God of All Comfort
Today I want us to consider the God of all comfort.
2Co 1:1 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:
2Co 1:2 Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace be to you and peace from our Lord. This is something that you see in many of the N.T. books. The writers have a desire to see those who they are writing to be a recipient of the grace and peace of God. They want them to also be recipients of what they have.
Jesus said.
Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
If Jesus gives peace, and this peace has already been given, then why would the N.T. writers express a desire for those they are writing to, to get peace?
And if we look out at Christians that we have known and if we are honest and look at our own lives we will have to admit that we do not always have peace. As far as eternal salvation we do, but in hard situations we sometimes don’t.
There are many reasons for this. Jesus mentioned a big one in John 14:27. Let not your heart be troubled; neither let it be afraid.
Jesus gives peace and grace but you must let it. You must allow it. You must want it and accept the help from Jesus.
Jesus is not a dictator. He does not and will not force peace upon you. He wants you to have His peace, He wants you to give you grace and help you and comfort you. But He allows you to have a free will.
It is a sad thing but true. A Christian can get worldly and carnal and prideful and he can get to a point that he simply does not want to walk that close to Jesus. He can get in turmoil and distraught and afraid and all the while Jesus has his arms open wide saying come unto me.
Let me carry that burden. Let me still your heart.
Paul understood this principal so he starts this letter by showing that he wants them to be recipients of the grace and peace given by God.
2Co 1:2 Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Co 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
The God of all comfort. I have seen this messed up. The way language works is words have meanings plural. Dictionaries have meaning 1 and 2 and 3 and so on. And what determines the meaning is the context.
The God of all comfort. I have heard this preached that the word all is being used here as everything as in since He is the God of ALL comfort then that means that there is no other comfort anywhere. There is no other source of any comfort because God has it all.
The word ALL can be used to mean everything to the exclusion of anything else. But the word all is not always used that way.
The Bible is truth. You can take a truth you see in the Bible and then go and look out at what you see in the world around you and that truth will make sense and it will line up.
The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And you take that truth and look out at the world and you have to say yep. Everyone has sinned.
You take the truth The God of all comfort and decide that it means God only has all comfort and that there is no other source and then look out at the world and you have to say nope. That does not line up.
I could give you example after example. Lost people have kids. The kid falls and skins his knee and the mother goes out and gives comfort, and I have news for you the kid is comforted.
Lost people have friends also. And when one lost lady loses her boyfriend and is distraught there are lost friends of hers that will step up and go out of their way to comfort her. Spend extra time with her, maybe take a day off of work.
And she does receive comfort. We could talk about relief agencies that go help when hurricanes hit or other disasters. And those people in the agency are lost and most of the people getting help are lost and they are comforted.
You take the truth The God of all comfort and decide that it means God has a monopoly on all comfort. It does not line up. The problem is not the Bible, the problem is someone trying to make the word of God say something that it actually does not say.
It is always wrong to change the Bible and try to make it mean something other than what it means. And one way to know when someone does that is to take what they are saying and look at it. 1st Does it line up with the rest of the Bible. And 2nd does it line up with what I see.
So what does The God of all comfort mean?
It means that God has no shortage of comfort. It means that God has all the comfort that you could ever possibly need in any situation.
God’s well of comfort is so deep it cannot be exhausted. You can go to Him and go to Him and go to Him for comfort and He still has more to give. And it is not limited by how hard the situation or how huge the hurt.
He always has enough comfort and grace and help and strength for any situation. The hurt and pain can never exceed or rise above God’s comfort. He truly is the God of all comfort.
I did not say only source of comfort, but the God of all comfort.
And I will add here that since this is the Almighty, all powerful, loving, creator God that we are talking about. His comfort will be deeper and more powerful and greater than any other source of comfort. All other comfort does pale in comparison. Amen and Amen!
Paul is writing this by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And it is amazing how God also not only gave Paul the words to write but also gave Paul the experiences ahead of time so that those words would also come thru experience.
When Paul writes this the truth does not ring hollow. No one can read Paul write the God of all comfort and think yea sounds good but what does Paul know about the need for comfort.
Paul knew this subject well. He lived it over and over again.
2Co 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation,
Paul had tribulation after tribulation. Stoned and left for dead, shipwrecked, slandered, people tried to kill him more than once. Betrayed, abandoned. It just goes on and on. And his testimony was God comforted us in all our tribulation.
All of it. There was not one time, not one hurt or trouble where Paul went to God for comfort and found none. Not once. God is faithful. And every time in any situation God was there. And God’s wonderful, deep, and inexhaustible comfort met the need every time.
And the rest of verse 4 Paul gives us something else that this Comfort did. The comfort did not stay with Paul.
2Co 1:4…that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble,
Paul says that the comfort that God gave me enabled me to comfort others. Since Paul received comfort from God he was able to comfort others. He could testify of the power of God’s comfort and Paul could tell people how great it is and how it is sufficient.
Paul could be a comfort himself because he has went thru it and he could help and encourage others to go to God for the same comfort. And notice that Paul says which are in any trouble.
Any trouble. There are no limits. There is no hurt that is beyond the reach of God’s comfort.
2 Co 1:4 … by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
The same comfort that Paul received is the same comfort for others. Paul did not have access to comfort that you don’t have access to. God does not have different levels. It is not like Paul is special so he gets level one comfort, but you only qualify for level 4 comfort.
No and no. Bby the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
It is the same comfort available for Paul and for everyone else.
And this comfort cannot be exhausted. As the sufferings abound so does the comfort.
2Co 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
And again in verse 6 and 7 Paul brings up how his sufferings and comfort were in part for their benefit.
2Co 1:6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
2Co 1:7 And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.
God’s comfort is effectual for the same sufferings. Some of the same sufferings that Paul had they had. And God’s comfort was effectual for Paul and it is effectual for them. And when they saw Paul go thru suffering and when they saw God move and comfort Paul then that helps them to have faith that God will also do that for them. It is true that sometimes Christians suffer and go thru things so that they can be a witness of God’s comfort and thru that be a help to others that are going thru the same things.
Next we are given an example of the depth and greatness of God’s comfort. Hard things happened to Paul and Paul has already said that God did comfort him thru all his tribulations.
2Co 1:8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
2Co 1:9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
2Co 1:10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
2Co 1:11 Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.
And here something is touched upon. Ye also helping together by prayer for us. Prayer works. It is God’s plan. And it is a help, it is a comfort to know that other believers are praying for your trouble.
God gives comfort directly. Straight to your heart. And God also uses others to bring comfort to you. Paul was comforted by knowing that they prayed for him.
Let’s look at another example of God using someone to bring His comfort to Paul
Co 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2Co 7:2 Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.
2Co 7:3 I speak not this to condemn you: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.
2Co 7:4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.
Notice how Paul lived here. He did not live in the filthiness of the flesh. He tried to live for the Lord, and in real practical ways.
He had respect for and yes fear of disobeying God.
Paul never wronged, corrupted, nor defrauded anyone. And Paul was filled with comfort. Not just a little. He was filled with comfort and was exceeding joyful in all of his tribulation.
The connection here between how Paul lived and being filled with comfort is important and explains a lot.
God the Holy Spirit is the main way that God’s comfort fills you. A Christian can live in sin and grieve the Spirit. If you are grieving the spirit, then he will let you do that. And the Holy Spirit will not move the same way on your behalf.
This explains why some Christians are not comforted even though God’s comfort is available. Jesus said let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. If you are living in horrible sin and rebelling, then you are not letting God work in your heart.
God will not force His comfort upon you, you have to want it and part of that is letting God have His way.
Paul walked with God and not only had comfort thru some hard trials but he says he was filled with comfort and exceeding joyful even in all his tribulations
2Co 7:5 For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.
And God gave comfort directly and in verse 6 we see God also using someone else to bring His comfort.
2Co 7:6 Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;
2Co 7:7 And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.
And it was not only Titus but the fact that so many others had a real earnest care for Paul.
We always need to remember that there is always comfort available. The God of all comfort has all the comfort that we would ever need. It is sufficient for anything that happens to us.
To receive it we need to want it. It will not be forced upon us. We also can’t be rebellious and grieving the Spirit. We simply have to let God comfort us.
And we should realize that God does also use His children to bring His comfort to others. We need to be mindful of that and willing to be used in that way and share and bring His comfort to others as we have opportunity.
See more lessons from 2 Corinthians