Introduction
Affliction. Suffering. We’ve all been there, or we will be. Suffering is an inevitable part of the
Christian life. The more I explore
the Scriptures, the more often I see God’s Word addressing affliction and
suffering and pain. Each of the
difficulties we face is an opportunity to observe just how our merciful God
meets our needs—our every need—through the gospel of grace.
There are many types of affliction that come to the lives of believers in
Jesus…it can be affliction resulting from simply believing in Jesus, affliction
resulting from living out our faith, affliction that results from our own bad
choices—our own sin—or suffering that results from relationship problems or the
sin of others. Our children may walk
away from us. Our spouse may have
a problem they are struggling with.
Our boss at work may have a goal of making us as miserable as
possible.
Then there is the affliction that comes seemingly randomly. That is, affliction that comes to our
lives that in our view has no apparent reason; affliction that comes to our
lives only because it is part of God’s overall plan for our lives. And no, we will not necessarily
understand the “why” of it. We
will not necessarily understand God’s purpose. In fact, more often than not, from a human perspective, we will see no good reason for the random
suffering that comes to our lives—period.
Even though what we will be examining this morning applies to all forms
of affliction, I would like you to be thinking about affliction that seemingly
comes out of nowhere, suffering that is not the result of the sin of others,
affliction that is not a consequence of our own sin. Comfort in that affliction is an important part of that
discussion.
3Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and God of all comfort, 4who 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. 5For as we share abundantly
in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort
too. 6If 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. 7Our 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)
How does Paul start out this section of his letter to the
Corinthians? He intentionally
praises God, even though, as we will see, he had gone through an extremely
difficult time in his life. He
made the time to praise God, thereby demonstrating his confidence in God. Again, he had gone through an intense
time of affliction, but he knew for certain that God was with him through it
and that God would never forsake him, no matter what! God gives you and me that same assurance in the midst of our
affliction…
Paul knew that praising God in the midst of trouble causes us to focus on
him, rather than on our affliction.
Doing so will tend to
keep us from replaying in our minds, over and over again, the difficulties we
are experiencing. I have observed
that praising God enables us to see, as Spurgeon talked about, the fact that God uses our troubles for our good and for
his glory.
In v. 3, Paul referred to God himself as the Father of mercies and the God
of all comfort. He saw God as
full of compassion, as a God who felt pity at the sight of the affliction of
one of his people. He knew that only
God is the source of all mercies,
the source of all compassion. God alone can provide divine
deliverance from our troubles and difficulties. Remember that—we’ll come back to it in
a few minutes.
It is worth noting that Paul mentions the mercies of God before he
dives into the afflictions we experience.
He also refers to God as the God of all comfort—the word for “comfort” has
the same root as the word for Holy Spirit and conveys the idea of encouragement. Comfort here is not referring to mere
support or some kind of inspiration.
Instead, it refers to God’s transformative compassion. His love for us and his kindness
to us comes in the form of encouragement, and
it changes us. It
changes how we view the suffering we are in. It causes us to understand and recognize that only his compassion
can have any impact on the affliction we experience. It results in us being able to do what Paul talks about in v. 4, comforting, encouraging
others with the same comfort God has provided to us. In Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, David
Powlison wrote, “What we learn from God
in our particular affliction becomes helpful to others in any
affliction.”[1]
Finally, understand, God is not only the God of some comfort, but
the God of ALL comfort. He is the one who encourages us
in the midst of our afflictions.
The comfort or encouragement that God provides us is comfort that is accomplished by God presently, that is, currently and actively, in the midst
of whatever difficulty we face—and it is not something that we can cause to
happen. Not only that, but God encourages
us through our afflictions, through our tribulations. Nowhere are we told as believers
