2 Corinthians 1 (2)

Pray Psalm 30.1-3.
I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O LORD my God, I cried out to You,
And You healed me.
O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave;
You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Sing Psalm 30.1-3.
(Madrid: Come, Christians, Join to Sing)
We will extol Your Name! You have lifted us, O LORD!
Our foes retreat in shame—You have lifted us, O LORD!
You healed us when we cried; safe shall our souls abide;
hell’s claim have You denied—
You have lifted us, O LORD!

Read 1 Corinthians 16.1-7; meditate on verses 3-7.

Preparation
1. What is the source of all comfort and encouragement?

2. Why does God allow us to be afflicted?

Meditation
Paul was overflowing with παράκλησις (paraklesis). Nine times in these 5 verses, he used some cognate of this word, sometimes as a noun and sometimes as a verb. The NKJV acknowledges the flexibility of this word by translating it as both “comfort” and “consolation.” The idea behind each translation is similar: We’re having a tough time due to some trouble (v. 4), suffering (v. 5), or other affliction (v. 6), and we need to be lifted, as it were, out of the dumps and doldrums. God does this. He does it for us and through us. He is the “God of all comfort” and spreads His comfort and consolation around through us to one another (v. 4).

This is certainly a valid way to translate παράκλησις and its cognates.

When you think of “comfort” or “consolation”, what comes to mind? I hear, “There, there, it’s going to be all right. You’ll feel better soon.” Even “Better luck next time.” God knows we need such comfort, so He gives it to us through our fellow believers, who themselves have experienced that comfort and consolation for others.

But what strikes me—and frankly, puzzles me—is why “comfort” and “consolation” are uniformly used to translate various forms of παράκλησις. What about “encouragement”? That’s another, equally valid translation, but it does not appear in our translation. Not in NKJV, NAS, ESV, or NIV. But “encouragement” just sounds more Pauline to me. Paul is Mr. Press On, Stay the Course, Run Your Race with Endurance, Fight the Good Fight. That is, he is always seeking to impart courage to the people of God so that they will not grow weary of doing good (Gal. 6.9) but will endure every hardship and grow stronger through it to know and do exceedingly abundantly more than they ever have before (Eph. 3.20).

Paul had just received good news from Titus about the situation in Corinth. He was encouraged. This whole epistle is chock full of encouragement. Paul was bubbling over with encouragement, and he wanted to encourage the Corinthians as well. Try reading this passage, substituting “encouragement” for “comfort” or “consolation” and see if you don’t get a different feel for the text.

Then, try reading John 14-16 substituting “Encourager” for “Comforter”, and see if your view of the Holy Spirit, Who lives in you, doesn’t take on a different and more exciting coloration.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162.
I, for one, am thankful for the non-heroics of this passage. We are allowed to see Paul up close and personal. We see that he “was burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that [he] despaired even of life” (2 Cor. 1.8). He was human after all. And he depended upon the power of the Holy Spirit in the very same way we do.

It was Paul, after all, who was told comfortingly by Jesus, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12.9). Paul was weak, but Jesus made him strong. In the very same way, He does for us.

The writer of Hebrews suggests that those who have “fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us” will begin to experience “this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Heb. 6.18, 19). Even the floundering and immature church of Corinth was now finding comfort and encouragement clinging to that anchor.

As Paul wrote, “And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation” (2 Cor. 1.7). They were in the battle and were winning. They were suffering and despairing, but allowing God to console and comfort them, and were then able to comfort others who were suffering and despairing even of life (2 Cor. 1.4).

As he wrote to the church in Rome, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Rom. 8.16, 17).

We must never allow ourselves to bear the unrequested burden of giddy happiness. God doesn’t expect it and we shouldn’t expect it of ourselves or others. Jesus was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Is. 53.3). He wept (Jn. 11.35). We do not have a Savior Who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet He was without sin (Heb. 4.15). And in the days that He was on earth He “offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5.7, 8).

Our comfort and consolation in suffering and despair is that we have hope (1 Thess. 4.13). All people suffer, but we have God, the God of all comfort, and Jesus, Who promised not to leave us comfortless—as orphans—but would send us the supreme Comforter/Helper—the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14.18, 26).

Comfort and consolation do not happen overnight. It is a process in which we must be patient. And full overcoming may not happen this side of glory. We can have hope, but still sorrow. Each person, in the arms of Jesus, is special and different. He understands and knows we are dust (Ps. 103.14).

As Jeremiah wrote: “Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall.
My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.
Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
‘The LORD is my portion’, says my soul,
‘Therefore I have hope in Him!’” (Lam. 3.19-24).

For reflection
1. Do you find it interesting that one Greek word can mean “comfort”, “consolation”, and “encouragement”? Explain.

2. What kind of a situation might lead you to “comfort” a fellow believer? How would you do that?

3. How does the Holy Spirit comfort/console/encourage us? To what ends?

See how far they had advanced since Paul wrote his first epistle. Now his hope for them was unshaken by their behavior. Paul also tells them that if he has been comforted, they will be comforted as well. If the Corinthians regarded Paul’s sufferings as their own, then his comfort would also be theirs. By saying this, Paul hoped that he would be able to encourage them… John Chrysostom (344-407), Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians 2.2

Pray Psalm 30.4-12.
Give thanks and praise to God for all the many ways He encourages you day by day. Ask Him to lead you to people you can encourage in Him today.

Sing Psalm 30.4-12.
(Madrid: Come, Christians, Join to Sing)
LORD, we extol Your Name! You have lifted us, O LORD!
Thanks we with joy proclaim—You have lifted us, O LORD!
Anger shall not prevail; grace will for us avail;
joy frees us from travail—
You have lifted us, O LORD!

Firmly in You we stand—You have lifted us, O LORD!
Kept by Your gracious hand—You have lifted us, O LORD!
LORD, when You hide Your face, I cry to You for grace;
living, I’ll sing Your praise—
You have lifted us, O LORD!

LORD, hear our earnest plea—You have lifted us, O LORD!
And our strong Helper be—You have lifted us, O LORD!
You turn our tears to song; praises to You belong.
Thanks is our endless song!
You have lifted us, O LORD!

T. M. and Susie Moore

Want to learn more about encouragement? Download the six installments of our free ReVision study on “Encouragement” by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter, available by clicking here.