“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
The apostle Paul praises God the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” Our Father in heaven is merciful. He withholds the condemnation and punishment we deserve as sinners. And He is the “God of all comfort.” The Greek word for “comfort” (paraklesis) pictures a person standing alongside another to encourage and support him as a friend. God is not some impersonal deity out of touch with His people. He feels their pain and offers encouragement and support to ease their distress. “All” lasting comfort comes from God. He “comforts us in all our tribulation.” There is no pain or suffering beyond the sufficient comfort of God.
God’s comforting presence in our lives equips us “to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” God never wastes our experiences, no matter how painful they may be. He wants us to pass on the comfort we have received from Him in our affliction so we may comfort others in a similar situation.
For example, who better to comfort a parent whose young child died than someone who has recovered from such a tragic loss because of God’s comfort in their lives? Who better to comfort a war veteran struggling with post traumatic stress syndrome than another veteran who has been comforted and healed by God? Who better to comfort a victim of sexual abuse than someone who has recovered from sexual abuse because of God’s comforting ministry in his or her life? Who better to minister to someone who has filed for bankruptcy than someone who has recovered from a similar financial hardship? Who better to minister to someone struggling with severe depression than someone who has walked through the valley of the shadow of death with his or her Good Shepherd?
God does not waste our experiences. He uses them to equip us to minister more effectively to others. Have you ever stopped to think that the struggle you are going through right now may be used by God to comfort others with the comfort He is going to give to you? Nothing you and I face in this life is beyond our heavenly Father’s all-sufficient comfort and compassion.
If you have not received God’s comfort before, then you will not have much to offer to someone who has been devastated by life’s difficulties. Why not begin by looking to Jesus Christ for His “everlasting consolation” (2 Thessalonians 2:16)? God wants to remove the suffering of eternity for all humanity.
Two things cause eternal suffering: sin and consequences. Sin means we have disobeyed God’s laws (I John 3:4). In one way or another we have not been good enough. Sooner or later we are unkind, dishonest or immoral. The Bible says that there are no exceptions – “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Measured by God’s standard of perfection each of us has fallen short.
Secondly, God, being holy, cannot overlook any sin. The penalty for sin is physical and spiritual “death” (Romans 6:23) – eternal separation from God in what the Bible calls the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). The Bible tells us that all people must face God as their Judge – “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Whether we have sinned once or a thousand times, sin’s consequences are eternal.
The consequences of sin, eternal suffering, can be eliminated, not because of anything that we do but by accepting what God did for us on the cross. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God’s perfect Son, Jesus Christ, died in our place. God punished Him when He should have punished us. Three days later Jesus Christ arose; proving sin and death had been conquered and His claims to be God were true. The Bible explains Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God with power… by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). The proof that Jesus rose from the dead was that He was seen alive after His death by over five hundred eyewitnesses (I Corinthians 15:5-8). God now had a basis for pardoning us instead of punishing us.
How then does one eliminate eternal suffering? The answer is to believe in Jesus. Jesus Himself declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).
The word “believe” means to trust or depend upon. Trusting in Jesus is a lot like riding on a jet plane. When my wife and I flew from Manila in the Philippines to Omaha, NE, this last July, we did not have to push our jet plane to get it off the runway. Nor did we have to flap our arms to keep it in the air. We simply had to trust a person, our pilot, to fly us to our destination through no effort of our own. In the same way, Jesus now invites you to trust in Him alone through no effort of your own, to save you from an eternity separated from God and to give you everlasting life. Our good works and religious efforts will not save us because they are all like “filthy garments” in the sight of a holy God (Isaiah 64:6). We must trust in Christ alone as our only way to heaven. The moment we do, God extends eternal life as a gift and we are His forever.
A day is coming when all those who have trusted in Jesus alone for His gift of everlasting life will be with Him in heaven where there will be no more suffering. The Bible says, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying…” (Revelation 21:4). Those who know Christ recognize that there is suffering in this life, but take comfort in God’s promise that one day all suffering will be over. Those people will not suffer eternally.
If you have never understood and believed this, why not trust in Jesus Christ alone right now as your only way to heaven? Here is how you could tell God in prayer what you are doing.
Dear God, I come to you now as a sinner. I know my sins deserve to be punished. But I now understand that Jesus Christ died for me. He took my punishment and rose again. I now place my trust in Christ alone as my only way to heaven. Thank You for the gift of eternal life I just received. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
When you believed in Jesus, the Bible says you can “know” you have eternal life. “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (I John 5:13). Christ now lives inside you through His Holy Spirit (Galatians 2:20) and He is concerned about every pain and tear. He encourages us to “cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (I Peter 5:7). Sometimes He demonstrates His care by not removing our suffering but by comforting us in the midst of it. God will help us through whatever suffering we face, if we let Him.