How do you understand the comfort of God?

[Carson]

Hi Alison,

Thank you for starting this thoughtful conversation!

Thanks to you, I now see more clearly how the idea of comfort can have a different meaning for us than it did in the Scriptures!

And our contemporary understanding of comfort is, ironically, no comfort at all. As you put it:

@alison

It seems our modern usage of the word comfort has reduced its meaning and function to something like a ‘comfort blanket’, or a sympathetic consolation that doesn’t actually change the situation. However, Paul’s usage here seems much more pragmatic than that. It actually changes how we perceive a situation we’re in.

Blake, I appreciated you sharing this wise summary:

@blake

And when the Greek verb translated as comfort in 2 Cor 1:3-7 (παρακαλέω) is used throughout the New Testament in the context of comforting or encouraging others it is often paired with, not only coming alongside others who are grieving, but also offering true substantive hope and encouragement.

Alison, your question prompted me to look at one of the best resources for understanding the meaning of Greek words - BDAG. It’s a lexicon - a reference work for understanding the meaning of the Greek words. As Brent Niedergall explains, “The letters in BDAG are the initials of the four lexicographers behind the work: Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich.”

For the word παράκλησις, there are three main definitions:

1. act of emboldening another in belief or course of action, encouragement, exhortation

2. strong request, appeal, request

3. lifting of another’s spirits, comfort, consolation

In their entry, they list 2 Corinthians 1:4-7 under the third definition.

So, if comfort is to lift someone’s spirits, how does Paul find comfort from God?

In his commentary, James Scott argues,

If verses 8–11 make it clear that “troubles” refers to a dangerous situation caused by outside circumstances, then comfort refers primarily not to an inner feeling of encouragement or consolation, but to divine intervention in the perilous situation and deliverance from it (cf. v. 10). Hence the expression “the God of all comfort” (v. 3b) corresponds to the “God, who raises the dead” (v. 9b), and the phrase “who comforts us in all our troubles” (v. 4a) relates to “who has delivered us from such a deadly peril and will deliver us” (v. 10a).

Paul Barnett comments,

How does God comfort his people? Although the later reference reveals God’s use of human intermediaries (7:6–7), in this verse there is no hint of such mediation. The exercise of “comfort” appears as a charisma, a concrete manifestation of the grace of God, a divine intervention.

In both cases, I think the important aspect is not only God’s substantive response to our need, but also our receptivity to God’s comfort.

As Paul says, “through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

How do we find comfort from God in our troubles?

It seems to me that God’s comfort is only available to us if we trust God to be with us and for us, even when our circumstances are dark and discouraging.

This is not to burden someone who suffers with the additional challenge: do you have enough faith???

Rather, it is an invitation to receive God’s comfort, even in our weakness, as Christ suffered for us that he might help us in our trials (verse 5).

When I have been in a well of discouragement, and someone has said to me, “God is with you,” sometimes it sounds like a lie. If God is with me, why am I having so much pain?

At other times, in the same hurt, a friend’s encouragement that God is with me has been the medicine that my soul needed. By God’s grace, I was able to receive this encouragement with faith, and be comforted by God’s care in the midst of my difficulties.

It is one thing to be comforted. Thank God, he offers us comfort and hope! It is another thing to humbly receive this comfort.