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
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. Thank you that you created our senses and use them to Glorify yourself and intensifiy our relationship with you. Thank you that desire to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Christ through your people. We recognize that to some it is the aroma of death and to some it is the aroma of life. Lord help us believe that laying down our lives, doing your will, and praying are the greatest aromas we can offer up to you because you offered that up for us. Thank you GOD OF ALL COMFORT. Amen
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.
In this letter so far, Paul has walked the Corinthian church through afflictions and forgiveness. He now moves toward their ministry which is to experience the GOD OF ALL COMFORT and share that experience with others like a unignorable Aroma.
“A pleasing aroma to the Lord” is a phrase you will see very often in scripture. God wants to use all of our senses to His glory and honor. Over 1000 times the words incense, aroma, fragrant(ce), sacrifice, and offering are used in the Bible, and all of these would carry distinct aromas for the entire culture.
According to Exodus 30:34-38 how important was aroma to God?
Sometimes a good smell can become overwhelming and make you sick.
God has Paul write in 2 Corithians “But thanks be to God, who always puts us on display in Christ and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life. And who is competent for this?”
How does Ephesians 5:1-4 give clarity to how we can truly experience and express the aroma of God?
Revelation 5:5-8 says, that the incense bowls in heaven “are the prayers” of God’s people. How might that image encourage our prayer lives?
The Recipe for the Incense of Prayer Thanksgiving (1 Timothy 2:1) Forgiveness (1 John 1:9) Intercession (1 Timothy 2:1) Praise and adoration (Psalm 148:1–14) Utter dependence (Matthew 7:7) Seeking wisdom (James 1:5) Petitions and supplications (1 Timothy 2:1; Philippians 4:6) Seeking peace (Philippians 4:6–7) Salvation (Romans 10:9–10) https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/four-aromas-god-loves-most
Psalm 39:5 says, “You, indeed, have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor.” So we are kind of like F.A.R.T.S for Jesus. To some we are the aroma of death and to others the aroma of life. (FAITHFUL, AVAILABLE, REAL, TEACHABLE, SURRENDERED)