Learned

As promised, this week I am returning with a brand new format that brings together the best of what we have done so far on the Journey. First, we are primarily returning to a Bible study. I love working through a book and allowing God to reveal Himself through a story or a letter or a poem. We won’t read every verse; but we will cover primary passages of the book. Second, every Wednesday will be a “review day” where we review the theme of the message from the previous weekend. It will be similar to what we have been doing the past couple of months; but we will limit it to one day a week.

Several months back, we began working through the letters Paul (an early church leader) wrote to various communities of Jesus followers. Today, we will begin working through a second letter that Paul wrote to the community of Jesus followers in Corinth. You can review entries from the first letter at eastsidejourney.blogspot.com beginning in November 2008.

Many scholars believe Paul visited Corinth three times (including his first visit when he founded this church) and wrote them four letters with “2 Corinthians” actually being the fourth one. Throughout these interactions, Paul was trying to help the church confront some unresolved sin while dealing with opposition to his authority as a leader.


2 Corinthians 1
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.
4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.
5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.
6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.
7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.
8 We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it.
9 In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.
10 And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.
11 And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.


Learned. For me, there were two very important things that God revealed to me in reading this passage. One, my responsibility to comfort others who are facing similar challenges to the ones I have experienced (verse 4). Two, my choice to turn away from God or learn to rely on God when I am experiencing suffering (verse 9).