CRITICAL NOTES
2 Corinthians 1:3.—John calls the Son a “Comforter” (1 John 2:1). Christ calls the Spirit a “Comforter” (John 14:16, “another” also implying that He Himself had been such to the disciples). Here Paul calls the Father a “Comforter.” Notice how “comfort” runs through 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (disguised as “consolation” in A.V.); parallel to the repeated “affliction” (same in original as “tribulation,” “trouble”). Mercies.—Also Romans 12:1; Philippians 2:1; Colossians 3:12; Hebrews 10:28.
2 Corinthians 1:5.—Notice the contrasted “of” and “through.” As to “of,” see 2 Corinthians 4:10; Hebrews 13:13; Philippians 3:10; Colossians 1:24; Mark 10:38; (Matthew 10:40; Acts 9:4). (Also Homily on 1 Corinthians 12:27.) Notice “unto us,” not “in”; external trouble mainly.
2 Corinthians 1:6.—Then Paul is no such masterful, self-seeking, worthless man as some at Corinth would represent (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:24). His “afflictions” as well as the “comfort” are (not strictly “vicarious,” but) directly, and in the intention of God, for the Corinthians’ sake,—“on behalf of your,” etc. Is effectual.—I.e. the “comfort” works out with practical effect in … (patient) enduring.—Good expository use and example of the word, and the thing, “patience” as exhibited in New Testament; there being always, and here, an element of fortitude in the patience.
2 Corinthians 1:7. Stedfast, knowing, etc.—Q.d. “I speak hopefully, as a man who has tried it, and who knows what to expect for you.”
HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.— 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Great Theme: Comfort and Affliction.
I. Two counterpart facts of life.—
1. It is a world of “affliction,” but over it there rules a God of “comfort.” This pair of facts is but a special form, of another pair: “sin,” “grace.” Directly or indirectly, affliction springs from sin; not necessarily a man’s personal sin, but from the presence of evil in the world. The Bible traces “evil,” the manifest and painful disorder which has affected that which was as manifestly meant to be God’s beneficent scheme of things, to the intrusion of moral evil; and in parallel fashion, there is no “comfort” which, directly or indirectly, is not “grace,”—it “abounds through Christ,” just as the “affliction” is but a lower result of the moral evil whose climax was reached in “the sufferings of Christ,”—part of that work of God in Christ whose aim and goal is a “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21).
2. Accordingly “comfort” is very much more than a palliative; it is the beginning of a cure.—“All comfort” is thoroughly in Paul’s manner. It means “all forms and kinds and aspects of comfort,” reminding us of the many sidedness of the grace. Such “comfort” as God gives is not merely an anodyne for a smart; nor only a balm for a wound, a solace for sorrow, rest for weariness; not words of reassurance for fear and for distressful thoughts. It is a mother folding her crying babe to her bosom (Isaiah 66:13); but it is more. It is not merely tender help; it is strong help. It gives not only relief and ease; it gives strength. It is not only that the young one flies to the mother’s wing for shelter and cowers away under it, almost as full of fears there as it was when outside. It is the weak man taking his stand boldly by the side of the friend who has come to his help in answer to his call, and in the company of his strong helper finding himself strong to fight and do. Not merely pitying, sympathetic words which give solace under crushing burdens, so that the spirit is not crushed, though the strength may be overborne (2 Corinthians 7:6; Philippians 2:27); but new strength given, and help which takes hold of the burden or the cross along with us at the opposite end [see this, perhaps, in the work of the “Comforter” in the original word of Romans 8:26], so that we carry better the load of affliction. And, which comes still nearer to the root purpose of all God’s comfort, the “Comforter” gives a transformed view of, and meaning to, all “affliction,” till at last we “rejoice (exultantly) in tribulations [same word as afflictions here] also” (Romans 5:3). Thus we are not simply conquerors, but “more than conquerors,” of all the “affliction” of life; we have not simply escaped, nor escaped unharmed, nor even come off with victory, but have been served by all that came against us to hinder or overwhelm; and this is the beginning of a reconstitution of the broken order, so that all things once more serve man, their designated king (Hebrews 2:7-8). Παράκλησις in its fullest range covers no less than this. Strength must never be omitted from our conception and our expectation of it. But, no doubt, through this section the tenderness is very prominent, and it should never be forgotten in our conception of God.
II. The Divine source of comfort.—
1. Pointed out in the Critical Notes that here, and here only, the Father is made a Paraclete, a Comforter. As how should He not be, seeing that He is “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ”? I.e. as we know Him He is the God, the very thought of Whom is inseparably bound up with that of His love in the gift of Christ. We never think of Calvary but we think of Him Whose love gave us that Saviour; we never think of that Mercy but our quick heart-instinct traces all up to God. Our helper in “afflictions” is, then, the God Who is the sworn enemy of Sin, Who therefore gives a gracious help for what is fundamentally a moral evil. He comforts, as part of the work He set Himself to accomplish in the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. So His other names here describe Him as well as indicate Him.—All the names of God do so. They are in detail that “Name” of God which His people know, and trust in Him accordingly (Psalms 9:10). Each several name is given according to the special phase of His one work of grace which may happen to be prominent. Manifestly the name is not here chosen at haphazard, or even for its beauty [“a nice name to use”], but is appropriate. He has always an appropriate “name” for every need of our life. He is “the Father,” Whose unfailing characteristic is so surely to be merciful, that mercies must spring from His heart in Christ toward us. [What men may find Him apart from Christ and redemption grace, is another matter altogether.] [Cf. “root of bitterness” (Hebrews 12:15), which is more than “a bitter root.” A bitter root might bring forth pleasant fruit or flowers. A “root of bitterness” can bear nothing but bitterness. So] a “God of comfort” or “a Father of mercies” is much more than a Father Who is merciful, or a God Who is merciful, or a God Who actually comforts. It is a God, a Father, Who, as we know Him in connection with the “Lord Jesus Christ,” cannot be conceived of in any contrary association of ideas. As is His name, so is He.
3. What a plea then is “For Thy Name’s sake”!—If He were to deny His “comfort” to an “afflicted” soul, He would give the lie to His very Name. There is a promise in such a name as this which He has put into Paul’s lips, for the use of the whole Church. The man who in his need calls to his help the “God of all παράκλησις,” may take his stand on the very name he invokes. He has there a hold, so to say, upon God.
III. The end of all comfort.—
1. The immediate purpose was no doubt the help of Paul himself. One man is worth God’s helping; not only a man “of so much importance” to the world as Paul, “so necessary” to the work of Christ, but every man for whom Christ “thought it worth while” to die. “Through Christ,” the Christ Who is that man’s Christ as truly as He belongs to any other, that humblest, poorest, most obscure man may expect the “comfort,” and that “abounding.”
2. But very characteristic of the Spirit of Christ in St. Paul that he rather fastens attention upon the service which both his trials and his strength did to the Corinthians and to all believers. “We live for you” (2 Corinthians 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:12-13); “we suffer affliction for your sake; we are comforted for your benefit.” The word “vicarious” has acquired a special application in the vocabulary both of formal theology and of the experimental life. It would be using words to confuse thought, therefore, to speak of Paul’s sufferings or comfort as vicarious. It would be apt to set up the idea of a parallel or a community where “the sufferings of Christ” are unique. His are all that Paul’s are here. But Paul’s sufferings stop short of being all that His were for the Corinthians. The suggestion of the very conception of such a parallelism fills Paul with horror (1 Corinthians 1:12). With that reservation, note how a Christian is partaker with Christ, in that what he suffers, and the help he gets, may benefit—and are taken up into the many-sided purpose of God’s government “that” they may benefit—others who are under tribulation.
3. The martyrdoms of the Church’s history have not been waste of life, even when some of the choicest of its men and women have gone to death. “Take, brethren, for an example of suffering and of patience,” etc. (James 5:10). Their comfort “is effectual,” in that they who behold them suffer and triumph are able in their turn to endure and go through with the like sufferings. Every sick saint, perhaps for years a sufferer, helpless,—“useless,” such are tempted to say,—has a distinct field of service open in that he is made the concrete example, the specimen case, by which God teaches those who wait upon, or who in any way come into contact with, the sufferer, how true and how real is the “comfort” of which the promises stand written in the Word (2 Corinthians 1:20), and are pledged in the very gift of Christ. The careless, the young, the incredulous, who dismiss preaching as “professional,” or at best as a beautiful but very chimerical idea, the fearful though believing Christian,—these all see and believe what they would not hear and expect for themselves. An afflicted sufferer, full of the “comfort,” is a Fact. Many turn away from a sick-room with a firmer belief in the supernatural, and Divine, and gracious; with a settled expectation that they also, after all, shall find sufficient “comfort.” Without a word being spoken, the sufferer is a sermon, a message, a revelation, a gospel, to many a visitor. If words are spoken, with what force do they come! That sufferer is an expert. He speaks out of the fulness of knowledge. You may silence an advocate, but can do nothing against a witness. How a preacher understands Paul’s logic in 2 Corinthians 1:4. With such specimen “cases” in his mental note-book, he pronounces, he preaches, he exhorts, he encourages, he pledges “the God of comfort” to the afflicted soul, with the assurance of the experienced physician who has in his own profession studied a variety of cases, of many types, ages, conditions. He speaks no theories merely, but verified truth. And if he too has been the subject upon whom the Great Teacher has been pleased to make His experiment, by him to teach the students of God’s ways gathered round his sick-bed, with what power does he afterwards, in his pulpit, or in his pastoral round, “comfort others with the comfort wherewith,” etc. None can speak with such prevalent authority. At least, God can make noblest use of, men listen most readily to, the man who “knows.” It is worth the affliction, to be able to stand by another afflicted soul and bring one’s comfort to the help of his burdened strength or failing faith. Thus God designs to make men “comforters” of men.
IV. Hope springing from “comfort” in “affliction.”—[The, supplying “are” instead of the “shall ye be” of the A.V., leaves the object of Paul’s hope unexpressed, and more than a little uncertain. Still, it may perhaps be taken as a hope of their safe and victorious passage through the afflictions just then pressing upon them. The difference between the A.V. and the will simply be that in the A.V. this is expressed, and the ground of his hope is his own experience; whereas in the it is left unexpressed, and the ground of his hope is what he knows to be actually their experience. In either case the general principle of the argument remains the same. In the words of Romans 5:3 sqq., “experience works hope.”]
1. A Christian’s “hope” is a very much stronger thing than sometimes expresses itself in the very equivocal phrase, “I hope so”; very much more than an earnest wish, a longing glance of desire, with perhaps a half-expectation. “Hope is everywhere in Scripture the inspiring grace of the great conflict, being both passive and active. It is a grace that, like Patience, has many aspects. The word itself has a wide range of meanings.… Hope is one of the theological graces, with Faith and Charity, being a blessed combination of the two others. It is Faith looking only to the future, but looking at it with the expectation of love” (Pope, Compendium, iii. 214; who also says, p. 118:) “As it regards the future faith is hope; its confidence somewhat changes its character. Absolute confidence as to the present, it may increase as it regards the future.… It becomes, indeed, the full assurance of hope; a subtle and most beautiful expression that only experience can comprehend; the substantiation of things hoped for.” If faith gives strength to expectation, hope gives elasticity. Faith upholds under pressure or in face of conflict; hope gives buoyancy of spirit, which itself is a strength.
2. Paul reminds us that its “stedfastness” is no mere half-enthusiastic persuasion up to which men “work themselves” until they come to believe certain what they strongly desire. It is a most reasonable inference from facts. It rests
(1) upon the character of God, “His Name,” and
(2) on the accumulated facts of the past. It says: “Because of what we know in our own life, and have passed through [A.V.], and because of what we see and know in your life [], we have no doubt as to the future. What has been will be. ‘The God of all comfort’ has never yet suffered ‘affliction’ to arrive unaccompanied. These facts of life ‘hunt in couples.’ If ‘affliction’ is near, comfort is not far away. Look for it; lift up head and heart, and look around for it; you will surely see it drawing nigh. You are not going to be left to be overwhelmed. We know the past too well! And we know Him too well!” “Stedfast!”
3. No surer sign that this “hope” is not nature but grace than this, that after long years of “comfort” the heart so readily sinks under the newest pressure or in presence of the latest tribulation. Naturally, the Christian heart has perpetually to begin again with its lesson, and after nine hundred and ninety-nine deliverances quakes and fails at the thousandth trial. In fairness to the accumulated “proof” (Romans 5:3) of our God through many years of “experience” and “experiment”—indeed, in fairness to Him—accumulating experience should work accumulating hope, till at last the Christian man “exults in tribulations also, knowing that,” etc. But it is not often so. The heart argues with itself that such growing confidence is very logical, and condemns itself for doubting and fearing where it ought to hope and believe. But logic is powerless. The strength of hope is a gift, a grace, a Divine thing, not natural—the grace of the “God of hope” (Romans 15:13).