Don’t Waste Your Suffering | 2 Corinthians 1:3-11
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Slides:
A little review:
Paul is dealing with being judged in comparison to the “super” apostles.
A major theme of 2 Corinthians: God’s power is perfected in our weakness.
Jesus comforts us in our affliction (suffering and sin) through His presence.
Welcome to the priesthood!
Philippians 3:8-10
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
1 Peter 2:9
But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR [God's] OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Don’t waste your suffering (i.e. get yo mind right!)
We share in divine suffering so that we can share divine sympathy so that we may see divine salvation.
We want the salvation without the suffering.
The result of comfort is salvation through patient endurance.
Suffering is intended to strip away self-reliance and encourage dependence on God.
Romans 8:34(b)
Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Two tools for sharing comfort: presence and prayer.
Human comparison is a comfort killer.
Isaiah 53:2-5
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no [stately] form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. 3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being [fell] upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.