So You’re a Priest: Blessed by [Dis]Comfort

We are going to look at what it means for you to be a priest by looking at what Paul felt about being a pastor to (from what we know about them) his most ornery flock of parishioners, the church in Corinth. Reading between the lines, the Corinthians were huge trouble for Paul. After preaching in Corinth for 18 months, Paul went to Ephesus, and from evidence in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians we can reconstruct a timeline for what happened next:

From Ephesus, he wrote a letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:9) which has been lost to posterity.

The Corinthians replied via a letter full of questions about problems they were having (e.g. 1 Cor. 7:1) from sexual promiscuity to schisms within the church.

Paul wrote a second letter (1 Corinthians) answering the questions, and sent Timothy to Corinth to follow up on addressing the problems.

Timothy returned to Ephesus with distressing news about the situation in Corinth, and Paul made a brief "painful" visit to Corinth (2 Cor. 2:1-2) and left in humiliation.

Paul sent a third letter "out of much affliction and anguish of heart" (2 Cor. 2:4) which was hand-delivered by Titus. Paul had been planning to go to Macedonia via Corinth and then return again to Corinth afterwards (2 Cor. 1:15-16), but he changed his plans and went directly to Macedonia, where Titus caught up to him with good news about a change of attitude by the Corinthians.

Paul sent Titus back to Corinth with a fourth letter (2 Corinthians) intended as a letter of encouragement and reconciliation.

Through this trials, Paul never lost sight of God’s blessings, knowing that he had been blessed in order to be a blessing to others. I pray you (and I) might be of the same mind as we live to bless others as well.

2 Corinthians 1

Commentary

v1 apostle. The legitimacy of Paul’s leadership is an ongoing problem in Corinth.

v3 God...Father...Father...God. This arrangement is called a chiasm, and it is intended to focus attention on the center of the passage, which in this case identifies our Lord Jesus Christ with compassion.

v4 troubles. This word is used more in 2 Corinthians than anywhere else in the NT—in fact over 20% of the NT references are in this letter. The word is frequently translated as affliction or tribulation.

Actually the NIV deemphasizes comfort in this verse! A better translation would be, "the one comforting us in our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." What is that comfort for you?

v5 share in our sufferings [&] comfort. This verse is reminiscent of Romans 8:17: we share in Christ’s sufferings in order that we might share in his glory.

v8-11 The word translated as comfort in v3-7 also means encouragement. Re-read the text, substituting encouragement for comfort; does this change alter how you interpret v8-11?

Application

Comfort does not guarantee being comfortable.

Paul has been blessed beyond belief by the God of all comfort (v3) and his comfort overflows (v5). However, Paul is not comfortable. He is not living on easy street. He does not seek to satisfy his own needs first. If anything, we’d say Paul has had a tough time of it—in his own words (v8), "beyond ability to endure."

Protestants point to Christ’s enigmatic words on the cross, "It is finished," (John 19:30) as evidence that all his suffering was left on the cross. However, Paul suggests something different:

Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:24-27)

Christ came to earth and preached, "The time is near ... the kingdom of God has come. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15). In Colossians, Paul reveals how that same message is going out today, through the Spirit of Christ, through Christ in the world, through the church, which is his body. If Christ suffered bodily when he was on earth preaching his message, so it is for the church, suffering as Christ suffered for the sake of the same message—the same goal—which is to bring those around us closer to God. Like Paul, we fill up in our flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ afflictions ... at least that’s what we do when we are living the life to which God has called us.

Like Paul, we have been blessed beyond belief by the God of all comfort and his comfort overflows; however, it is not for the sake of being comfortable that we are comforted. Indeed we, like Paul, can find ourselves at wit’s end, at strength’s limit, and soul’s breaking point, and that is when God speaks in a quiet voice and says,

This is not the end for you, because this is not what defines who you are: not your wits, not your strength, not your soul. My mind, my strength, and my spirit will raise you up again, and you will be a new person again, and you will go on. In these words take heart.

Take heart. Literally, that is what encouragement is, taking a new heart. That alone is our comfort. Our circumstances may not have changed one whit, but we can take comfort even in our discomfort.

Points to Ponder

A minister posted on a blog about the rejection he suffered at the hands of Christians when he was open and honest about his ongoing troubles (http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/the-real-prosperity-gospel). He says, in part:

Ask yourself this question: Why is it that so many western Christians find the greatest challenges to their faith are experiences that do not even qualify as persecution or serious suffering? Why will the loss of a job or the moral failure of a pastor lead to the end of faith? Why do interpersonal conflicts in a church cause so many to abandon Christianity altogether?

Could it be that our Christian life will be richer—and feel more authentic—when we realize that afflictions are an ever-present part of the Christian life and we are not losers for failing to achieve pain-free living?