Year 2, Week 44, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 44, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 1 Corinthians 16; 2 Corinthians 1-3.

Today’s reading concludes Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth with some miscellaneous  housekeeping issues that includes instructions about collecting money for believers in Jerusalem. 1 Corinthians 16 provides practical instructions for giving: “Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). Paul qualifies how the church must set aside money by specifying the time, result, and amount: time = each Sunday when they meet to worship; result = they will save up money beforehand; amount = based on how much God has blessed them with. Paul completes the Book of 1 Corinthians by stating his intention to visit them, addressing some matters pertaining to specific people, and then issuing a general exhortation: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:13-14). Today’s reading also begins Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth. 2 Corinthians is probably the most personal and autobiographical of all of Paul’s letters. Much of 2 Corinthians consists of Paul defending the legitimacy of his ministry as an Apostle as he seeks to strengthen the bonds between himself and the believers at Corinth: “We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also” (2 Corinthians 6:11-13). 2 Corinthians 1 introduces Paul’s change in travel plans to visit them: “Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first…But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth” (2 Corinthians 1:15-23). 2 Corinthians 2 adds Paul’s explanation as to why he did not visit them again: “For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you” (2 Corinthians 2:1). The conflict over their last visit was a pain that Paul did not wish to inflict again. 2 Corinthians 3 continues Paul’s explanation begun at the end of the previous chapter in which he gives a defense for his ministry: "Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:16b-17).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was Paul’s praise to God for the reality of the comfort that the Lord provided him in his afflictions: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Paul’s heart was filled with worship for God, as his eyes were fixed solely on God. “Blessed be,” expresses Paul’s own response of worship—it is a burst of exaltation for the Lord; but it also functions as a call for us to join him with a response of worship—a burst of exhalation to the Lord. What has erupted Paul’s heart to praise the Lord is how he sees God as “the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.” Paul’s heart is overflowing with praise because God’s heart toward him has overflowed with mercy and comfort. Comfort and mercy is not merely something that God shows, it is something He is—He is a comforting God and a merciful Father. When we see that, we erupt in praise.

The context in which Paul experienced God’s comfort and mercy was in the midst of acute affliction: “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9a). Paul alludes to the particular circumstances that illustrated the affliction that he had just abstractly spoken. The affliction that Paul and his travel companions faced was so severe that their own native inner strength was completely overwhelmed. The interior stress that Paul was registering internally was extremely traumatic. Paul and his companions, in saying that they, “despaired of life itself,” were honestly saying that they resigned themselves to the reality that this was the end of them. The affliction was so intense and unrelenting, that it seemed it was a death sentence.

Paul’s perspective through which he interpreted his severe affliction was the knowledge of God’s comfort and mercy. Why would a comforting God and merciful Father permit such severe affliction? What would a comforting God and merciful Father want to accomplish through such severe affliction? Paul provides a clear answer: “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” (2 Corinthians 1:9b-10). Paul understood the good design that his God of comfort and mercy built into His people's experience of affliction. Paul had been brought to the end of himself, to the utter exhaustion of his own resources, his own energies, and his own strategies. Therefore, Paul realized that he had nowhere else to go but to God. Paul realized that in turning to God—or perhaps even better expressed, being turned to God—that his God of comfort and mercy would take a man who felt he had received the sentence of death and raise him from the dead. Hope, in the midst of acute affliction colored the way in which Paul faced severe affliction as well as responded in the face of severe affliction. 

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe