“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, 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. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (ESV)
“You don’t know what I’m going through.” This is a common refrain to hear from those who are suffering, and certainly is often true in our human capacities. Many a pastor feels the weight of this when he encounters suffering in his congregation and perhaps can feel helpless in some circumstances where they have indeed not suffered in the same way in their own lives. However, as we’ll see from Paul’s example, one need not have suffered the same hardship as others to provide comfort and healing because (thankfully) it is not you that are the source of those things in the first place. Does that mean you cannot help in any way? By no means! You are a conduit of the grace, mercy, and comfort of God that is being used by Him to lavish these things upon His people. Let’s examine Paul’s pastoral wisdom regarding these things.
Principle #1 – Look Up, Not Around.
Paul begins these next several verses with doxology, worshipping and praising God for two particular aspects of who He is: that He is the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. He looks up rather than around him at his circumstances. These aspects of God’s nature are balm to the soul that is experiencing suffering. Paul leads with these attributes of God in a display of pastoral care for the Corinthians to teach them to turn their eyes to heaven when all you can see around you is painful circumstances. Why does God’s nature matter in our suffering? Because it is He who comforts us in our afflictions, along with others who have also experienced comfort in Him through affliction. Which leads us to our second principle.
Principle #2 – You Can’t Give What You Have Not First Received.
This is inherent in one of the reasons for our suffering that Paul gives for suffering. He says that the Lord comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. Does that mean you need to have suffered exactly the same things? Paul doesn’t seem to think so, although there are certainly degrees of how closely one can relate, ultimately the comforter is the same. Suffering of some sort is pretty common to the human experience, and one need not have gone through precisely the same thing to have some level of understanding of what another is going through. However, it is good to approach humbly and cautiously, not assuming you know how they feel even if you have gone through something similar. The particulars of how someone experiences the same exact form of suffering are not only dependent on the suffering itself, but also their personality, their history and life experiences up to this point, the relationships involved, etc. It is perhaps true that the more similar the experience of suffering, the more detailed comfort, advice, and support can be offered. But there are too many factors for anyone to assume they know exactly how anyone feels as they go through suffering, regardless of how similar it may seem outwardly. Regardless of this, there are principles and types of suffering that are common to man in various ways, and one thing never changes: the God of all comfort Himself, their only true help in times of trouble. As we saw in principle 1, Paul’s example in these verses points us all to Him as the place to run to.
Principle #3 – Sharing in Both Suffering and Comfort Are Part of Union With Christ.
As we see in verse 5, if you are in Christ, part of His body, a partaker in the salvation bought by His blood, and a recipient of eternal life in Him, you become a partaker of both His sufferings and His comfort. “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” The way of the Christian is the way of the cross, to die to oneself and live in Him, and as we see in Romans 6:5, this also is our certainty of resurrection unto eternal life in Him: “if we have been united in him with a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” So part of our comfort in suffering from God comes in the guarantee of our eternal life in Christ and the glory we have to look forward to after this brief sojourn in this fallen land. As Paul says in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Principle #4 – The Church is Born Through Suffering, Especially the Suffering of Ministers of the Gospel.
This principle is directed primarily to the pastor or other spiritual leaders, especially since Paul here is clearly referring to ministers of the Gospel like himself. Verse 6: “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.” Both the affliction and the comfort provided to the minister of the Gospel is for the comfort of the people of God, first for their salvation as God uses the word they preach to save sinners, and second through many of the things we already discussed, that as the minister experiences suffering and comfort from God, they can then also comfort others in their distress. Pastor, if you aren’t willing to suffer for others, to grieve with others, to take the sorrows of others as your own and take them to the God of all comfort, you will be unable to comfort others as well. Just as Moses took upon himself the pain of even the suffering resulting from the sin and rebellion of the people of Israel in His intercession to God on their behalf and asked God to spare them, you must be willing to take upon yourself the suffering of the people of God and bring it before Him to ask for peace and relief.
Principle #5 – Don’t Let Your Hope Be Shaken
Paul roots his hope not in the circumstances around him as they are or even as they might be if they were to improve. His hope rests in the firm hand of the unchangeable God of mercy and comfort that he praised for these things in verse 3. His hope is founded in the God who has shown himself faithful to rescue His people through the ages, even to the point of not sparing His own Son for our salvation. His hope is what led him to conclude the powerful passage in Romans 8:31-39 with: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So do not fear. Hope in God. Expect suffering and do not be shaken by it. Use it to comfort others. Rest in the God of mercies and of all comfort and lean in to Him on the day of trouble. I send you with the words of 2 Thessalonians 3:16, “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.”