Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 2 Corinthians 1:4
The word translated “comfort” occurs eighteen times in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. This has led some writers to call it, “The Epistle of Comfort.” It opens with the subject almost immediately in verse 3, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;” and then comes the text that heads this article.
What is meant by comfort here? In the original Greek the meaning is, “a calling near, a call to one’s side.” Imagine a mother watching her child playing nearby. Then suddenly he falls over and hurts himself. He cries, and the mother puts out her arms and calls him, and he comes near to be soothed and held tight for comfort. Soon all is well.
And we find the equivalent in the Lord and in the refuge of His love. Psalm 46 opens: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” In another psalm the same experience is in view: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (91:1). And in Philippians 2:1, Paul wrote of “consolation in Christ … comfort of love … fellowship of the Spirit.”
We notice in our text that Paul is not just teaching the subject of divine comfort: he is testifying to it from his own experience: “us” … “our” … “we ourselves.” Therefore, this is something for us to experience too. Let us consider what the apostle shares with us about divine comfort as we go into this New Year of grace, 2024.
We all need comfort
“All our tribulation” … “any trouble.” Both these words translate the original thlipsis. It is an expressive word.
1] It means “to press,” and therefore any pressure.
It refers to when things get on top of us. Our English translation comes from the Latin tribulum, a heavy roller used in threshing corn. Circumstances can be like this: they weigh upon us heavily and bring us down. What a weighty burden disappointment is! Sorrow crushes the spirit: “Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop” (Proverbs 12:25). The aching feeling of loneliness is hard to bear. Certain things can just get too much, as when Paul was “pressed out of measure, above strength” (2 Corinthians 1:8).
People can get on top of us too. Especially in the form of persecution, as the Lord said, “when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word” (Matthew 13:21). And the beloved apostle: “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9). He felt the weight of banishment and isolation.
2] It can also refer to pressure from the side.
How often we feel squeezed and compressed by circumstances. Perhaps an agonising dilemma. Or trapped in straights that we cannot see a solution to, like Israel at the Red Sea, when only the Lord can lead us through.
3] It is all around us.
“All our tribulation.” Because we live in a fallen world. Sin, suffering, death; worry, insecurity, fear – are the fruit of sin. There was no tribulation in the Paradise that was; and there will be none in the heaven to come. But here meanwhile, our Lord says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation” (John 16:33); and “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Everybody is subject to it, but Christians uniquely so, and often more so. Unbelievers are not tried like we are, but neither do they have the comfort we enjoy.
God will give comfort
“Who comforteth us.” The “who” refers to the previous verse where we have a doxology that gives us two precious titles for God.
1] “The Father of mercies.”
This means He gently pours His fatherly pity on us, as stated in Psa.103:13 “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.” He greets us each new day like this: “the LORD’s mercies … his compassions fail not. They are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22,23). First thing in the morning, when we wake up and feel most depressed: there the Lord is with His fatherly mercies to greet us. It is divine comfort with which to go into the day.
The word “compassions” also means “womb, tender love” and is rendered that way to express the maternal instinct of a mother who would rather her son were given to another than harmed: “her bowels yearned upon her son” (1 Kings 3:26). Our Father “yearns” upon you, dear child of His: this New Year, and always.
2] “The God of all comfort.”
This means He has every kind of comfort. He is the originator of it, the source of it and the giver of it. We need look no further than to Him. How does God comfort us?
a] He shows us that tribulation is from Him.
It is true that people and circumstances are involved, but under God they are the subordinate cause. God is the efficient cause. Thomas Watson said:
It is one heart–quietening consideration in all the afflictions that befall us, that God has a special hand in them: ‘The Almighty hath afflicted me.’ Instruments can no more stir till God gives them a commission, than the axe can cut of itself without a hand. Job eyed God in his affliction: therefore, as Augustine observes, he does not say, ‘The Lord gave, and the devil took away,’ but ‘the Lord hath taken away.’ … Whoever brings an affliction, it is God that sends it.
To believe this, is the beginning of comfort because then we know that we are not at the mercy of mere circumstances. The One who has sent the trial is the One who can help us in it, and bless it to us. In Psa.55:22 “thy burden” is in the margin: thy gift. And the verse goes on: “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” The Lord sends the tribulation with one hand and supports us with the other, so that we are helped through and learn of Him.
This reminds us that we live in a world governed by God. All our circumstances are ordered by Him and sent by Him. It is not that all good things come from God and all bad things come from the devil. God has not ceded any of His sovereignty to Satan or to any force at work in this world: “all things come of thee” said David (1 Chronicles 29:14). “Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” wrote Paul (Ephesians 1:11). “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen” wrote the same apostle (Romans 11:36). Charles Wesley put it like this:
Thrice comfortable hope
That calms my stormy breast;
My Father’s hand prepares the cup,
And what He wills is best.
His skill infallible,
His providential grace,
His power and truth, that never fail,
Shall order all my ways.
The fictious power of chance
And fortune I defy;
My life’s minutest circumstance
Is subject to his eye.
If you are in tribulation, dear reader, be assured that your gracious God has appointed it for you. He will send you the comfort to go with it, and make it a blessing to you, for His own glory. Only meet the tribulation with meekness and submission. Ask Him to bless it to you. There are precious lessons to learn: you will know more of the Lord; perhaps self-examination will reveal things in your life that should be put right. It can be sanctified to you and work together for your good (Romans 8:28,29).
b] The Lord comforts us personally.
“Who comforteth us.” No one else can do this like the Lord. And so, He says, “I, even I, am he that comforteth you” (Isaiah 51:12). He even likens Himself to a mother’s love, “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem (in the church).” (Isaiah 66:13) What could be warmer and more personal than that?
3] The means God uses means to do this.
The Holy Spirit is the Comforter (John 14:26). This title is the same word in the Greek as “comfort,” but it is in the verbal form: a doing word. By His applicatory ministry He performs this in us so that we feel it. His indwelling secures certain blessings that bring us comfort. The early church “walked … in the comfort of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:31).
a] The Lord Jesus is always our first comfort.
It was He who, when we were under conviction of sin said: “be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matthew 9:2). And since then we have said:
Who can cheer the heart like Jesus,
By His presence all divine?
True and tender, pure and precious,
O how blessed to call Him mine!
This happens when the Holy Spirit makes Jesus real to us: “the Comforter … he shall testify of me” (John 15:26). Then, we are changed and wonderfully strengthened in our hearts and lifted in our spirit. The Holy Spirit is the comforter, but Jesus is the comfort.
b] God’s word also comforts us.
When we read of His love to us, His revealed character, His promises – we are consoled and encouraged. Everything in God’s word, Old Testament and New Testament, is there for this purpose. The same apostle in Romans 15:4 could write:
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Paul proved this later. His struggle with “a thorn in the flesh” was overcome by the Lord speaking to him (2 Corinthians 12:9). M’Cheyne put it beautifully: “The thorn is not plucked away — the messenger of Satan is not driven back to hell; but Jesus opens wide His more loving breast, and says, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’” And the psalmist could say, “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me” (Psalm 119:50).
c] Compensating joy becomes our comfort.
Joy is the fruit of the Spirit’s work in us (Galatians 5:22), and goes further than comfort: it enables us to triumph over tribulation and rejoice in hope. The believers at Thessalonica suffered from the start. But Paul can remind them of what outweighed their tribulation: “And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost” (1 Thessalonians 1:6). “Much affliction,” but “joy of the Holy Ghost” – which far surpassed the affliction.
d] Other Christians.
In 2 Corinthians 7:5,6 Paul shares his distress at that time: “troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.” However, he then could say, “Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.” The presence of his friend, with good news about Corinth, comforted Paul. How often, in God’s kind providence, someone comes our way who proves the Lord’s instrument to lift us up with just what we needed! Such people are ministering angels!
The benefits of comfort in tribulation
“Who comforteth us.”
1] It can form our character.
Romans 5:3 tells us that “tribulation worketh patience”, which means fortitude and perseverance. And so it proves character-building, which is especially important. This only comes through learning from difficulty and discipline. It was for this reason that the World War II generation had a sense of duty and were so dependable. The stern and hazardous conditions of that time produced people with mettle. This is in sad contrast to the generally self-serving, lazy and morally weak age in which we live. General Douglas Macarthur, the wartime commander of U.S. army forces in the Pacific, prayed accordingly for his son Arther: “Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease … but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.”
2] It makes us exercised Christians.
If tribulation is blessed to us with accompanying grace, it will teach us to pray. This is what the Lord said concerning His ancient people: “When thou art in tribulation … turn to the LORD thy God … (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee” (Deuteronomy 4:30,31). When things get too much for us, we must remember that they never are too much for God. He is ready with His arms of love and His ears open to our cry (Psalm 34:6). As William Cowper put it,
Trials make the promise sweet,
Trials give new life to prayer,
Trials bring me to his feet,
Lay me low and keep me there.
And it means His word is never so needed, nor so blessed, at such times. Those who have it easy tend to stagnate – those exercised by tribulation, make progress, grow as Christians, and become fruitful, as Joseph did, (Genesis 49:22).
3] It brings heaven nearer.
Tribulation concentrates the mind on higher things:
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17,18; cp Romans 8:18).
Every Lord’s Day helps us to see beyond our present problems, for then our affections are raised to “things which are above” (Colossians 3:1,2). And it reminds us that the goal is reached and enhanced by those very problems: “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Matthew Henry reminds us that “sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.”
We can share the comfort
“That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” One thing is certain: no Christian will ever be beyond the need of comfort in this life. If things go swimmingly for a time, it will soon change because “man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7).
1] We will find others in need.
“Them which are in any trouble.” We are naturally selfish, and get impatient with others in trouble; especially when we are younger. Something The Lord will cure this by sending these very things to us, and this helps us to feel sympathy for others.
2] We can share what we have received.
“That we may be able to comfort them … with the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” There is nothing like having proved the Lord’s comfort, as Paul and his friends did. Then, when we share this with others in need, we speak from experience, and it comes with extra authority and application.
Sir Edward Elgar once listened to a young girl singing a solo from one of his own works. She had a voice of exceptional purity and clarity and range, and an almost perfect technique. When she had finished, Sir Edward said to someone near: “She will be really great when something happens to break her heart.”
The writer J.M. Barrie (of Peter Pan fame) tells, in the biography of his mother, how that her favourite son died in a skating accident. And he wrote, “That is how she got her soft face … and her large charity, and why other mothers ran to her when they had lost a child.” There is a peculiar attraction and ability in someone who has suffered, and known comfort, to then comfort others. When that comfort is divine, we have a unique treasure to share. Sometimes the greatest comfort the Lord gives us is when we can comfort others for His sake.
