had felt deep solicitude in regard to the
manner in which his commands on that subject should be received, and, had judged it
best not to visit them until he should be informed of the manner in which they had
complied with his directions. Since they had obeyed him, and had inflicted discipline
on him, he now exhorts them to forgive the unhappy man, and to receive him again to
their fellowship, manner in which his commands on that subject should be received, and, had judged
it best not to visit them until he should be informed of the manner in which they had
complied with his directions. Since they had obeyed him, and had inflicted discipline
on him, he now exhorts them to forgive the unhappy man, and to receive him again to
their fellowship, 2 Corinthians 2:1-11.
(4.) He mentions the deep solicitude which he had on this subject, and his
disappointment when he came to Troas and did not meet with Titus as he had
expected, and had not been informed, as he hoped to have been, of the manner in
which his former epistle had been received, 2 Corinthians 2:12-17. In view of the
manner in which they had received his former epistle, and of the success of his efforts,
which he learned when he reached Macedonia, he gives thanks to God that all his
efforts to promote the welfare of the church had been successful, 2 Corinthians 2:14-17.
(5.) Paul vindicates his character, and his claims to be regarded as an apostle. He
assures them that he does not need letters of commendation to them, since they were
fully acquainted with his character, 2 Corinthians 3:1-6. This subject leads him into an
examination of the nature of the ministry and its importance, which he illustrates by
showing the comparative obscurity of the Mosaic ministrations, and the greater
dignity and permanency of the gospel, 2 Corinthians 3:7-18.

(6.) In chapters 4 and 5 he states the principles by which he was actuated in the
ministry. He and the other apostles were greatly afflicted, and were subjected to great
and peculiar trims, but they had also great and peculiar consolations. They were
sustained with the hope of heaven, and with the assurance that there was a world of
glory. They acted in view of that world, and had gone forth in view of it to entreat men
to be reconciled to God.
(7.) Having referred in chapter 5 to the nature and objects of the Christian ministry, he
expatiates with great beauty on the temper with which he and his brethren, in the
midst of great trials and afflictions, executed this important work, 2 Corinthians 6:1-10.
(8.) Having in this manner pursued a course of remark that was calculated to
conciliate their regard, and to show his affection for them, he exhorts them
(2 Corinthians 6:11-18) to avoid those connexions which would injure their piety, and
which were inconsistent with the gospel which they professed to love. The connexions
to which he particularly referred, were improper marriages and ruinous alliances with
idolaters, to which they were particularly exposed.
(9.) In 2 Corinthians 7he again makes a transition to Titus, and to the joy which he had
brought him in the intelligence which he gave of the manner in which the commands of
Paul in the first epistle had been received, and of its happy effect on the minds of the
Corinthians.
(10.) In chapters 8 and 9 Paul refers to and discusses the subject on which his heart
was so much set-the collection for the poor and afflicted Christians in Judea. He had
commenced the collection in Macedonia, and had boasted to them that the Corinthians commenced
the collection in Macedonia, and had boasted to them that the Corinthians
would aid largely in that benevolent work, and he now sent Titus to complete it in
Corinth.
(11.) In chapter 10, he enters upon a vindication of himself, and of his apostolic
authority, against the accusation of his enemies; and pursues the subject through
chapter 11 by a comparison of himself with others, and in chapter 12 by an argument
directly in favour of his apostolic authority from the favours which God had bestowed
on him, and the evidence which he had given of his having been commissioned by God.
This subject he pursues also in various illustrations to the end of the epistle.
The objectsof this epistle, therefore, and subjects discussed, are various. They are to
show his deep interest in their welfare; to express his gratitude that his former letter
had been so well received, and had so effectually accomplished what he wished to
accomplish; to carry forward the work of reformation among them which had been so
auspiciously commenced; to vindicate his authority as an apostle from the objections
which he had learned through Titus they had continued to make; to secure the
collection for the poor saints in Judea, on which his heart had been so much set; and to
assure them of his intention to come and visit them according to his repeated promises.
The epistle is substantially of the same character as the first. It was written to a church
where great, dissensions and other evils prevailed; it was designed to promote a
reformation, and is a model of the manner in which evils are to be corrected in a
church. In connexion with the first epistle, it shows the manner in which offenders in
the church are to be dealt with, and the spirit and design with which the work of
discipline should be entered on and pursued. Though these were local evils, yet great
principles are involved here of use to the church in all ages: and to these epistles the
church must refer at all times, as an illustration of the proper manner of administering
discipline, and of silencing the calumnies of enemies.
III.--THE TIME ABD PLACE I WHICH THE Epistle WAS WRITTE
It is manifest that this epistle was written from Macedonia, (2 Corinthians 8:1-14; 9:2,)
and was sent by Titus to the church at Corinth. If so, it was written probably about a

year after the former epistle. Paul was on his way to Corinth, and was expecting to go
there soon. He had left Ephesus, where he was when he wrote the first epistle, and had
gone to Troas, and from thence to Macedonia, where he had met with Titus, and had
from him learned what was the effect of his first epistle. In the overflowing of his heart
with gratitude for the success of that letter, and with a desire to carry forward the
work of reformation in the church, and completely to remove all the objections which
had been made to his apostolic authority, and to prepare for his own welcome
reception when he went there, he wrote this letter--a letter which we cannot doubt was
as kindly received as the former, and which, like that, accomplished the objects which
he had in view.
THIS chapter consists of the following parts, or subjects:
(1.) The usual salutation and benediction in the introduction of the epistle,
2 Corinthians 1:1-2. This is found in all the epistles of Paul, and was at once an
affectionate salutation and an appropriate expression of his interest in their welfare,
and also an appropriate mode of commencing an address to them by one who claimed
to be inspired and sent from God.
(2.) He refers to the consolation which he had had in his heavy trials, and praises God
for that consolation, and declares that the reason for which he was comforted was, that
he might be qualified to administer consolation to others in the same or in similar
circumstances, 2 Corinthians 1:3-7.
(3.) He informs them of the heavy trials which he was called to experience when he was
in Ephesus, and of his merciful deliverance from those trials, 2 Corinthians 1:8-12. He
had been exposed to death, and had despaired of life, 2 Corinthians 1:8,9; yet he had
been delivered, 2 Corinthians 1:10; he desired them to unite with him in thanksgiving
on account of it, 2 Corinthians 1:11; and in all this he had endeavoured to keep a good
conscience, and had that testimony that he had endeavoured to maintain such a
conscience toward all, and especially toward them, 2 Corinthians 1:12.
(4.) He refers to the design which he had in writing the former letter, to them,
2 Corinthians 1:13,14. He had written to them only such things as they admitted to be
true and proper; and such as he was persuaded they would always admit. They had
always received his instructions favourably and kindly and he had always sought their
welfare.
(5.) In this state of mind, Paul had designed to have paid them a second visit,
2 Corinthians 1:15,16. But he had not done it yet; and it appears that his enemies had
taken occasion from this to say that he was inconstant and fickle-minded. He,
therefore, takes occasion to vindicate himself, and to convince them that he was not
faithless to his word and purposes, and to show them the true reason why he had not
visited them, 2 Corinthians 1:17-24. He states, therefore, that his real intentions had
been to visit them, 2 Corinthians 1:15,16; that his failure to do so had not proceeded
from either levity or falsehood, 2 Corinthians 1:17, as they might have known from the
uniform doctrine which he had taught them, in which he had inculcated the necessity
of a strict adherence to promises, from the veracity of Jesus Christ his great example,
2 Corinthians 1:18-20, and from the fact that God had given to him the Holy Spirit,
and anointed him, 2 Corinthians 1:21,22; and he states therefore, that the true reason
why he had not come to them was that he wished to spare them, 2 Corinthians
1:23,24he was willing to remain away from them until they should have time to correct
the evils which existed in their church, and prevent the necessity of severe discipline
when he should come.
2. CLARKE Eminent men, contemporaries with St. Paul.-L. Annaeas Seneca, the Stoic
philosopher and poet, son of M. Annaeus Seneca, the rhetorician; born about the

commencement of the Christian era, and put to death about A. D. 65. -Annaeus
Cornutus, the Stoic philosopher, and preceptor to Persius the satirist; flourished under
ero. -Lucan, nephew to Seneca the philosopher; born about A. D. 29, put to death
about A. D. 65. -Andromachusof Crete, a poet, and Bero's physician. -T. Petronius
Arbiter, of Massila, died A. D. 66. -Aulus Persius Flaccus, the Latin poet, of Volaterrae
in Italy; died in the ninth year of the reign of Bero, aged 28. -Dioscorides, the
physician; the age in which this physician lived is very uncertain. -Justus, of Tiberias,
in Palestine. -Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian; born A. D. 37, died A. D. 93. -
Silius Italicus, the poet who was several times consul; born about A. D. 23, died in the
beginning of the reign of Trajan, aged 75. -Valerius Flaccus, the Latin poet; flourished
under Vespasian. -C. Plinius Secundus, of Verona, born under Tiberius, flourished
under Vespasian, and died under Titus, A. D. 79, aged 56. -Thraseus Paetus, the Stoic
philosopher, famous for his independence and generous sentiments; slain by order of
Bero, A. D. 66. -Quintius Curtius Rufus, the historian; the time when he flourished is
uncertain, some placing him under Claudius, others under Vespasian, and others
under Trajan. -Asconius Pedianus, the historian and annotator, died A. D. 76, aged 85.
-Marcus Valerius Martialis, the epigrammatist; born about A. D. 29, died A. D. 104,
aged 75. -Philo-Byblius, born about A. D. 53, died A. D. 133, aged 80. -Acusilaus, the
rhetorician; flourished under Galba. -Afer, an orator and preceptor of Quintilian, died
A. D. 59. -Afranius, the satirist, put to death by Bero, in the Pisonian conspiracy. -
Marcus Aper, a Latin orator of Gaul, died A. D. 85. -Babilus, the astrologer, who
caused the Emperor Bero to put all the leading men of Rome to death. -C. Balbillus,
the historian of Egypt; flourished under Bero. -P. Clodius Quirinalis, the rhetorician,
flourished under Bero. -Fabricus, the satirist; flourished under Bero. -Decius Junius
Juvenalis, the satirist; born about A. D. 29, died A. D. 128, aged about 100 years. -
Longinus, the lawyer, put to death by Bero. -Plutarch, the biographer and moralist;
born about A. D. 50, died about A. D. 120, or A. D. 140, according to others. -Polemon,
the rhetorician, and master of Persius the celebrated satirist, died in the reign of Bero.
-Seleucus, the mathematician, intimate with the Emperor Vespasian. -Servilius
+onianus, the Latin historian; flourished under Bero. -Caius Cornelius Tacitus, the
celebrated Roman historian; born in the reign of Bero, and died at an advanced age in
the former part of the second century.

3. Ray Stedman, The second letter of Paul to the Corinthians is probably the least
known of all his letters. It has sometimes been called Paul's unknown letter. I do not
know why that is. First Corinthians is very well-known among his writings, but many
people feel that Second Corinthians is heavy reading. It is too bad that we are so
unfamiliar with it, because it represents the most personal, the most autobiographical
letter from the apostle's pen.
We call this Second Corinthians, but it should, perhaps, be called Fourth Corinthians,
because it is the last of four letters that Paul wrote to the church there. Two of these
letters have not been preserved for us --that is why we only have First and Second
Corinthians --but they are not in the order that these titles suggest. If I can just
recapitulate a little bit of the background, at least this one time, then you can refer
back to this if you are confused about the chronology.
Paul began the church in Corinth somewhere around 52 or 53 A. D. He stayed there
for about a year and a half; then he went to Ephesus, where he remained for a few
weeks, and then he went on a quick trip to Jerusalem, returning again to Ephesus.
While he was at Ephesus, he wrote a letter to the church at Corinth which is lost to us.
It is referred to in First Corinthians 5:9, where Paul says he wrote to warn them about
following a worldly lifestyle. In response to that letter, the Corinthians wrote back to
him with many questions. They sent their letter by the hands of three young men who
are mentioned in First Corinthians. In reply to that letter, Paul wrote what we now call
First Corinthians. In it he tried to answer their questions, and we have looked at those
answers. He tried to exhort them and instruct them how to walk in power and in
peace; and he tried to correct many problem areas in the church. Evidently that letter
did not accomplish all that Paul intended. There was a bad reaction to it, and in this
second letter we learn that he made a quick trip back to Corinth. How long that took
we do not know. Paul calls it a painful visit. He had come with a rather sharp,
severe rebuke to them, but again he did not accomplish his purpose; again there was a
great deal of negative reaction.
So when he returned to Ephesus, he sent another brief letter, in the hands of Titus, to
Corinth to see if he could help them. Bow Titus was gone a long time. Transportation
and communication were very slow and difficult in those days. Paul, waiting in
Ephesus, grew very anxious to hear what was happening in the church there. He
became so troubled that he left Ephesus and went to Troas and then up into
Macedonia to meet Titus. There in Macedonia, probably in the city of Philippi, he and
Titus came together. Titus brought him a much more encouraging word about the
church, and in response to that, out of thanksgiving, Paul wrote what we now call the
Second Corinthians letter, although it was really the fourth of a series of letters.
4. David K. Lowery, opens his commentary with a statement that is consistent with many expositors
who have attempted to teach this epistle. He said:
Few portions of the ew Testament pose as many problems for translators and interpreters as does 2nd
Corinthians. Few, therefore, are the preachers who undertake a systematic exposition of its contents.
For those undaunted by its demands, however, an intimate picture of a pastor’ s heart may be found as
the Apostle Paul shepherded the wayward Corinthians and revealed a love which comes only from God.
This, my beloved, is the centerfold of the entire teaching, an intimate picture of a pastor’s heart to a
church who could care less about it.
Author and Readers.
I am not going to get into a great detail in the introduction, but I will try to lay down some essentials
that are needful in our understanding of this epistle.
Most agree that 2nd Corinthians came from the hand and heart of the Apostle Paul. It was sent to a
church which he had founded on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:1-17).

A sizable community of Jews resided in Corinth. It would appear to many that Corinth would not
have seemed a likely field in which the seed of the gospel could find fertile soil because of the horrific
moral climate of Corinth. When Paul wrote the epistle to the Romans and described the degraded
course of rebellious mankind (Romans 1:21-32), he wrote the epistle from Corinth where he likely saw
the sad portrayal that he wrote about.
Unhappily, the church in Corinth was not immune to this debauchery and Paul’s first letter to them
was corrective in nature. The people were given over to fleshly indulgences. They were also easily
impressed by external qualities such as eloquence and superior human wisdom.
5 Doug Goins
In our study of the letter of 1 Corinthians, we saw that Paul had a difficult relationship
with the church in Corinth. In a sense, this letter culminates a seven-year history that
had been marked by continuous challenge to his apostolic authority, personal
spirituality, pastoral credentials, and even criticism of his personal appearance and
speaking ability. Remember that Paul was the spiritual father of these people. He
planted the church, and had invested more time and energy in them than any other
church he served in his ministry. Yet these people gave him more grief than any other
church.
In addition to those difficulties, the Corinthian church had on-going problems among
themselves. They struggled with unity in the body, and competition among the leaders
of the church; there were issues of sexual immorality, idolatry, and dissension over the
expression of spiritual gifts. This required Paul to write 1 Corinthians as well as two
other letters that we no longer have. Additionally, Paul met with a group of leaders
from the church who visited him in Turkey because they were overwhelmed with the
problems in the church. He also made a hasty visit back to Corinth when he found out
that a faction in the church had rejected the first Corinthian letter. It was a difficult
relationship.
Second Corinthians is the most poignantly personal of all of Paul's ew Testament
letters. It has been called theology wrapped in autobiography. Paul defends his
personal lifestyle and his relationship to the church, and finally answers accusations
that have swirled around him for seven years. The greeting in the first two verses
emphasizes three important things. First of all, God is sovereign in his authority over
his apostolic servants. Paul is not the representative of Corinth or the other churches
in the province of Achaia. He and Timothy, who he calls his brother, are fellow
ministers under the Lord's authority. Ultimately, Paul says that he is accountable to
God and not to the Corinthians. It frustrated the Corinthians because they wanted to
control him and define his priorities for ministry.
The second emphasis is on God's ownership of his church. Just as God is sovereign
over Paul, the opening phrase indicates that it is the church of God which is at
Corinth. It is not the Corinthians' church because God is the sovereign leader of that
body of believers. Paul wants them to understand their family identity, that they are a
community, because unity is a struggle for them. He uses the language of family to
describe their relationship. He says that Timothy is our brother and they are
together with all the other saints in the churches of Achaia. In verse 2, he says that
God is our Father. Corinth saw itself as somehow very special and unique among the
churches, but Paul says no, we are a family. In this very personal greeting, Paul
reminds them that they are the family of God whether they understand it or not, and
whether they are acting like it or not.

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
the saints throughout Achaia:
1. Paul was an apostle by the will of God, for if it had been up to him, he would have
remained an enemy of the church. Jesus chose him in a radical way on the road to
Damascus. He knocked him off his horse, and off his high horse of thinking he was so
much better than the Christians he was persecuting. Paul did not choose Christ, but
Christ chose Paul, and by his will made him an apostle, and one he would use in a
spectacular way to spread the Gospel and start churches. Paul did not get voted into
office by any church, but was appointed to his place of authority by Jesus himself. Just
as Jesus hand picked all of his 12, so he hand picked Paul. Paul was taught by Jesus to
communicate to the churches for all time, and so when you don't like what Paul writes,
it is what Jesus inspired him to write that you do not like, for Paul respresents the
mind of Christ in his writings.
1B. Paul calls Timothy our brother here, but other places he call him my son (I Tim.
1:18), or my beloved son, (I Cor. 4:17). Timothy was Paul's right hand man, and he
traveled from church to church to carry messages for Paul, and bring messages from
the churches back to Paul. Paul included Timothy also in his letter to the Philippians
and Colossians.
1C. Brother was one of Paul's favorite names to call his fellow believers. He used the
word brother 34 times in his letters, and that was far more than any other writer in the
New Testament. He used it most in writing to the Corinthians. Even more frequent was
his use of brethern, for he used that 79 times, and made it the most common name that
Christians were called. It covers both men and women, and also all different races, so
that Christianity becomes a universal brotherhood. The poet wrote,
Join hands then, brothers of the faith,
What'er thy race may be.
Who serves my Father as a son,
Is surely kin to me.
2. Barnes wrote, Paul may have wished to give as much influence as possible to
Timothy. He designed that he should be his fellow-labourer; and as Timothy was much
younger than himself, he doubtless expected that he would survive him, and that he
would in some sense succeed him in the care of the churches. He was desirous,
therefore, of securing for him all the authority which he could, and of letting it be

known that he regarded him as abundantly qualified for the great work with which he
was intrusted.
3. He addresses all the saints in Achaia, and so it was meant for a number of churches
in that whole are of Greece. It could also mean that many believers were scattered
about the land who did not have a local church. They were much like the pioneers in
our country who had no church, but met with friends to worship in small groups.
4. LOWERY, Though Paul’s description of himself as an apostle was not unusual, in
no letter was it more controversial than this one. A defense of the fact that he was an
apostle of Christ Jesus occupied the heart of this letter. We see from the very
beginning that Paul was the author of the epistle. He called himself an apostle of
Jesus Christ. In just about every letter that Paul wrote, with few exceptions, he
always identified himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. There are reasons why he
identified himself in this way.
First, there were some who continued to question his apostleship.
Second, he wanted everyone to know that his first allegiance was to Jesus Christ.
Third, he wanted his readers to understand that he was not self appointed, but his
appointment to this apostleship, as well as all things pertaining to his life, was
orchestrated by the will of God.
In 6 of his letters, he begins by stating his apostleship. 2nd Corinthians 1:1, Galatians
1:1, Ephesians 1:1, Colossians 1:1, and 1st 2nd Timothy 1:1. His calling into this
apostleship was not of his own choosing nor of his will, or the will of any man, but
by the will of God. In other words, God’s purpose before the foundation of the
world was to choose Paul as an apostle.
Paul not only sent his greetings but that also of Timothy, his understudy, his young
and most faithful student. But Timothy was more than just a young and faithful
student to Paul. Timothy also had experience ministering at Corinth (Acts 18:5; 1st
Corinthians 16:10-11; 2nd Corinthians 1:19), so his association with Paul in the
greeting was more than a formality. Though Timothy was a protégé of Paul, the
apostle considered him a brother. In other letters, he uses more endearing terms to
describe his love and affection for Timothy.
One commentator wisely stated that Paul wrote to the church of GOD at Corinth,
not to the church at Corinth. There were many gatherings that called themselves a
church then, as it is today, that were not God’s church, thus were not worthy of the
name. This letter was written also for people beyond the Church of God in Corinth,
to all the saints in the region. Other churches were not beyond the problems that
plagued the Corinthian church and should be instructed, if not warned, of the
problems that were there.
The church of God consist of saints, God’s called out ones. That’s what a church
is, that’s what God’s church is. To be in God’s church, one must be a saint. To be a
saint, one must be born again. To be born again, one must come through Jesus

Christ for salvation.
5. GILL, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,.... The inscription of
this epistle is pretty much the same with that of the former; only whereas here he
styles himself an apostle of Jesus Christ, there he says he was called to be one: for
he did not assume that character and office without the call of Christ, and will of
God; and which he chooses to mention, in opposition to the false apostles, who had
neither. Likewise, in the inscription of the former epistle Sosthenes is joined with
him; in this Timothy, whom he calls
our brother, not so much on account of his being a partaker of the same grace, as
for his being a minister of the same Gospel: and he the rather mentions him,
because he had sent him to them, to know their state, and was now returned to him
with an account of it, and who joined and agreed with him in the substance of this
epistle. Moreover, the former epistle is directed as unto the church of God which is
at Corinth; so to all that call upon the name of Christ in every place; and this is
directed also to the same church, together
with all the saints which are in all Achaia; which was a very considerable part of
Greece, and of which Corinth was the metropolis: and the apostle's intention in
directing it in this form was, that copies of this letter might be sent to them, who
equally, with this church, stood in need of the reproofs, exhortations, and
instructions which are in it.
6. JAMISON, 2Co_1:1-24. The heading; Paul’s consolations in recent trials in Asia;
His sincerity towards the Corinthians; Explanation of his not having visited them as he
had purposed.
Timothy our brother — When writing to Timothy himself, he calls him “my son”
(1Ti_1:18). Writing of him, “brother,” and “my beloved son” (1Co_4:17). He had been
sent before to Macedonia, and had met Paul at Philippi, when the apostle passed over
from Troas to Macedonia (compare 2Co_2:12, 2Co_2:13; see on 1Co_16:10, 1Co_16:11).
in all Achaia — comprising Hellas and the Peloponnese. The Gentiles themselves,
and Annaeus Gallio, the proconsul (Act_18:12-16), strongly testified their disapproval of
the accusation brought by the Jews against Paul. Hence, the apostle was enabled to labor
in the whole province of Achaia with such success as to establish several churches there
(1Th_1:8; 2Th_1:4), where, writing from Corinth, he speaks of the “churches,” namely,
not only the Corinthian, but others also - Athens, Cenchrea, and, perhaps, Sicyon, Argos,
etc. He addresses “the Church in Corinth,” directly, and all “the saints” in the province,
indirectly. In Gal_1:2 all the “churches” are addressed directly in the same circular
Epistle. Hence, here he does not say, all the churches, but “all the saints.”
7. RWP, And Timothy (kaiTimotheos). Timothy is with Paul, having been sent on
to Macedonia from Ephesus (Act_19:22). He is in no sense Corinthians-author any more
than Sosthenes was in 1Co_1:1.
In all Achaia (enholēitēiAchaiāi). The Romans divided Greece into two provinces
(Achaia and Macedonia). Macedonia included also Illyricum, Epirus, and Thessaly.

Achaia was all of Greece south of this (both Attica and the Peloponnesus). The restored
Corinth was made the capital of Achaia where the pro-consul resided (Act_18:12). He
does not mention other churches in Achaia outside of the one in Corinth, but only
“saints” (hagiois). Athens was in Achaia, but it is not clear that there was as yet a church
there, though some converts had been won (Act_17:34), and there was a church in
Cenchreae, the eastern port of Corinth (Rom_16:1). Paul in 2Co_9:2 speaks of Achaia
and Macedonia together. His language here would seem to cover the whole (holēi, all) of
Achaia in his scope and not merely the environment around Corinth.
8. HAWKER 1-4, 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: (2) Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. (3) Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies, and the God of all comfort; (4) Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we
may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we
ourselves are comforted of God.
I do not detain the Reader, with any particular observation on Paul’s salutation of the
Church. It is much the same as in the former Epistle. He stiles himself an Apostle, by the
will and call of God. And this was highly proper, in proof, that he did not run unsent,
Act_13:1-4; Heb_5:1-6. And as with great humility he joined Sosthenes with him,
though not an Apostle, in his address to Corinth in his former letter; so here, with the
same affection, he joins Timothy. Paul takes in a larger circuit in this Epistle than in the
former; for he includes Achaia, which contained a considerable part of Greece. Probably,
by this time, the Church of Christ had been extended beyond the city of Corinth. But let
it be well noticed, that it is the Church of Christ to whom Paul wrote. Grace and peace,
from God in Christ, could be conferred on none but the Church, Luk_10:5-6.
But I beg to detain the Reader; with an observation or two, on the form of expression
with which the Apostle enters on his Epistle, when he saith: blessed be God, even the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. In the
parallel passage, Eph_1:3, the same word which is here rendered even, is there made
and. And everyone knows, who hath the smallest acquaintance with the original
language, that both among sacred and profane writers, those Greek Particles are
differently used, and not unfrequently.
In the language of the New Testament, we meet with the name and title of God the
Father, upon various occasions, to express the glories of his Person, according to the
particular subject then in view. God the Father, in the essential glories of the Godhead, is
distinguished by this divine title, to distinguish him from the Person of God the Son, and
God the Holy Ghost, See 1Jn_5:7. God the Son, is not the Son of God by creation, as
angels are for in his divine nature, in point of eternity, as well as in all divine perfections,
he is One with the Father, over all God blessed forever. Amen. But, in his human nature,
God the Father is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For so Christ by the
Spirit of prophecy declares, Psa_40:6-8 with Heb_10:5. But this may be understood
also, not to the exclusion of God the Son, taking this human nature, by his own Almighty
power, into union with the Godhead: Heb_2:14; Heb_2:16, neither to the exclusion of
God the Holy Ghost, in his personal agency of the mysterious work, who is expressly said
to have overshadowed the womb of the Virgin Mary, at the Incarnation; and, therefore,
that holy thing, born of the Virgin, shall be called the Son of God, Luk_1:35. But God the

Father, is also called, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by office-character;
because Christ, as God-Man-Mediator in all the transactions of the Covenant, as it
concerns his Church, stands in his office-character as Jehovah’s servant, Isa_42:1; Mat_
12:18; Psa_89:3-4. So that it is highly proper, as often as we meet with this glorious
Name of God the Father in the New Testament Scripture, and when spoken in reference
to God the Son; that we should attend to the particular occasion, and observe; under
divine teaching, in what relation it is spoken. Whether in the equality of nature, and
essence of the Godhead, by way of distinguishing the distinct Persons of God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Or whether to distinguish, the several office-characters
of each Person of the Godhead, in the gracious transactions of Covenant-engagements,
into which, each glorious Person, from all eternity entered and guaranteed
to each other, by which God the Father chose the Church in Christ before the foundation
of the world: Eph_1:4. God the Son betrothed the Church to himself forever: Hos_2:19;
Isa_54:5, and became the Servant of Jehovah, in the time-state of the Church to redeem
her from the ruins of the fall: Isa_53:4-6, and God the Holy Ghost to anoint, both the
glorious Head of his body the Church; and all his members; and to regenerate every
individual of that body, when dead in trespasses and sins, Act_10:38; 1Jn_2:20; Eph_
2:1.
There is an uncommon sweetness of expression in the title: Father of mercies, and God
of all comfort: Not simply the God of all mercies, but the Father of them. As if to teach
the Church, that whatever mercy a child of God wants, he will beget it for him. A child of
God is, sometimes, from unbelief and temptation, apt to think, that his case is so
singular as none ever was before; and as if no mercy could reach or suit it. This title
blessedly comes in, to the relief of such a tried soul. God, your Father in Christ, will
beget it for you. The mercies you need, shall so come to you from Him, and in so direct
and personal a manner, as from the bowels of divine love, as shall manifest that He is the
Father of mercies!
Neither is this all. For he is also the God of all comfort! All and every comfort, every sort,
and degree of comfort; refreshing, strengthening, sanctifying comfort: yea, the God of all
comfort. Reader! Think how blessedly revealed, our Covenant God in Christ, stands
related to his people, under those sweet titles! And, what endears the whole is, that it is
not only God the Father in his Covenant-office and character which is so represented,
but all the persons of the Godhead are the same, Joh_14:16; Joh_14:18.
I need not enlarge on what the Apostle hath observed of himself and his faithful
companions in the ministry, in becoming channels for communicating comfort to the
Church, by imparting portions of what they themselves received from the Lord. This is
indeed among the blessed properties of grace, to diffuse of those streams which we
ourselves receive, by watering the thirsty ground of our brother’s vineyard. It is blessed
to give and to communicate. And it is also in exact conformity to the very appointment of
the ministry, Isa_40:1-2; 1Th_2:7.
9. EBC, SUFFERING AND CONSOLATION.
THE greeting with which St. Paul introduces his Epistles is much alike in them all, but it
never becomes a mere formality, and ought not to pass unregarded as such. It describes,
as a rule, the character in which he writes, and the character in which his
correspondents are addressed. Here he is an apostle of Jesus Christ, divinely
commissioned; and he addresses a Christian community at Corinth, including in it, for

the purposes of his letter, the scattered Christians to be found in the other quarters of
Achaia. His letters are occasional, in the sense that some special incident or situation
called them forth; but this occasional character does not lessen their value. He addresses
himself to the incident or situation in the consciousness of his apostolic vocation; he
writes to a Church constituted for permanence, or at least for such duration as this
transitory world can have; and what we have in his Epistles is not a series of obiter dicta,
the casual utterances of an irresponsible person; it is the mind of Christ authoritatively
given upon the questions raised. When he includes any other person in the salutation-as
in this place Timothy our brother-it is rather as a mark of courtesy, than as adding to
the Epistle another authority besides his own. Timothy had helped to found the Church
at Corinth; Paul had shown great anxiety about his reception by the Corinthians, when
he started to visit that turbulent Church alone; (1Co_16:10 f.) and in this new letter he
honors him in their eyes by uniting his name with his own in the superscription. The
Apostle and his affectionate fellow-worker wish the Corinthians, as they wished all the
Churches, grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not
necessary to expound afresh the meaning and connection of these two New Testament
ideas: grace is the first and last word of the Gospel: and peace-perfect spiritual
soundness-is the finished work of grace m the soul.
The Apostle’s greeting is usually followed by a thanksgiving, in which he recalls the
conversion of those to whom he is writing, or surveys their progress in the new life, and
the improvement of their gifts, gratefully acknowledging God as the author of all. Thus
in the First Epistle to the Corinthians he thanks God for the grace given to them in
Christ Jesus, and especially for their Christian enrichment in all utterance and in all
knowledge. So, too, but with deeper gratitude, he dwells on the virtues of the
Thessalonians, remembering their work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope.
Here also there is a thanksgiving, but at the first glance of a totally different character.
The Apostle blesses God, not for what He has done for the Corinthians, but for what He
has done for himself. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation. This
departure from the Apostle’s usual custom is probably not so selfish as it looks. When
his mind traveled down from Philippi to Corinth, it rested on the spiritual aspects of the
Church there with anything but unrelieved satisfaction. There was much for which he
could not possibly be thankful; and just as the momentary apostasy of the Galatians led
to his omitting the thanksgiving altogether, so the unsettled mood in which he wrote to
the Corinthians gave it this peculiar turn. Nevertheless, when he thanked God for
comforting him in all his afflictions, he thanked Him on their behalf. It was they who
were eventually to have the profit both of his sorrows and his consolations. Probably,
too, there is something here which is meant to appeal even to those who disliked him in
Corinth. There had been a good deal of friction between the Apostle and some who had
once owned him as their father in Christ; they were blaming him, at this very moment,
for not coming to visit them; and in this thanksgiving, which dilates on the afflictions he
has endured, and on the divine consolation he has experienced in them, there is a tacit
appeal to the sympathy even of hostile spirits. Do not, he seems to say, deal
ungenerously with one who has passed through such terrible experiences, and lays the
fruit of them at your feet. Chrysostom presses this view, as if St. Paul had written his
thanksgiving in the character of a subtle diplomatist: to judge by one’s feeling, it is true
enough to deserve mention.
The subject of the thanksgiving is the Apostle’s sufferings, and his experience of God’s
mercies under them. He expressly calls them the sufferings of Christ. These sufferings,
he says, abound toward us. Christ was the greatest of sufferers: the flood of pain and

sorrow went over His head: all its waves and billows broke upon Him. The Apostle was
caught and overwhelmed by the same stream; the waters came into his soul. That is the
meaning of τπαθματατοΧριστοπερισσε!ειες$μ%ς. In abundant measure the
disciple was initiated into his Master’s stern experience; he learned, what he prayed to
learn, the fellowship of His sufferings. The boldness of the language in which a mortal
man calls his own afflictions the sufferings of Christ is far from unexampled in the New
Testament. It is repeated by St. Paul in Col_1:24 : I now rejoice in my sufferings on your
behalf, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His
body’s sake, which is the Church. It is varied in Heb_13:13, where the sacred writer
exhorts us to go out to Jesus, without the camp, bearing His reproach. It is anticipated
and justified by the words of the Lord Himself: Ye shall indeed drink of My cup; and
with the baptism with which I am baptized shall ye be baptized withal. One lot, and that
a cross, awaits all the children of God in this world, from the Only-begotten who came
from the bosom of the Father, to the latest-born among His brethren. But let us beware
of the hasty assertion that, because the Christian’s sufferings can thus be described as of
a piece with Christ’s, the key to the mystery of Gethsemane and Calvary is to be found in
the self-consciousness of martyrs arid confessors. The very man who speaks of filling up
that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for the Church’s sake, and who says that
the sufferings of Christ came on him in their fullness, would have been the first to
protest against such an idea. Was Paul crucified for you? Christ suffered alone; there
is, in spite of our fellowship with His sufferings, a solitary, incommunicable greatness in
His Cross, which the Apostle will expound in another place. (2Co_5:1-21) Even when
Christ’s sufferings come upon us there is a difference. At the very lowest, as Vinet has it,
we do from gratitude what He did from pure love. We suffer in His company, sustained
by His comfort; He suffered uncomforted and unsustained. We are afflicted, when it so
happens, under the auspices of the divine mercy; He was afflicted that there might be
mercy for us.
Few parts of Bible teaching are more recklessly applied than those about suffering and
consolation. If all that men endured was of the character here described, if all their
sufferings were sufferings of Christ, which came on them because they were walking in
His steps and assailed by the forces which buffeted Him, consolation would be an easy
task. The presence of God with the soul would make it almost unnecessary. The answer
of a good conscience would take all the bitterness out of pain; and then, however it
tortured, it could not poison the soul. The mere sense that our sufferings are the
sufferings of Christ-that we are drinking of His cup-is itself a comfort and an inspiration
beyond words. But much of our suffering, we know very well, is of a different character.
It does not come on us because we are united to Christ, but because we are estranged
from Him; it is the proof and the fruit, not of our righteousness, but of our guilt. It is our
sin finding us out, and avenging itself upon us, and in no sense the suffering of Christ.
Such suffering, no doubt, has its use and its purpose.
It is meant to drive the soul in upon itself, to compel it to reflection, to give it no rest till
it awakes to penitence, to urge it through despair to God. Those who suffer thus will
have cause to thank God afterwards if His discipline leads to their amendment, but they
have no title to take to themselves the consolation prepared for those who are partners
in the sufferings of Christ. Nor is the minister of Christ at liberty to apply a passage like
this to any case of affliction which he encounters in his work. There are sufferings and
sufferings; there is a divine intention in them all, if we could only discover it; but the
divine intention and the divinely wrought result are only explained here for one
particular kind-those sufferings, namely, which come upon men in virtue of their

following Jesus Christ. What, then, does the Apostle’s experience enable him to say on
this hard question?
(1) His sufferings have brought him a new revelation of God, which is expressed in the
new name, The Father of mercies and God of all comfort. The name is wonderful in its
tenderness; we feel as we pronounce it that a new conception of what love can be has
been imparted to the Apostle’s soul. It is in the sufferings and sorrows of life that we
discover what we possess in our human friends. Perhaps one abandons us in our
extremity, and another betrays us; but most of us find ourselves unexpectedly and
astonishingly rich. People of whom we have hardly ever had a kind thought show us
kindness; the unsuspected, unmerited goodness which comes to our relief makes us
ashamed. This is the rule which is illustrated here by the example of God Himself. It is as
if the Apostle said: I never knew, till the sufferings of Christ abounded in me, holy near
God could come to man; I never knew how rich His mercies could be, how intimate His
sympathy, how inspiriting His comfort. This is an utterance well worth considering.
The sufferings of men, and especially the sufferings of the innocent and the good, are
often made the ground of hasty charges against God; nay, they are often turned into
arguments for Atheism. But who are they who make such charges? Not the righteous
sufferers, at least in New Testament times. The Apostle here is their representative and
spokesman, and he assures us that God never was so much to him as when he was in the
sorest straits. The divine love was so far from being doubtful to him that it shone out
then in unanticipated brightness; the very heart of the Father was revealed-all mercy, all
encouragement and comfort. If the martyrs have no doubts of their own, is it not very
gratuitous for the spectators to become skeptics on their account? The sufferings of
Christ in His people may be an insoluble problem to the disinterested onlooker, but
they are no problem to the sufferers. What is a mystery, when viewed from without, a
mystery in which God seems to be conspicuous by His absence, is, when viewed from
within, a new and priceless revelation of God Himself. The Father of mercies and God
of all comfort, is making Himself known now as for want of opportunity He could not
be known before.
Notice especially that the consolation is said to abound through Christ. He is the
mediator through whom it comes. To partake in His sufferings is to be united to Him;
and to be united to Him is to partake of His life. The Apostle anticipates here a thought
on which he enlarges in the fourth chapter: Always bearing about in the body the dying
of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. In our eagerness to
emphasize the nearness and the sympathy of Jesus, it is to be feared that we do less than
justice to the New Testament revelation of His glory. He does not suffer now. He is
enthroned on high, far above all principality and power and might and dominion. The
Spirit which brings His presence to our hearts is the Spirit of the Prince of Life; its
function is not to be weak with our weakness, but to help our infirmity, and to
strengthen us with all might in the inner man. The Christ who dwells in us through His
Spirit is not the Man of Sorrows, wearing the crown of thorns; it is the King of kings and
Lord of lords, making us partakers of His triumph. There is a weak tone in much of the
religious literature which deals with suffering, utterly unlike that of the New Testament.
It is a degradation of Christ to our level which it teaches, instead of an exaltation of man
toward Christ’s. But the last is the apostolic ideal: More than conquerors through Him
that loved us. The comfort of which St. Paul makes so much here is not necessarily
deliverance from suffering for Christ’s sake, still less exemption from it; it is the strength
and courage and immortal hope which rise up, even in the midst of suffering, in the
heart in which the Lord of glory dwells. Through Him such comfort abounds; it wells up
to match and more than match the rising tide of suffering.

(2) But Paul’s sufferings have done more than give him a new knowledge of God; they
have given him at the same time a new power to comfort others. He is bold enough to
make this ministry of consolation the key to his recent experiences. He comforteth us in
all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through
the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. His sufferings and his
consolation together had a purpose that went beyond himself. How significant that is for
some perplexing aspects of man’s life! We are selfish, and instinctively regard ourselves
as the center of all providences; we naturally seek to explain everything by its bearing on
ourselves alone. But God has not made us for selfishness and isolation, and some
mysteries would be cleared up if we had love enough to see the ties by which our life is
indissolubly linked to others. This, however, is less definite than the Apostle’s thought;
what he tells us is that he has gained a new power at a great price. It is a power which
almost every Christian man will covet; but how many are willing to pass through the fire
to obtain it? We must ourselves have needed and have found comfort, before we know
what it is; we must ourselves have learned the art of consoling in the school of suffering,
before we can practice it for the benefit of others. The most painfully tried, the most
proved in suffering, the souls that are best acquainted with grief, provided their
consolation has abounded through Christ, are specially called to this ministry. Their
experience is their preparation for it. Nature is something, and age is something; but far
more than nature and age is that discipline of God to which they have been submitted,
that initiation into the sufferings of Christ which has made them acquainted with His
consolations also, and has taught them to know the Father of mercies and the God of all
comfort. Are they not among His best gifts to the Church, those whom He has qualified
to console, by consoling them in the fire?
In the sixth verse (2Co_1:6) the Apostle dwells on the interest of the Corinthians in his
sufferings and his consolation. It is a practical illustration of the communion of the
saints in Christ. All that befalls me, says St. Paul, has your interest in view. If I am
afflicted, it is in the interest of your comfort: when you look at me, and see how I bear
myself in the sufferings of Christ, you will be encouraged to become imitators of me,
even as I am of Him. If, again, I am comforted, this also is in the interest of your
comfort; God enables me to impart to you what He has imparted to me; and the comfort
in question is no impotent thing; it proves its power in this-that when you have received
it, you endure with brave patience the same sufferings which we also suffer. This last is
a favorite thought with the Apostle, and connects itself readily with the idea, which may
or may not have a right to be expressed in the text, that all this is in furtherance of the
salvation of the Corinthians. For if there is one note of the saved more certain than
another, it is the brave patience with which they take upon them the sufferings of Christ.
οδευτομειναςειςτελος,ουτοςσωθησεται (Mat_10:22) All that helps men to endure to the
end, helps them to salvation. All that tends to break the spirit and to sink men in
despondency, or hurry them into impatience or fear, leads in the opposite direction. The
great service that a true comforter does is to put the strength and courage into us which
enable us to take up our cross, however sharp and heavy, and to bear it to the last step
and the last breath. No comfort is worth the name-none is taught of God-which has
another efficacy than this. The saved are those whose souls rise to this description, and
who recognize their spiritual kindred in such brave and patient sufferers as Paul.
The thanksgiving ends appropriately with a cheerful word about the Corinthians. Our
hope for you is steadfast; knowing that, as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so are ye
also of the comfort. These two things go together; it is the appointed lot of the children
of God to become acquainted with both. If the sufferings could come alone, if they could

be assigned as the portion of the Church apart from the consolation, Paul could have no
hope that the Corinthians would endure to the end; but as it is he is not afraid. The force
of his words is perhaps best felt by us, if instead of saying that the sufferings and the
consolation are inseparable, we say that the consolation depends upon the sufferings.
And what is the consolation? It is the presence of the exalted Savior in the heart through
His Spirit. It is a clear perception, and a firm hold, of the things which are unseen and
eternal. It is a conviction of the divine love which cannot be shaken, and of its
sovereignty and omnipotence in the Risen Christ. This infinite comfort is contingent
upon our partaking of the sufferings of Christ. There is a point, the Apostle seems to say,
at which the invisible world and its glories intersect this world in which we live, and
become visible, real, and inspiring to men. It is the point at which we suffer with Christ’s
sufferings. At any other point the vision of this glory is unneeded, and therefore
withheld. The worldly, the selfish, the cowardly; those who shrink from self-denial;
those who evade pain; those who root themselves in the world that lies around us, and
when they move at all move in the line of least resistance; those who have never carried
Christ’s Cross, -none of these can ever have the triumphant conviction of things unseen
and eternal which throbs in every page of the New Testament. None of these can have
what the Apostle elsewhere calls eternal consolation. It is easy for unbelievers, and for
Christians lapsing into unbelief, to mock this faith as faith in the transcendent; but
would a single line of the New Testament have been written without it? When we weigh
what is here asserted about its connection with the sufferings of Christ, could a graver
charge be brought against any Church than that its faith in this transcendent
languished or was extinct? Do not let us hearken to the sceptical insinuations which
would rob us of all that has been revealed in Christ’s resurrection; and do not let us
imagine, on the other hand, that we can retain a living faith in this revelation if we
decline to take up our cross. It was only when the sufferings of Christ abounded in him
that Paul’s consolation was abundant through Christ; it was only when he laid down his
life for His sake that Stephen saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at
the right hand of God.
10. BI, Paul to the Corinthians
Note—
I. The blending of lowliness and authority in Paul’s designation of himself.
1. He does not always bring his apostolical authority to mind at the beginning of his
letters. In the loving letter to the Philippians he has no need to urge his authority. In
Philemon friendship is uppermost.
2. “By the will of God” is at once an assertion of Divine authority, a declaration of
independence, and a lowly disclaimer of individual merit. The weight he expected to
be attached to his words was to be due entirely to their Divine origin. Never mind the
cracked pipe through which the Divine breath makes music, but listen to the music.
II. The ideal of Christian character here set forth. “Saints”—a word that has been
woefully misapplied. The Church has given it as a special honour to a few, and decorated
with it mainly the possessors of a false ideal of sanctity. The world uses it with a sarcastic
intonation, as if it implied loud professions and small performances.
1. Saints are not people living in cloisters, but men and women immersed in the
vulgar work of everyday life. The root idea of the word is not moral purity, but

separation to God. Consecration to Him is the root from which the white flower of
purity springs. We cannot purify ourselves, but we can yield ourselves to God, and
the purity will come.
2. To thus devote ourselves is our solemn obligation, and unless we do we are not
Christians. The true consecration is the surrender of the will, and its one motive is
drawn from the love and devotion of Christ to us. All consecration rests on the faith
of Christ’s sacrifice.
3. And if, drawn by the great love of Christ, we give ourselves away to God in Him,
then He gives Himself to us.
III. The apostolic wish which sets forth the high ideal to be desired by churches and
individuals.
1. “Grace and peace” blend the Western and Eastern forms of salutation, and surpass
both. All that the Greek meant by his “Grace,” and all that the Hebrew meant by his
“Peace”—the ideally happy condition which differing nations have placed in different
blessings, and which all loving words have vainly wished for dear ones—is secured
and conveyed to every poor soul who trusts in Christ.
2. Grace means—
(1) Love in exercise to those who are below the lover or who deserve something
else.
(2) The gifts which such love bestows.
(3) The effects of those gifts in the beauties of character and conduct developed
in the receivers. So here are invoked the love and gentleness of the Father; and
next the outcome of that love, which never visits the soul empty handed, in all
varied spiritual gifts; and, as a last result, every beauty of heart, mind, and
temper which can adorn the character and refine a man into the likeness of God.
3. Peace comes after grace. For tranquillity of soul we must go to God, and He gives
it by giving us His love and its gifts. There must be first peace with God that there
may be peace from God. Then, when we have been won from our alienation and
enmity by the power of the Cross, and have learned to know that God is our Lover,
Friend, and Father, we shall possess the peace of those whose hearts have found
their home; the peace of spirits no longer at war within—conscience and choice
tearing them asunder in their strife; the peace of obedience, which banishes the
disturbance of self-will; the peace of security shaken by no fears; the peace of a sure
future across the brightness of which no shadows of sorrow nor mists of uncertainty
can fall; the peace of a heart in amity with all mankind. So, living in peace, we shall
lay ourselves down and die in peace, and enter “that country afar beyond the stars”
where “grows the flower of peace.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The will of God
I. The supreme law. “By the will of God.”
1. God has a will. He is, therefore, an intelligent, free personality. His will explains
the origin, sustenance, and order of the universe; His will is the force of all forces,
and law of all laws.
2. God has a will in relation to individual men. He has a purpose in relation to every

man’s existence, mission, and conduct. His will in relation to moral beings is the
standard of all conduct and the rule of all destiny. Love is its mainspring.
II. The apostolic spirit.
1. The apostolic spirit involves subjection to Christ. “An apostle of Jesus Christ.”
Christ is the moral Master, he the loyal servant.
2. The apostolic spirit is that of special love for the good. He calls Timothy his
“brother,” and towards “the Church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints
which are in all Achaia,” he glows with loving sympathy. Love for souls, deep, tender,
overflowing, is the essential qualification for the ministry.
III. The chief good.
1. Here is the highest good. “Grace and peace.”
2. Here is the highest good from the highest source. “From our Father and from the
Lord Jesus Christ.” (Homilist.)
Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth.—
The Church which is at Corinth
Corinth is notable for its learning, wealth, and lasciviousness.
I. That even amongst the most profane and unlikeliest people God may sometimes
gather a church to himself. The reason why God may build His house of such crooked
timber, and make His temple of such rough stones, may be to show the freeness of His
grace and the efficacy of it.
II. That a Church may be a true Church although it be defiled with many corruptions. As
a godly man may be truly godly and yet subject to many failings, so a Church yet not
perfect. This truth is worthy of note, because many, out of a tenderness and misguided
zeal, may separate from a Church because of this; but a particular Christian is not to
excommunicate a Church till God hath given a bill of divorce to it.
1. The soundness and purity of Churches admits of degrees. As one star doth excel
another in glory, yet both are stars, so one Church may greatly transcend another in
orthodoxy and purity, and yet both be Churches.
2. When we speak of a Church being God’s true Church, though greatly corrupted,
we must take heed of two extremes—
(1) That of those who would have no reformation, though there be never so many
disorders, but say, “It is prudence to let all things be.” The apostle doth far
otherwise to this Church; though he calls it the Church of God, yet his Epistle is
full of sharp reproof. He is very zealous that they become a new lump—that they
be made, as it were, a new Church. God takes notice, and is very angry with all
these disorders and great neglect.
(2) That of those who, because of the corruptions that are in a Church, are so far
transported with misguided zeal as to take no notice of the truth of a Church.
Some are apt so to attend to a true Church that they never matter the corruptions
of it. Others, again, so eye the corruptions that they never regard the truth of it;
but it is good to avoid both these extremes.

3. Though that Church be a true Church where we live, yet, if many corruptions do
abound therein, we must take heed that we do not pollute ourselves thereby, or
become partakers of any sin indulged amongst them. (Anthony Burgess.)
With all the saints.—
Sainthood
To the constitution of a true saint there is—
I. A separation. Not locally, but in regard of intimate friendship.
II. A dedication of ourselves to the service of God.
III. An inward qualification.
IV. A new conversation. The Christian carries himself even like to Him that “hath called
him out of darkness into marvellous light.” (R. Sibbes, D. D.)
2. Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Henry, The salutation or apostolical benediction, which is the same as in his former
epistle; and therein the apostle desires the two great and comprehensive blessings,
grace and peace, for those Corinthians. These two benefits are fitly joined together,
because there is no good and lasting peace without true grace; and both of them come
from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the procurer and
dispenser of those benefits to fallen man, and is prayed to as God.
2. Intervarsity press, Paul's greeting takes the form of an ancient :ear Eastern
blessing: Grace (or mercy in Jewish letters) and peace. :ormally at this point, the
first-century writer would go on to wish his reader(s) good health--much as we say,
Hope all is going well. Paul, instead, specifies the source of good health for the
believer--God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this kind of Christian blessing
that he invariably uses to round off his opening greeting. God as a source of peace
would be a typical Jewish thought. Our Father, however, brings Paul's greeting into
the sphere of the familial--the exact way Jesus taught his disciples to address God in
prayer. Yet, it is to be noted that while God is our Father, Jesus is not here spoken of as
our brother but, rather, the Lord. Kyrios is placed first for emphasis. Grace and
peace come from the Lord Jesus Christ. The concept of God as Father of the church

and Jesus as her Lord captures too key distinctives of the Christian faith.
So Paul in these opening verses seeks to highlight both his apostolic and his family
relationship to the Corinthians by calling on the witness of the broader community of
Achaian believers and pointing to the filial bonds he and the Corinthians share. By
making this most personal of letters public, Paul holds the Corinthians accountable
to the church at large.
Jesus is not here spoken of as our brother but, rather, the Lord. Kyrios is placed first for
emphasis. Grace and peace come from the Lord Jesus Christ. The concept of God as
Father of the church and Jesus as her Lord captures too key distinctives of the Christian
faith.
So Paul in these opening verses seeks to highlight both his apostolic and his family
relationship to the Corinthians by calling on the witness of the broader community of
Achaian believers and pointing to the filial bonds he and the Corinthians share. By
making this most personal of letters public, Paul holds the Corinthians accountable
to the church at large.
3. Hodge pointed out that grace is the favor of God, and peace is its fruit, and so these
two words cover all the benefits of our redemption in Christ.
The God of All Comfort
3. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion
and the God of all comfort,
1. Barnes, This is the commencement, properly, of the epistle; and it is the language
of a heart that is full of joy, and that bursts forth with gratitude in view of mercy. It
may have been excited by the recollection that he had formerly written to them, and
that during the interval which had elapsed between the time when the former epistle
was written and when this was penned, he had been called to a most severe trial, and
that from that trial he had been mercifully delivered. With a heart full of gratitude and
joy for this merciful interposition, he commences this epistle. It is remarked by
Doddridge, that eleven out of the thirteen epistles of Paul begin with exclamations of
praise, joy, and thanksgiving. Paul had been afflicted, but he had also been favoured
with remarkable consolations; and it was not unnatural that he should allow himself to
give expression to his joy and praise in view of all the mercies which God had
conferred on him. This entire passage is one that is exceedingly valuable, as showing
that there may an elevated joy in the midst of deep affliction, and as showing what is

the reason why God visits his servants with trials. The phrase blessed be God is
equivalent to praised be God, or is an expression of thanksgiving. It is the usual
formula of praise, (compare Ephesians 1:3;) and shows his entire confidence in God,
and his joy in him, and his gratitude for his mercies. It is one of innumerable instances
which show that it is possible and proper to bless God in view of the trials with which
he visits his people, and of the consolations which he causes to abound.

2. . Paul's praise is of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for there is only one
source of the highest level of compassion and comfort, and that is from the Father of
compassion and the God of all comfort. God the Father is the theme of this praise, for
he is the source of all that we need in life's trials. We are like children who are hurt,
and who know the place to run to is mom or dad who will kiss their hurt spot and give
them comfort. So we know that we can run to our heavenly Father and receive the
comfort we need to heal our sore spirit. Calling God the God of compassion and
comfort is just another way of saying God is love, for his love is conveyed by means of
his compassiona and comfort.
3. People seek for comfort in life's trials in many different ways. They seek to drown
their troubles through drinking, or some other form of dangerous activity like drugs
and wild parties. They seek to escape the sorrow of what they suffer, but the best way
to deal with these pains of life is to take them to our heavenly Father and be comforted
by his promises. Jesus said in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world. :othing can take from us the good things that Jesus has
won for us. He even said to fear not those who can kill the body and that is all they can
do. There is nothing this world can do to rob you of the eternal life and treasure you
have in Him. God who gave his Son to die for you will freely give you all you need to
survive and overcome the trials of life. He has made all the provisions for victory, and
so we need to come to our Father of compassion and hear his many words of comfort
that will heal our spirit and motivate us to keep on keeping on living to please Him.
4. Ray Stedman adds a new dimension to the idea of comfort. He wrote, Now, comfort
is more than just a little cheer or friendly word of encouragement. Paul does not mean
that. The word basically means to strengthen. What Paul experienced was the
strengthening of God to give him a peaceful, restful spirit to meet the pressure and the
stress with which he lived. That is what Christianity is all about. Strengthen, in the
Greek, is a word that is used also for the Holy Spirit. Your Bible frequently calls him
The Comforter, but really it is The Strengthener, the one who strengthens you.
This is God's provision for affliction.
It is amazing to me how many thousands of Christians are dreading facing their daily
lives because they feel pressured and stressful and tied up in knots, and yet they never
avail themselves of God's provision for that kind of pressure. These words are not
addressed to us merely to be used for religious problems. They are to be used for any
kind of stress, any kind of problems. God's comfort, God's strengthening, is available
for whatever puts you under stress.
I say that thousands do not avail themselves of it. The reason I say that is because they
give every evidence that they do just like anybody else around who is not a Christian at
all --they try to escape their pressures. Or, if they are Christian, they are praying that
they will be rescued from their pressures, that the problems will be taken away. You
can always tell how ill-taught Christians really are when you hear their prayers.

Invariably they pray to have their problems taken away, or to be completely shielded
from them. All their hopes are for escape, somehow, and all their reactions are either
worry or a murmuring, complaining spirit, anger and fear. :ow, that is not
Christianity in action.
5. What Stedman says above is due to believers not really believing that their God is a
specialist in comforting. It is not just a sideline for Him, but priority in his dealing with
his children. The Greek word for comfort is paraklesis, and it means a coming along
side of another to bring comfort. A comforter gets up close to let you know they care,
and they help you carry the burden that weighs you down. Jesus called the Holy Spirit
the comforter-the parakletos. In John ohn 14 jesus says to his disciples he is asking the
father to send another comforter, for he is departing. This comforter will teach them
the truth and remind them of what he taught them when he was with them. The point
of jesus is that they would never be alone, but always have a comforter along side
them. And we can be assistents of this comforter, for as Beecher once said, We are
called, not only to sit together in heavenly places, but to stand together in unheavenly
places.
6. The implication is clear that you can't live the Christian life alone. You need one
along side to give comfort and encouragement or you will let the troubles of life get the
best of you. Why are there so many Christians who drop out of the Christian race? It
is because they did not know or did not enter into this truth that there is a comforter
always available. Jesus was the comforter of his disciples while he walked the earth,
but now he is present with his disciples in the Holy Spirit, the other comforter. And
when we invite jesus and the holy spirit to indwell us we become comforters as well. In
a fallen world comforting is a major issue, and all believers need to both receive the
comfort God offers, and be givers of that comfort to others. If all three persons of the
Godhead are involved in comforting, then it is obvious that being Godlike, Christlike,
and Spirit filled means that we too must be comforters. Comfort comes from the two
words come, which means together, and fort, which means strong. This means it is one
who comes together with you so that together you can be strong in facing the issue that
is troubling you. Someone along side you makes you stronger. That is why Jesus sent
his disciples out two by two, for two always makes a stronger team. Even the Lone
Ranger knew the value and importance of having a Tonto by his side.

7. Paul was comforting the Corinthians here, and in chapter 7 verses 4 and 13 he uses
the same word, paraklesis, to describe the comfort and encouragement he received
from them. Then in romans 15:4 Paul uses the word again when he says the scriptures
were written for our comfort. He tells christians everywhere to also comfort one
another. It is clear that comfort is a major work of god, the bible, the church, and
every christian in it. We are not all called to preach or teach or sing, or a thousand
and one other tasks that need to be done in the body of christ, but every Christian is
called to comfort. In a fallen world where nobody escapes some degree of suffering,
disappointment, and discouragement, the universal need is for a comforter.
Everything you suffer in life is part of your training to be a comforter. that is what the
trials of Jesus were training him to be. The book of Hebrews stresses this in Hebrews
2:18 because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who
are being tempted. In 4:15 it says For we do not have a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way,
just as we are-yet was without sin. :o one understands like jesus is a song we sing,
because he has been there and knows what we endure in our weakness, and he can give
comfort because of it.
8. So it is with all of our trials and troubles and temptations. Paul says you don't waste
anything in life-not even the bad stuff and the sufferings that hurt you and rob you of
much joy. You don't say that was a worthless experience. You say that was terrible,
but now I can be a comfort to others who go through the same deep waters. I can
come along side and be an understanding companion in their pain, for I have been
there. We don't all suffer the same things, but each suffers in some way that can be of
comfort to others. Somewhere in the body of christ somebody can say,
I have had a miscarriage too.
I have lost a child too.
I have lost a mate too.
I have had serious surgery too.
I have had cancer too.
I have had an accident too.
I have lost my parents too.
I have lost my job too.
I have lost a major investment too.
I have been abused and rejected too.

We could go on to cover the whole vast world of suffering, for somewhere in the body
of christ there is a comforter who has endured and survived every trial. They are
assistants to the trinity in bringing comfort to others in the body.
9. Even the world is into the value and healing power of comfort. The world is full of
support groups for every kind of suffering you can imagine. The whole idea is, if you
have others who suffer the same kind of trial you do, and they are alongside you, it is
easier to bear the load-and it works! Comfort is not an exclusive possession of
christians, but christians should be specialists in this realm, for they are children of the
father of compassion and the God of all comfort.
Johann casper levater in 1769 became the first protestant theologian to conceive of the
ministry as the cure of souls. He counselled many thousands and brought them
comfort, for he saw this as the essence of the Christian faith. he wrote, I have enjoyed
many of the comforts of life, none of which I wish to esteem lightly; yet I confess I
know not any joy that is so dear to me, that so fully satisfies the inmost desires of my
mind, that so enlivens, refines, and elevates my whole nature, as that which I derive
from religion-from faith in God. May this God be thy God, thy refuge, thy comfort, as
he has been mine.
10. The gospel is, of course, the universal comfort, for in Christ God has provided for
man's greatest problems. for the sin problem he has provided forgiveness, and for the
death problem he has provided eternal life, and for the suffering problem he has
provided healing and hope and help through the ministry of the body, and the Holy
Spirit. Comfort is big business with God. We can't quote all the verses that deal with
his comfort of Israel, but a few will give you the flavor of God's spirit.
Isa.40:1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people saith your God.
Isa 51:3 The lord will surely comfort zion and will look with compassion on all her
ruins; he will make her deserts like eden; her wastelands like the garden of the lord,
joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
Isa.66:13 as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you:
and you will be comforted.
11. That is why when Jesus went into the synagogue and proclaimed his purpose for
being on earth, he read Isa. 61:2 To proclaim the year of the lord's favor and the day
of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. Jesus knew that life is not fair-it
breaks everybodies heart at some point, and they will mourn. But jesus said in the
sermon on the mount blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. the
last word will never be a groan, a scream, or a cry. The last word will always be
praise, for God has the last word, and he is the God of all comfort.
If comfort is big business with God, then it ought to be big business with us. And that
is what paul is saying to the Corinthians. They are to receive the comfort of God, and
then pass it on to others. Arthur S. Way translates this blessed be he who in all my
affliction comforts me so perfectly that I have comfort to spare. We are not to get
just enough to get by, but let God's comfort overflow so that others in the body get the

excess, and can be overcomers as well. In other words, God uses some of his people,
like Paul, to be channels of his comfort to others of his people. He gets the body
involved, and does not deal with everyone directly, but works in their lives through
others he has already comforted.
12. Every gift of comfort you receive you are to pass on to others in the body. It does
not require wealth or education to get into this ministry of comfort-all it takes is a
caring spirit and your experience of surviving trials. Comfort is a great gift to give
because by giving it away you don't lose it, but get even more. It multiplies by being
given away. You enrich others, and get richer yourself in the process. Fortunately,
most christians do the ministry of comforting even though they do not realize they are
in the ministry, but unfortunately, because this ministry is not recognized, it is
neglected, or even worse, we become like jobs friends. Job called his friends miserable
comforters.
A miserable comforter is one who does not relieve the burden, but adds more weight to
the load so it is harder to bear than ever. Job's so-called friends made him feel his
problems were all his fault, and for some reason Job was not encouraged by this
evaluation of his suffering. These friends missed the chance to play the role that God
intended, and instead they played the role that Satan intended. When we fail to
comfort, we are like job's friends.
We will not always succeed in our attempts to comfort. A nurse was trying to console
a young woman who had just given birth to her baby in the elevator of a :orth
Carolina hospital. don't feel bad she said-two years ago a woman delivered her
baby in the front yard of the hospital. The new mother burst into tears and sobbed
out-I know, that was me too. You won't win them all, but it is your christian duty to
try. Without comforters people come to the end of their rope and want to give up.
13. Paul makes it clear that there is a twofold purpose in every christian service-the
worship of God, and the comfort of the worshippers. There is a heavenly goal-to
praise and adore our Lord, but there is also an earthly goal-to encourage the saints.
Paul makes this so clear in I Cor. 14 where he deal with the gifts of the spirit. Look at
the first three verses, Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts,
especially the gift of prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to
men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him, he utters mysteries with his spirit,
but everyone who prophesies speaks to men for there strengthening, encouragement
and comfort. Paul's whole point in this section of this letter is that some gifts, like
tongues, are of more value as private means of worship. In the public service that
which is of most value is that which encourages and comforts the body. The teaching
and preaching ministry of the church is to be a ministry of comfort and
encouragement.
Why did Paul write to the Thessalonians and explain the rapture and the resurrection?
Was it just to give them more theological content to their faith? :o! It was to comfort
them in the loss of their loved ones. The practical purpose of all knowledge is not just

to give you facts so you can answer the questions on bible quizzes, but to give comfort,
and so Paul ends I Thess. 4 with verse 18 therefore encourage each other with these
words.
Ask God to give thee skill
In comforts art,
That thou mayst consecrated be,
And set apart,
Unto a life of sympathy,
For heavey is the weight of ill,
In every heart;
And conforters are needed much
Of Christlike touch. A. E. Hamilton
14. In 1979 Dale Berra of the Pittsburgh Pirates dropped a fly ball in the ninth inning
of a crucial game for the national league pennant, and it cost them the game. Berra sat
by himself in the locker room racked with a sense of failure and paralyzed with guilt.
He could not bring himself to join his teammates to eat. But Willie Stargell heaped up
a plate of food and brought it over to Berra, and handed it to him. He put his big hand
on Berra's shoulder and said, now, Dale, you weren't the only one who lost the game;
we all feel we lost it with you, and we are family. These words of comfort spread the
load of grief around so the whole team bore it together, and Berra was able to cope
with his share of the load. They went on to win the pennant. All could have been lost
without the ministry of comfort.
15. Back in 1947 when Henry Ford died, the Detroit paper had the entire front page
devoted to this man who developed the automobile. There was a picture of Mr. Ford,
and under it the inscription: the dreamer. There was also a picture of Mrs. Ford,
and under her the inscription was: the believer. Ford had many hard times, and
things did not always go right. He may have given up and quit had it not been for the
encouragement of his wife. Many a dreamers dreams would never come true without a
comforter to encourage them to press on in tough times. Comforters help dreamers
hang on until their dreams come true. May god help us to accept our calling to be
partners with the God of all comfort.
encouragement of his wife. Many a dreamers dreams would never come true without a
comforter to encourage them to press on in tough times. Comforters help dreamers
hang on until their dreams come true. May god help us to accept our calling to be
partners with the God of all comfort.
16. A young American was studying music in Berlin, and he ran out of funds.
Paderewski was in Berlin at the time, and he heard of the student's plight. He called on
the student and loaned him the money to continue his studies. It was 40 years later that
they met again in Boston. The student was now very successful in the music world, and
he offered to repay Paderewski. He refuse the check, and said, I don't need it, and
now you don't need it. So why don't you hunt up a student who is in the same straits

you were 40 years ago, and led it to him. God find that boy, and pass along the help I
gave you. That is the spirit of the comforter, and that is the calling of all believers to
be those who pass on the comfort we have received to those who are in desperate need
of it.
17. Vance Havner said, If even rugged Elijah came down with a nervous reaction
after his day at Carmel, we lesser fry need not be surprised if oftimes the journey is too
great for us....and, mind you, the Lord did not give Elijah a lecture; He fed his and put
him to sleep... The believer often needs food and rest or he will not cope well with
life's circumstances.
O Give Thine own sweet rest to me,
That I may speak with soothing power,
A word in season as from Thee,
To weary ones in needful hour.
18. Spurgeon, A man who has never had any trouble is very awkward when he tries
to comfort troubled hearts. Hence, the minister of Christ, if he is to be of much use in
God’s service, must have great trouble. “Prayer, meditation, and affliction,” says
Melanchthon, “are the three things that make the minister of God.” There must be
prayer. There must be meditation and there must be affliction. You cannot pronounce
the promise correctly in the ears of the afflicted unless you, yourself, have known its
preciousness in your own hour of trial. It is God’s will that the Holy Spirit, the
Comforter, should often work by men according to that ancient word of His, “Comfort
you, comfort you My people, says your God. Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem.”
These comforting men are to be made.they are not born so.and they have to be
made by passing through the furnace, themselves. They cannot comfort others unless
they have had trouble and have been comforted in it.
19. GILL, Blessed be God,.... This is an ascription of praise and glory to God, for he can
only be blessed of men, by their praising and glorifying him, or by ascribing honour and
blessing to him: and in this form of blessing him he is described, first by his relation to
Christ,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: whose Son Christ is, not by creation, as angels
and men, nor by adoption, as saints, but in such a way of filiation, as no creatures are, or
possibly can be: he is his only begotten Son, his own proper Son, his natural and eternal
Son, is of the same nature with him, and equal to him in perfections, power, and glory.
This is rightly prefaced by the apostle to the other following characters, since there is no
mercy nor comfort administered to the sons of men but through the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, and Saviour of sinners. And next he is described by his attribute of mercy,
and the effects of it, or by his merciful disposition to his creatures,
the Father of mercies. The Jews frequently address God in their prayersF1 under the title
or character of, אב הרחמים , Father of mercies. The plural number is used, partly to show
that God is exceeding merciful; he delights in showing mercy to poor miserable creatures,
and is rich and plenteous in the exercise of it: nothing is more common in the Talmudic

writings, than to call him רחמנא , the merciful, and this is partly to express the multitude
of his tender mercies, of which he is the Father, author, and giver, both in a temporal,
and spiritual sense; for there are not only innumerable providential mercies which the
people of God share in, and partake of, but also a multitude of spiritual mercies. Such as
redemption by Christ, pardon of sin through his blood, regeneration by his Spirit, supplies
of grace out of his fulness, and the word and ordinances; all which are owing to the mercy
of God, which they have abundant reason to be thankful to him, and bless him for, being
altogether unworthy and undeserving of them. God is also described by his work of
comforting the saints,
and the God of all comfort; most rightly is this character given him, for there is no solid
comfort but what comes from him; there is none to be had in, and from the creatures; and
whatever is had through them it is from him: and all spiritual comfort is of him; whatever
consolation the saints enjoy they have it from God, the Father of Christ, and who is their
covenant God and Father in Christ; and the consolation they have from him through
Christ in a covenant way is not small, and for which they have great reason to bless the
Lord, as the apostle here does; for it is from him that Christ, the consolation of Israel, and
the Spirit, the Comforter, come, and whatever is enjoyed by the Gospel.
20. Doug Goins has one of the best sermons on this whole passage.
The two words intertwined throughout the paragraph are comfort and affliction.
These two ideas always go together in the Bible. Affliction is what we would call hard
times, difficult times, stressful times. Synonymous with the word affliction is another
word that appears in the paragraph, suffering. It is our universal experience. Affliction
comes to all of us in the body of Christ, whether it is physical, mental, emotional, or
spiritual. The prayer request section in our bulletin each week reminds us of our
brothers and sisters who struggle in life, and how we can enter into it by praying for
them. Public sharing in our worship services reveal people who are suffering among
us, but who also are experiencing the comfort of God. These things go together.
Comfort is a strong biblical word. Our merciful, compassionate, heavenly Father is the
source of comfort. The word really means strengthening, literally to come alongside
and help. So comfort goes beyond empathy or sympathy by putting strength into our
hearts. Because the apostle Paul personally experienced this kind of spiritual
encouragement in his own affliction, he opens this section with a doxology of praise
and thanksgiving to his Father God, who supplies all the resources we need in our
common experience of suffering. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our
affliction The next words in the text, so that, is a purpose phrase that Paul uses to
unfold several of God's sovereign purposes behind our suffering as a Christian
community. Our suffering allows us to comfort others
The first purpose is detailed at the end of verse 4. God allows our suffering so that we
might be able to enter into others' suffering and offer comfort to them. We are
comforted so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the
comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. This statement would be a
tremendous challenge to the Corinthian church because of their self-centered
Christianity. Unfortunately, we are not that much different than they, with our own

Paul's Joy at Corinth's Repentance

Paul's Joy at Corinth's Repentance

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (19)

Similar to Paul's Joy at Corinth's Repentance

Similar to Paul's Joy at Corinth's Repentance (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Paul's Joy at Corinth's Repentance