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 for the comfort of Your promise that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.” Help us to believe and be comforted by the reality that “everything is from” You, “who reconciled us to” Yourself “through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” 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.
The definition of Reconciliation is: The State (identity)
:of being reconciled or resigned to something undesirable, or the process of achieving this state
The definition of Reconcile is: The Act (works) :to restore to friendship or harmony :to make consistent or congruous :to cause to submit to or accept something unpleasant :to account for (a financial) against another for accuracy :causing two people or groups to become friendly again after an argument or disagreement. :of making a view/belief compatible with another. :of coming to an understanding and putting an end to hostility, as when former enemies agree to an amicable truce
Based on these definitions and the point of scripture being to reconcile us to God and others to God, discuss what the Ministry of Reconciliation might look like and why it is so difficult?
How uncomfortable is it to not be properly reconciled to God and/or others?
How do you think understanding our reconciled identify in Jesus and practicing the works of reconciliation helps lead us to being “always confident” and believing we are “a new creation”?
Do you tend to make it your “aim to be pleasing to God” because you “understand the fear of the Lord” OR please yourself? explain
READ Matthew 7:19-22, 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, Romans 8:1-2
How do you think our modern Christian culture tends to get the Ministry Reconciliation wrong in legalism or permissiveness?
How is our openness to God and others critical if we are going to persuade people to be reconciled to God and one another?
How do you tend to look at the outward appearance and benefits in relationships but not the heart?
An ambassador is a foreigner representing the reconciliation interests of another nation in an official capacity in a foreign land. How can remembering that be very helpful to us as we seek to persuade people to be reconciled to God?
READ Romans 12:18