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

• Tell about a time when someone forgiving you brought you comfort OR a time when you forgiving somone brought you comfort.

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 In All Our Afflictions and in your offering to Forgive us. Thank you that you came and paid the price that we owed to Forgive our sins and trespasses. Lord help us believe that you forgive and that we need that forgiveness. Help us to underdstand what it means biblically to forgive, and tell others their need for you to forgive them. Thank you GOD OF ALL COMFORT. 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.

READ: 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:11

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.

Pauls tells the Corinthian church that his other letters to them, while seemingly harsh, were necessary for him to do as a caring loving leader who wants God’s people to experience the grace, truth, and forgiveness of the God of All Comfort.

1. Why do you think Paul says, “that it was to spare you that I did not come to Corinth” “ on another painful visit”?
2. How does this passage show us Paul’s heart for the church to experience God’s truth, grace, forgiveness, and restoration?
   1. What is the relationship between obedience and joyful unity?
3. How was the churches handling of sin, discipline, and forgiveness (that Paul warned and rebuked them about in his other letters) Paul’s joy and other believer’s joy?
4. Paul says he did not want to have to be in control of them. How does being in “control of” or “lording over” someone impact relationships and specifically impact forgiveness?
5. There is a difference between biblical grace and truth leadership verses micromanaging or laissez‐faire leadership.
   1. What are the dangers to forgiveness in a more authoritative leadership style?
   2. What are the dangers to forgiveness in a laissez‐faire leadership style?
   3. How do surrendered strong servant leaders help the church of Jesus Christ?
   4. How do weak self‐serving leaders hurt the church of Jesus Christ?
   5. Are you biblically obedient to those whom God has placed over? Why? why not?…to those He has placed under you? Why? Why not?
6. How does Satan take advantage of…
   1. …unforgiveness?
   2. …permissiveness?
7. What are the symptoms that you can see in your own heart when you act in unforgiveness or permissivness?
   1. According to Matthew 6:12‐15, how does holding unforgiveness hurt our spiritual lives?
   2. What do you think you would have to do to really let go of resentment, unforgiveness, and permissiveness and surrender to God’s will be done?
8. What do you tend to be willing to do…unwilling to do… to help people see their need for forgiveness and reconciliation?

The lists below were compiled from multiple Chrisitian counseling websites and articles. Read the lists together out loud then discuss…

…what scriptures or biblical stories come to mind as you think about these lists?