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

• What are some of your weaknesses that really bother you? Why?

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. May we find comfort in boasting about you even though it often seems unprofitable. May we not run after visions and revelations but embrace our weakness so that your strength can be perfected. Help us to take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures because your grace is sufficient in weakness. 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 12:1-13

Paul in the last part of His letter has been defending the Lord’s message given to Him as an apostle. He has had to do this because of the false teachers, false apostles, and sinners that the church in Corinth had accepted and put up with. His defense and boasting have been very different than theirs as his is focused on God’s power and his own weakness.

1. God has Paul say, “that boasting is necessary” but “It is not profitable.”
   1. Discuss what Paul means by saying this. (for help see: 1 Cor 6:12, 9:15-18, Jeremiah 9:23-24, Psalm 5:11, 9:2, 34:2, 44:8, Gal 6:4, Phil 3:3)
   2. How does it apply to us as God’s people in the world today?
2. By moving “on to visions and revelations of the Lord”, Paul again implies that he wishes He didn’t have to talk about visions and revelations just like he didn’t want to have to boast.
   1. Why do people (us included) find visions and revelations so much more compelling than the simple word of God?
   2. Jesus said multiple times, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
      1. What was the sign of Jonah?
      2. How does what Jesus said help us to understand what Paul is teaching and how it applies today?
3. Satan, the spiritual enemy, is called the deceiver, liar, evil one, snake, accuser, tempter, ruler of this world, and much more. In 2 Cor 11:4, we were told that “Satan disguises himself as a angel of light”. 1 John 1:4 says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
   1. According to the passage, What did God use in Paul’s life to make Paul dependent on God and not on boasting about personal experiences, visions, and revelations?
   2. How is this reality of what God uses in Paul’s life just as applicable and helpful for us as it was to the church in Corinth?
4. Paul’s readers would have easily understood the 3rd heaven reference. They understood the first heaven to be the earth, 2nd heaven the sky and universe, and the 3rd heaven (like John in Revelation) the presence of God in heaven outside the created universe. Scholars agree that Paul is the one who had this vision which he alludes to in verses 6-8.
   1. What does Paul say is the reason (vs. 6-8) he does not lead with visions and revelations like the false Prophets and teachers do, but with his weakness?
   2. For those of you who have read where people in scripture were caught up in a heavenly vision (Ezekiel, Daniel, and John), How was Paul’s experience of being caught similar to all the other times people were caught up?
      1. How do modern versions of having visions and revelations, especially about heaven, veer off from the scriptural accounts?
5. Reread 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Break down how what Paul says there flies in the face of much of our western modern christian thinking, theology, and talking points.
6. Do you think that God’s amazing grace is sufficient for you and for others or does He need to do more?
   1. Do you look for pleasure like Paul and those mentioned in Hebrews 12:1-2 looked for pleasure? Why and why not?
   2. Discuss what it means when it says, “when I am weak, then I am strong.” Do we really believe that?
   3. What specific simple things has God been using for centuries to make his strength perfect in us in the midst of our weakness?
7. The Corinthian church forced Paul to have to act like a fool, not that he was fool, but he had to act like it. Have you ever felt like you had to act this way? explain
8. The false teachers and prophets were using Paul’s unwillingness to be paid in Corinth as a sign that he didn’t care about the church rightly or that he was unwilling to entrust himself to the church. Paul’s motive (2 Cor 11:7-15) was to separate himself from the false teachers and religions who were in it for the earthly benefits.
   1. How do we see this same tension today? What are the possible solutions?
9. In the message, Mat put up this statement: “Boasting and commending is necessary to deal with fools, but do not expect fleshly and worldly results because you will be boasting in your weakness, God’s character, and God’s comfort making you often look like a fool.” Do you think this is a helpful summary of this section? How might you state it differently?