FOOD FOR THOUGHT? Study GOD OF COMFORT: 2Corn: 1:3-7 All people, at various levels, experience suffering, trials and hardships. How would a Christian’s experience of “comfort” be different from a non-Christian’s experience of “comfort”? How would you explain this difference to someone who didnt know God? The sense of sympathy for others evoked by God’s comfort of oneself in afflictions. God’s comfort is to stir up compassion leading to the passing on to others of the comfort of God; it is not to terminate on the receiver. Have you been guilty of any type of “triumphalism” in your Christian life? The corporate dimensions of both suffering and comfort that are addressed in our passage. In light of Paul’s relationship with the church at Corinth, what point is he trying to make? If one person is suffering how does it affect everyone else? If an individual is experiencing the comfort of God, how does it affect the rest of the group? Paul, who has suffered a great deal, is absolutely sure of his “hope” for himself and for the church at Corinth. Paul uses a commercial or business term for “firm” that carries with it the idea of being guaranteed. “Paul does not base his ‘firm hope’ on sentiment or pious wish, but on God.” When you are brought to the edge of despair because of suffering in your life, do you find that your “hope” is firm? Always with Love
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 02:00:47 +0000