God Speaks
Dear friends: This letter is from me, Paul, appointed by God to be Jesus Christ’s messenger; and from our dear brother Timothy. We are writing to all of you Christians there in Corinth and throughout Greece. 2 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ mightily bless each one of you and give you peace.
3-4 What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. 5 You can be sure that the more we undergo sufferings for Christ, the more he will shower us with his comfort and encouragement. 6-7 We are in deep trouble for bringing you God’s comfort and salvation. But in our trouble God has comforted us—and this, too, to help you: to show you from our personal experience how God will tenderly comfort you when you undergo these same sufferings. He will give you the strength to endure.
8 I think you ought to know, dear brothers, about the hard time we went through in Asia. We were really crushed and overwhelmed, and feared we would never live through it. 9 We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone could save us, for he can even raise the dead. 10 And he did help us and saved us from a terrible death; yes, and we expect him to do it again and again. 11 But you must help us too by praying for us. For much thanks and praise will go to God from you who see his wonderful answers to your prayers for our safety!
12 We are so glad that we can say with utter honesty that in all our dealings we have been pure and sincere, quietly depending upon the Lord for his help and not on our own skills. And that is even more true, if possible, about the way we have acted toward you. 13-14 My letters have been straightforward and sincere; nothing is written between the lines! And even though you don’t know me very well (I hope someday you will), I want you to try to accept me and be proud of me as you already are to some extent; just as I shall be of you on that day when our Lord Jesus comes back again.
15-16 It was because I was so sure of your understanding and trust that I planned to stop and see you on my way to Macedonia, as well as afterwards when I returned, so that I could be a double blessing to you and so that you could send me on my way to Judea.
17 Then why, you may be asking, did I change my plan? Hadn’t I really made up my mind yet? Or am I like a man of the world who says yes when he really means no? 18 Never! As surely as God is true, I am not that sort of person. My yes means yes.
19 Timothy and Silvanus and I have been telling you about Jesus Christ the Son of God. He isn’t one to say yes when he means no. He always does exactly what he says. 20 He carries out and fulfills all of God’s promises, no matter how many of them there are; and we have told everyone how faithful he is, giving glory to his name. 21 It is this God who has made you and me into faithful Christians and commissioned us apostles to preach the Good News. 22 He has put his brand upon us—his mark of ownership—and given us his Holy Spirit in our hearts as guarantee that we belong to him and as the first installment of all that he is going to give us.
23 I call upon this God to witness against me if I am not telling the absolute truth: the reason I haven’t come to visit you yet is that I don’t want to sadden you with a severe rebuke. 24 When I come, although I can’t do much to help your faith, for it is strong already, I want to be able to do something about your joy: I want to make you happy, not sad.
Source: The Living Bible: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: After perhaps a year, the Apostle Paul wrote this second letter to the Corinthians. He commented on some of the issues from his previous letter as well as addressing new issues, such as their questioning his authority as an apostle. Paul began by focusing on God being the Corinthians’ comfort and strength in whatever trials they were facing. God would comfort them so that they could comfort others. Paul told them that he, Timothy, and Silas were suffering so that the Corinthians could be saved and comforted. As Paul and the others were comforted by God, the Corinthians would be comforted because they had supported the apostles in prayer. Paul would also be encouraged by how the Corinthians were enduring in the face of suffering. Paul then informed the Corinthians that God had delivered him from deadly peril by their prayers and those of many others. God would keep on doing so in the future as they continued to pray. The deadly situation that had Paul fearing for his life caused Paul to realize that he couldn’t rely on his own strength and ability to “work things out.” He was forced to trust God totally. God came through as He always does. Paul went on explain that he wasn’t being wishy-washy in his decision not to stop by Corinth on this trip to Macedonia (where he was at the time of this writing). Paul’s yes meant yes. Like Jesus, he kept all his promises. He wanted to spare them a strong rebuke. He delayed so that he might bring them joy instead because of the spiritual progress they were making.
Prayer: Dear God of all comfort, thank You for Your comforting presence. You have comforted me in all my afflictions so that I will be able to comfort others who are going through the same or similar difficulties. You comforted me by reminding me of Christ’s sufferings on my behalf. I should be willing to suffer on behalf of others as He did and to turn the comfort You give me around to comfort others who are suffering. I thank You for the many people who support me in many ways, especially in prayer. Please help me to always remember that I’m not supposed to try to work things out on my own, I am merely supposed to bring everything to You, trust You completely, and then simply and quickly do whatever You say. You will provide the way of escape. After all, if You can create the whole universe and raise the dead, nothing is too hard for You, my gracious Father God. All Your promises have been and will be carried out by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who is working through believers. Please bring joy to leaders’ hearts by seeing the spiritual progress Your sealed people are making. AMEN
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, which one of these He wants you to work on or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will ask the Lord to help me to meet with and comfort Susie (not her real name) in her difficult situation with the comfort He gave me in a similar one.
- I will continue to pray for Susie to be comforted and strengthened to obey God and do what is right in this situation.
- I will continue to pray for and encourage Doug and Dawn (not their real names) to be strong in the Lord, fully trust Him, obey Him, and do whatever is right in their situation.
- I will personally tell Bob, (not his real name) a Christian leader that I know, that I recognize the example of humility I see in his life.
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________