Trouble Subverted
| If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. (2Corinthians1:6-7) |
But God subversively works in spite of and in the midst of our pain and struggle.
He brings about good where evil tried to have the last say.
He brings healing where evil tried to destroy us.
He brings hope when evil tried to leave us desolate.
He brings love when evil tried to plant hate.
He brings peace when evil tried to destabilise us.
Paul gives a great example of this in our text today.
He talks about how his suffering and his comfort helped the church in Corinth.
How did Paul's suffering help the Corinthians? Firstly Paul's distress comforts the Corinthians in the sense that they know they are not alone. Secondly, it was the persecution Paul experienced in Thesalonica that pushed him to Athens and then Corinth which literally led to salvation for many of them. (See Acts 17-18) ^^
And how did his comfort help them? Well, Paul was able to share the comfort he received from God with the Corinthians and this gave them hope and the tools they would need to survive the persecutions that they too would experience. They would then be able to pass this on to others creating a subversive evil-defeating-chain-reaction.
Suffering is a reality in our world. It is not always avoidable or preventable but we can be comforted in the certainty that God is at work subversively bringing out good where evil had both the right and power to destroy us.
Have you been comforted in trouble???
Be sure to be part of the evil-defeating-chain-reaction by sharing that comfort!!
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^^(Paul later makes reference to suffering he experienced in Asia which may have pre- or post- dated his founding of the church in Corinth. There is just not enough detail in the passage to determine exactly which it is. (More on this tomorrow...) )
