I'm doing something different this year and listening to the New Testament. I want to compete it each month and so far I'm on track. Of course it is only February. It has been fascinating so far. It has been amazing to hear Jesus talk and to hear Paul's seemingly constant scoldings mixed with tender comments about his tremendous love for the church and his Lord Jesus.
Just this morning he was giving some hard love instructions to the folks at the Corinthian church. It was his second letter and it was as stern and tender as his first. That church was a piece of work.
You have to think about context when you think about Corinth. The context is weighty and necessary because it reveals how artistically Paul communicated with his beloved flock there in that port city.
Port cities were receptacles for all sorts of diversity. Sailors, often a rough subset of society in those days, were ubiquitous. Where there were sailors there was all sorts of debauchery. Corinth plus sailors equalled lots of trouble. Corinth's infamy had spread throughout the region and even in other areas of the world, prostitutes were called, "Corinthian girls".
So when Paul begins his second letter using the word, comfort (παράκλησις) ten times, other things could have come to a Corinthian dweller’s mind. I find it fascinating that Paul uses this word in a burst of exuberance at the beginning of this letter in which he will call his followers to task on several important issues. Giving to others to meet their needs was one of Paul's main points.
Paul highlights what we need to know about comfort in just seven verses.
Here is what we discover from the man of velvet and steel:
Our God is the source of All comfort
He comforts so that we might comfort others
When we share suffering we must share his comfort
That comfort will help others endure suffering
Which will help others comfort others
This is not exactly the comfort that most of the Corinthian population expected nor even wanted. They wanted the quick gratification of a Corinthian girl or boy. But praise be to God for his unspeakable gift.
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