Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia: (2) Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (3) Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (4) Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
I do not detain the Reader, with any particular observation on Paul's salutation of the Church. It is much the same as in the former Epistle. He stiles himself an Apostle, by the will and call of God. And this was highly proper, in proof, that he did not run unsent, Acts 13:1-4; Hebrews 5:1-6. And as with great humility he joined Sosthenes with him, though not an Apostle, in his address to Corinth in his former letter; so here, with the same affection, he joins Timothy. Paul takes in a larger circuit in this Epistle than in the former; for he includes Achaia, which contained a considerable part of Greece. Probably, by this time, the Church of Christ had been extended beyond the city of Corinth. But let it be well noticed, that it is the Church of Christ to whom Paul wrote. Grace and peace, from God in Christ, could be conferred on none but the Church, Luke 10:5-6
But I beg to detain the Reader; with an observation or two, on the form of expression with which the Apostle enters on his Epistle, when he saith: blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. In the parallel passage, Ephesians 1:3, the same word which is here rendered even, is there made and. And everyone knows, who hath the smallest acquaintance with the original language, that both among sacred and profane writers, those Greek Particles are differently used, and not unfrequently.
In the language of the New Testament, we meet with the name and title of God the Father, upon various occasions, to express the glories of his Person, according to the particular subject then in view. God the Father, in the essential glories of the Godhead, is distinguished by this divine title, to distinguish him from the Person of God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, See 1 John 5:7. God the Son, is not the Son of God by creation, as angels are for in his divine nature, in point of eternity, as well as in all divine perfections, he is One with the Father, over all God blessed forever. Amen. But, in his human nature, God the Father is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For so Christ by the Spirit of prophecy declares, Psalms 40:6-8 with Hebrews 10:5. But this may be understood also, not to the exclusion of God the Son, taking this human nature, by his own Almighty power, into union with the Godhead: Hebrews 2:16; Hebrews 2:16, neither to the exclusion of God the Holy Ghost, in his personal agency of the mysterious work, who is expressly said to have overshadowed the womb of the Virgin Mary, at the Incarnation; and, therefore, that holy thing, born of the Virgin, shall be called the Son of God, Luke 1:35. But God the Father, is also called, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by office-character; because Christ, as God-Man-Mediator in all the transactions of the Covenant, as it concerns his Church, stands in his office-character as Jehovah's servant, Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18; Psalms 89:3-4. So that it is highly proper, as often as we meet with this glorious Name of God the Father in the New Testament Scripture, and when spoken in reference to God the Son; that we should attend to the particular occasion, and observe; under divine teaching, in what relation it is spoken. Whether in the equality of nature, and essence of the Godhead, by way of distinguishing the distinct Persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Or whether to distinguish, the several office-characters of each Person of the Godhead, in the gracious transactions of Covenant-engagements, into which, each glorious Person, from all eternity entered and guaranteed to each other, by which God the Father chose the Church in Christ before the foundation of the world: Ephesians 1:4. God the Son betrothed the Church to himself forever: Hosea 2:19; Isaiah 54:5, and became the Servant of Jehovah, in the time-state of the Church to redeem her from the ruins of the fall: Isaiah 53:4-6, and God the Holy Ghost to anoint, both the glorious Head of his body the Church; and all his members; and to regenerate every individual of that body, when dead in trespasses and sins, Acts 10:38; 1 John 2:20; Ephesians 2:1
There is an uncommon sweetness of expression in the title: Father of mercies, and God of all comfort: Not simply the God of all mercies, but the Father of them. As if to teach the Church, that whatever mercy a child of God wants, he will beget it for him. A child of God is, sometimes, from unbelief and temptation, apt to think, that his case is so singular as none ever was before; and as if no mercy could reach or suit it. This title blessedly comes in, to the relief of such a tried soul. God, your Father in Christ, will beget it for you. The mercies you need, shall so come to you from Him, and in so direct and personal a manner, as from the bowels of divine love, as shall manifest that He is the Father of mercies!
Neither is this all. For he is also the God of all comfort! All and every comfort, every sort, and degree of comfort; refreshing, strengthening, sanctifying comfort: yea, the God of all comfort. Reader! Think how blessedly revealed, our Covenant God in Christ, stands related to his people, under those sweet titles! And, what endears the whole is, that it is not only God the Father in his Covenant-office and character which is so represented, but all the persons of the Godhead are the same, John 14:18; John 14:18
I need not enlarge on what the Apostle hath observed of himself and his faithful companions in the ministry, in becoming channels for communicating comfort to the Church, by imparting portions of what they themselves received from the Lord. This is indeed among the blessed properties of grace, to diffuse of those streams which we ourselves receive, by watering the thirsty ground of our brother's vineyard. It is blessed to give and to communicate. And it is also in exact conformity to the very appointment of the ministry, Isaiah 40:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 2:7.