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 the death of your plans and desires actually turned out to be life giving to yourself and/or others?
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. We praise you that “we are pressured in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.” Thank you for the privilege of “always carrying the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” Help us to learn how to embrace death so that we may live life to the fullest. 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.
- The pottery analogy is used often in the Bible. Discuss the truths God is seeking to communicate by using the common pottery analogy?
- What is He trying to communicate in 2 Corinthians with saying a treasure inside?
- We are all broken people. What needs to happen for a dead broken pot to be used again to make new pottery instead of just be thrown out?
- How is death, dying, and the crucifying of our flesh the process that God has to use to bring real life to us and others?
- The people of God in Exodus 20 did not want to hear from God directly because they were afraid and didn’t want to die. Jesus says come to me all who a weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.
- How and why do we avoid coming to God because of the reality of what He says about life and death?
- How does it encourage you to know that Paul carried around death as he went through a life of tremendous stress and pressure?
- “Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day.”
- Why is pain and the reality of death and dying to our flesh necessary for spiritual renewal, growth, and impact?
- Why is the joy and reality of living in the Spirit necessary for spiritual renewal, growth, and impact?
- In what way, does the natural process of dying to ourselves through problems and physical deterioration help us move toward “an eternal weight of glory”?
- Why is it so easy to focus on temporal dying things to the exclusion of eternal living things?
- Why is a focus on the living eternal things so important?
- What can we do to help shift our focus?
- In what sense are our bodies like tents or tabernacles?
- If we were to truly look forward to our “eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands,” how might it affect how we live our daily lives here?