The God of All Comfort

In one paragraph

First Baptist Jackson opened its study of 2 Corinthians on August 2, 2015, with Pastor Carl preaching on the first eleven verses of chapter one. The passage centers on comfort and affliction, and the message worked through why suffering exists and what God is doing in it. It carried straight through into a time of communion. Pastor Carl opened by noting that 2 Corinthians is one of Paul's most...

Read together

1. Psalm 86:15 opened the service: 'You are merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness'
2. 1 John 3:1 read aloud before a worship song: 'See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God'
3. 2 Corinthians 1:1-11 the main preaching text, covering Paul's greeting and the comfort-and-affliction passage
4. Galatians 1:3 cited to show Paul's repeated greeting formula 'grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ'
5. 1 Corinthians 1:3 cited alongside other epistles to show the same greeting formula
6. 2 Thessalonians 1:2 cited as another instance of Paul's repeated grace-and-peace greeting
7. 1 Thessalonians 1:1 cited as the earliest form of the greeting, slightly different, used to argue for 1 Thessalonians being Paul's first letter
8. James 1:12 quoted briefly: God has prepared a crown of life for those who endure trial and temptation and love him
9. Galatians 1:3-5 read as the benediction: 'Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins'

Talk about it

1. Pastor Mark opened with the question: have you ever felt so afflicted that you thought it might kill you? If you are comfortable sharing, when has suffering felt that heavy to you, and what did you do with that weight?
2. Pastor Mark contrasted Ayn Rand's view that help should only go to those who have earned it through virtue with Paul's picture of a God who comforts people who have no virtue to offer. How does that difference change the way you think about receiving comfort from God, or offering it to someone else?
3. Pastor Mark pointed out that the Greek word translated 'may be able' in verse 4 is dunamai, the root of our word dynamite, and that suffering actually gives us a kind of power or capacity to comfort others. Has going through something hard ever given you that kind of capacity? What did that look like?
4. Paul says in verses 8 and 9 that he and Timothy despaired of life itself in Asia, and that this happened so they would rely not on themselves but on God who raises the dead. Pastor Mark called this 'over the sun thinking' as opposed to purely human reasoning. What is the difference between those two ways of looking at suffering, and which one comes more naturally to you?
5. Pastor Mark closed by asking the congregation to pray so that, as Paul puts it, many will give thanks and the message keeps spreading. He called this exponential rather than 'me, my four, no more.' What would it look like practically for this group to pray that way for one another and for people outside this church?