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GOD OF ALL COMFORT

GOD OF ALL COMFORT? Really? Why is life full of discomfort? Our common view of comfort today is based more on emotional results and deliverance than on God Himself. God has Paul write this letter for the church so that we can truly know the One who will come along side us, the GOD OF ALL COMFORT. #2corinthians #2023

Starter

Pray

Thank you God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ that you came from heaven to earth to come along side us and bring us your comfort. Lord help us to see the false teachers, deceitful workers, and disguises of those who claim to love you and your people. May we hear from You through your word and take the appropriate response to these fools. Would we find comfort in boasting in spiritual ways and not in fleshly ways and clearly see the difference. Guide us to know how to appropriately not put up with fools and embrace the daily pressure and burden for your people. Amen

Study Questions

Paul, an apostle, is writing God’s word to a church just a few years old that he founded and then left to plant other churches. The church has encountered numerous problems from inside and outside the church. Other self appointed leaders have worked to undermine Paul’s influence and God’s authority so they could substitute their own. God has Paul write to deal with these issues and help the church deal with the problems they are having like holiness and hardship, generosity and church order, and their testimony to the non‐Christians around them. He wants them to know and cling to the GOD OF ALL COMFORT.

The word comfort God has Paul use is not a feeling or a deliverance from circumstances. It is the word Paraklesis which means to come along side. It is the same root word Jesus uses for the advocate and counselor the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 26). God wants to come along side us through life feeling what He feels and becoming more like He is so that we can know and show others the GOD OF ALL COMFORT.

READ: 2 Corinthians 11:13-12:1

  1. Why do Christians today find it so easy to call out good leaders, true teachers, and plain Christ followers AND yet, find it so difficult to call out fools who are false leaders, deceitful workers, and those disguised as Christ followers?

    1. How can we know what the fool’s destiny will be?
    2. Why won’t a true Christ follower (who may still struggle with foolishness) not suffer the fool’s destiny?

  2. Paul says if you are going to: willingly put up with boasting fools, allow them to call us fools, and believe us to be the fools then please listen to me, a fool, as I spiritually boast in the Lord.

    1. Discus is the difference between confident spiritual boasting and foolish fleshly boasting?
    2. Why do you think most believers today, like in Corinth, put up with false, deceitful, disguised, fleshly boasting fools, and yet silence faithful people who boast in the Lord?

  3. Paul uses things that would be easily labeled as foolish because of their results as his spiritual boast! What were they?

    1. How would we tend reason these things as foolish?
    2. How do these things help authenticate Paul’s claim as a follower of Jesus and apostle?
    3. What do these things tell us about Paul’s commitment verses fools?
    4. What might a modern list of things like Pau’s look like for those that would love Jesus and His local church?
    5. Look at this list and compare it to your life. Discuss the ways we should be willing to open up our lives and the lives of those on this journey with us to these types of things so that others might know the truth?

  4. READ 1 Corinthians 1:17-23. How does this passage in Paul’s earlier letter to Corinth help us to understand and protect the difference between faithfulness and foolishness?

  5. Discuss if it necessary for Christ’s servants to suffer so many troubles as Paul suffered? If not, then why did Jesus choose to accept, model, and teach the reality of such a life for those who would follow Him?

    1. How does Paul’s earlier answer in 1 Corinthians 9:13-23 clarify the necessity and purpose of suffering and troubles?

  6. Do you ever feel what Paul felt “the daily pressure on me: my care for all the churches.”? Why? Why not?

  7. Much of Christian unity today, just like in Pauls’ day, can end up “being so wise, we gladly put up with fools!”

    1. How do we see this mentality play out today?
    2. How do we reconcile what God says in Matthew 5:38-43 and what God says in 2 Corinthians 11:19-21?

  8. Most of our foolish modern faith in based on…

    Pragmatic - If it works, then God is for it.

    Therapeutic - If it makes us and others feel better, then God is for it.

    Moral - If it meets our higher moral standards like tolerance and niceness and it is not a really bad culture sin, then God is for it.

    Deism - If bad does NOT happen to us, then it means God is for it. In the end, God will let us live our lives and then forgive us and give us heaven when we die because God is for us.

    a. How easy is it to be fooled by this model of faith?

    b. How can you tell when you are being fooled by these?

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