When God’s grace is at work in your life, it’s not just “God’s favor,” as we often think. It is also his active power, explosive like dynamite. This power sustains us in every trial and equips us to enrich the lives of others as we employ our spiritual gifts. It brings joy in the face of trials. It comforts the most heinous, soul-warping hurts.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul finds himself in a unique position of justifying to the Corinthian church why he was qualified to be a leader in the church and an Apostle.
The church, it seems, was fixated with “celebrity preachers” and, in the eyes of many, Paul didn’t make the cut. He seems to have dealt with physical infirmity and, based on what’s written in the letter, was less than spectacular when it came to his public speaking charisma.
So, what would Paul say? What were his credentials for being a minister of the Gospel? Throughout the letter, Paul says, essentially, “because I have suffered more than any of these celebrity preachers.” We learn that Paul was beaten within a half-inch of his life on several occasions. He was shipwrecked, whipped, stoned, imprisoned, and relentlessly persecuted by the Jews.
And beyond suffering, Paul had a past that seems to have haunted him—as a Pharisee he had persecuted and put Christians to death. So include monumental moral failures to the list of “qualifications.” When supposed “super apostles” were boasting about their strengths and gifts, Paul inn contrast talked about his weaknesses, sufferings, and near-death experiences. Why? Because those were the instances that put God’s grace in crystal clear 4K resolution. Not only was Paul commissioned by Christ to write the very words of God, he was also qualified to minister the gospel because he had received God’s grace in the midst of his trials and failures.
There are a few important lessons I want to draw out from Paul’s life and apply to us by way of exhortation and encouragement.
First, suffering, weakness, and failure are the central arenas in which we experience the Father’s gracious comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
In verse 3-4 of chapter 1, Paul says, “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.” The word for comfort here is parakaleo, which shares the same root as the Word for the Spirit or Helper in John’s gospel, or paraclete, and means “a calling to one’s aid, encouragement, comfort.” It means to come “up close and personal,” to get in someone’s personal space in order to encourage or exhort. In our deepest pain, God is not aloof or distant; he comes near, speaks the Word of life, and brings tender mercy in exactly the right way.
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