Something Painful This Way Coming

Guest (Male): When believers are suffering, we may reach out to others, but predominantly we cry out to God, the God of all comfort. And from the consolation we receive, we in turn can comfort others. Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. As the Apostle Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians, he was hurting and worrying about his fledgling churches. Yet the apostle did not despair, for in his suffering, he had a weapon. Listen now as Dr. Boice reveals the reasons God allows suffering in the lives of his people and the comfort he affords in the midst of our trials.
Dr. James Boice: Every one of the letters of the Apostle Paul, and indeed all of the books of the Bible, have their own particular appeal. We talk about Paul’s letters, certainly, we are attracted to the great letter to the Romans because of its doctrinal content. It is the greatest of all the doctrinal books of the New Testament. We think of Galatians; we're attracted to that because of the historical setting, the kind of problems that existed there in the churches of Galatia, that struggle between legalism, the kind of legalism that would impose the law upon Christians as a way of salvation, and that freedom which is ours in Christ as God provides salvation through grace. If we think of the pastoral epistles, they’re appealing because of what they tell about the church and its structure and how a church should operate, what the requirements of officers in the church should be, and so on. As I say, every one of the letters, every one of the books has its own appeal. And that is no less true of this great second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, with which we’re beginning to study here tonight. What is the appeal of this book? I suppose it means different things to different people. When we read the Bible out of the context and turmoil of our own lives, there are things that we read that speak to us, and then we appreciate the material for that reason. And to that degree, since Paul deals with different subjects, there are different reasons why this book will appeal to different people. And yet chiefly, I think, it appeals to readers because of what it tells us in an autobiographical sense about the Apostle Paul. It’s true to say, I think, that there is no letter in the New Testament that tells us so much about the writer. This is not because it was Paul’s intent to set out to write a personal letter. Paul was always personal. He always in an incidental way would tell things about himself, often indicating his plans and things that had happened, and certainly sending greetings from the church in which he was then residing. He would do that, but this far exceeds that in content. The reason Paul speaks so autobiographically here is that his apostleship was being challenged for a number of reasons, and it was in order to defend that and explain his actions that this kind of material, this wealth of material, comes in. There's only one other of his letters that is comparable, and that is his letter to the Galatians, and the autobiographical material is in that letter for precisely the same reason. In the churches of Galatia, his apostleship was under attack, and so he gives a great deal of detail of things that had happened in the past in order to explain that. And yet it's interesting that in spite of this letter telling us so much about Paul, it is also foremost among the letters for giving unexplained information, the kind of references which, when we read them, we say, "Well, now, what in the world is Paul talking about there?" One of these is in the passage we’re going to look at tonight. He speaks about the peril or trouble that he was in in Asia, so much so that he despaired even of his life. Paul doesn't explain what that is. We read the book of Acts, and we may find some things there that seem to suggest that kind of a situation, but we’re not sure. We don’t know what Paul is talking about. Presumably, the Corinthians knew, but we don't know, and so we’re puzzled. Another problem of that nature occurs at the end in the 12th chapter. Here he speaks about a man, he says, who 14 years ago was caught up into the third heaven. Most people that read that think that Paul is talking about himself. I do also, but Paul doesn't actually say that. And even if he is talking about himself, what is he talking about? What is this being caught up into the third heaven, seeing visions, being in Paradise? Well, we’re just aren't quite sure. A little later on in that same chapter, he has a phrase that has been a great puzzle to commentators. He speaks about a thorn in the flesh that was given to him. What was Paul's thorn in the flesh? We use that as a symbol ourselves for something that’s an affliction that you can’t get rid of. It probably does mean that, but what kind of an affliction was it? We're not told those things, but as I say, we are told a great deal about what Paul was going through at this particular period of his life. Now his letter was written out of his anxiety for the church. Paul was greatly concerned about all these churches, and in some ways particularly for the church at Corinth. He’d spent a lot of time there. He’d spent a lot of time in Ephesus, too, but he had spent a lot of time in Corinth, and it was the place where, as he acknowledged in the first letter, God did marvelous things. God worked mightily in their midst. Many people came to faith. It was a great contrast to Athens because when he was in Athens, there was very little response to the gospel. It wasn't a case of there being none; there had been some, several believed, and a church was established eventually. But compared to Athens, Corinth was a delight. Here was a place where people responded in large numbers, grew, came together, worshiped, witnessed, and all such things. And Paul spent a large amount of time among them, perhaps about a year and a half before he went on in the context of his second missionary journey elsewhere. But then there were problems in the church. We know that from our study of the first letter. There was immorality in the church, divisions, there were lawsuits, there was a great dispute about the resurrection, there was a danger of falling away from other doctrines. And Paul wrote this first letter in order to straighten matters out. He was very concerned about this problem of immorality in the church, very strict in how he talked about it. He said it has to be dealt with, you simply cannot overlook that, and he counseled expelling the member who was guilty of that particular offense because that must not be practiced within the church of Jesus Christ. Paul sent his letter and waited, and like a good pastor, during the interval was greatly concerned as to how his letter would be received. Eventually, he sent Titus with this second letter, perhaps with the first letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians. And he wanted to know on this second trip how the Corinthians were doing. He had planned to meet Titus along the way. Apparently, the plan was this: Titus was to go ahead, he was to see how things were, whether the Corinthians had responded well to Paul's admonitions, and then they were to meet again at Troas. That is, Paul, who was in Ephesus at the time, was to go north through Asia toward the Hellespont, where one crossed over into Europe, and Titus, who had gone before, was to go north up through Achaia, the main part of Greece, to the Hellespont and cross over and meet him at Troas. Paul came to Troas, Titus wasn't there. He waited a while, he was distressed. Finally, he himself went on over to the other side to Europe and then somewhere there in Macedonia, perhaps at Philippi or the port city, they met up. And Titus gave his report. Titus said there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that they responded to the admonition about this immorality in the church. They dealt with it; it's a good thing. Your letter was well received; they’re encouraged, they’re glad you wrote. But he said there are problems in the church. Apparently, people had come to Corinth that were not altogether unlike those who had come to Galatia and had caused trouble there. They were speaking against Paul particularly. They were saying that he wasn’t really an apostle, certainly wasn't a faithful minister, he really didn't care for the people. They were even giving him accusations that when he was collecting money for the poor of Jerusalem, he wasn't really collecting it for the poor. He was collecting it for himself; he was growing rich at the Corinthians’ expense and all sorts of evil things, unjust things were said about him. They even said he was fickle. It’s hard to imagine a man with the character we know Paul possessed being accused of fickleness, but that's what they said. They said, "Look, he told you he was going to come to see you, and then he didn't come. He says, 'Well, I'll do this,' and he doesn't do it. He’s a man who is not a man of his word." And so when Paul, hearing that, wrote this second letter, one of the things he is concerned to do is explain why he acted the way he did, and that’s what he deals with in the first chapter particularly. Now we're going to look at the first 11 verses tonight, especially verses 3 through 11, where Paul speaks of that comfort that God gives to us in our suffering. This flows directly out of what I’ve just been speaking of. I’ve noticed as I have looked through a variety of the commentaries on 2 Corinthians that people have difficulty knowing how to outline this particular portion of the book. The book is hard to outline anyway because it’s what we would call an incidental letter. Paul writes as the thoughts of his heart unfold. It doesn't have the same kind of logical consistency that Romans does, for example, or even Galatians. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't have an outline. I’ve noticed, as I say, that some of the commentators don’t quite know what to do with verses 3 through 11. Most of them put it as part of an introduction, which Paul sometimes does in other letters. He gives the formal introduction, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the saints," and so on, and then he has another little section which is also introductory in nature, and it’s probably because of that that so many of the commentators make these verses an introduction. I think Philip Hughes is right in his commentary when he says this is not an introduction, but it’s the first part of Paul’s argument. The people that came to cause trouble in Corinth said that he wasn't a man of his word; he had said he was coming and he didn't come. And now Paul begins to explain, from the start, why it is he didn't come. Oh, later on, he is going to say that the reason he didn't come is that he didn't want to cause them difficulty. He does that right at the end of the first chapter. "It was to spare you that I did not return to Corinth." That’s a perfectly valid reason. But here in these verses, he explains in a very personal way that the reason he didn't get there is that he experienced great difficulties in Asia, some kind of severe suffering that he doesn't explain, but which he said was severe enough that I despaired even of the loss of my life. That’s interesting, isn’t it? Here’s the Apostle Paul engaged in God’s work, caring for the churches, nevertheless so distressed by suffering in the province of Asia where he was also engaged in carrying on a valid ministry that he despaired even for his life. And we, we look at our lives and we say, "Well, things didn't go very well this morning." We say, "Oh, I'm having difficulty with so and so at work." We say, "Oh, that pain in my back is bothering me. Things are so bad in my life." And here’s the Apostle Paul, this great saint of God, enduring all of these things. It makes some of our problems fade into insignificance. I think it’s interesting that it's an apostle engaged in God’s work that was experiencing this suffering. You see, that’s important because it says that God allows things to come into our lives for a variety of reasons. I have looked at this subject in the scripture from time to time because, like any pastor, I often am talking to people who are suffering from one calamity or another, and the question they ask and ask rightly is this: Why is this particular thing happening to me? Here is someone who is stricken with cancer, perhaps somebody who’s young; they say, "Why me? Why is this happening to me?" Or someone who has lost a member of their family, someone close to them, a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter; they say, "Why has this happened to me?" Or they’ve lost their job; they say, "Why should I be the one that loses my job? Here I'm trying to live as a Christian, I'm trying to do the right thing. Why does this happen?" Well, I’ve looked at this in scripture; it seems to me there are a variety of reasons why things like that come into our lives. One, the least illuminating but nevertheless a true one, is that such things are just common to humanity. Job was writing about it, and I think spoke wisely when he said, "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." He wasn't making a particularly profound theological observation, except to the extent that it's all related to sin, that we have trouble. He was simply saying, "Look, it is part and parcel of life to have troubles." When you’re a child, you are going to fall down and scrape your knee. When you get into high school, you are going to have sad romances and have your heart broken. When you get into the job market, there are occasions when you’re going to lose your job. You are going to get sick; eventually, you’re going to suffer the loss of members of your family and others by death. There’s no particular reason; there doesn't have to be any deep explanation. These things are part of life. I think, of course, that in most cases, it goes beyond that. I think there are answers, there are things specifically that God is doing with us. But the first answer we find is that some of these things just come. It's part and parcel of what it means to live in a fallen, imperfect world. But then there’s a second answer. And the second answer is that God sends things into our lives, periods of suffering, in order to refine and polish us. You know, if you just drift along in life, you don’t have any troubles, well, you don’t always grow a great deal. I’m into running, and recently I've begun working with weights. And sometimes when you get the running magazines and the magazines that talk about these things, you see advertisements. And one of the advertisements I’ve noticed says this: "No pain, no gain." I understand the doctors don't like that. They think that pain is a warning to stop. I'm not sure. I think whatever it does, it at least lets you know you’re alive, and I would rather hurt a little bit than be so flabby that I don’t even know I’m there until eventually the flesh falls off my body and I die. I think a little bit of pain is healthy. But at any rate, the point I'm making is that these things do make us grow. And when you look at some of the stories of the Bible characters who underwent suffering, you see that that was certainly the case. Think of David. What a man of integrity he was! What a great king he was! What a man who was able to endure in all kinds of hardships under the pressure of leading the nation of Israel as a righteous king! How did he learn that? He learned that in his youth as he experienced one persecution after another from Saul and from other enemies. Abraham experienced great inner anguish when God required him to take his son and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah, but Abraham grew by that experience. And at the end of it, Abraham is praised for his obedience. He becomes a model of the faith of obedience for Christians in all generations. That's a second purpose. There's a third purpose as I understand it and as I read scripture, and that is that sometimes suffering comes into our lives for no other reason than it is a way in which God is glorified. That’s something that is hard for many people to understand. Unbelievers can’t understand it at all; that seems absolutely absurd that God should allow one of his children to suffer in order that he might be glorified. Christians kind of can understand that. It’s not always easy, but we can kind of understand it. There are two great examples of that, one in the Old Testament and one in the New. The one in the Old Testament is the story of Job. We know that. Here was a day when Satan came into the presence of God, and God called attention to Job, a righteous man, righteous in all his ways, God said. Satan said, "Well, yeah, he’s righteous all right, but it's just because you take care of him, because you bless him, because you give him so many worldly things to enjoy. You take those away, and he’ll curse you to your face." And God, who we notice from the story had called attention to Job, God had raised the issue, God had presented the challenge, God allowed Satan to attack Job in the area of his possessions and his family because, God said, "I want to show that Job does not love me because of the things I do for him, but because he loves me. It's the same way I love him." And so Satan did that, and even later, on the second assault, after he had inflicted Job with boils, we’re told that Job bemoaned himself. He sat in dust and ashes, a picture of abject misery. And yet it says, "In all this, Job did not sin with his lips." You never find Job cursing God. It's a great story of glory being given to God even in the midst of such suffering. In the New Testament, there's a parallel story, though it’s shorter. It's the occasion of the man who has been born blind. It’s told in John, the ninth chapter. There the disciples saw this man who had been begging by the gate. Everybody knew who he was; he was there all the time. They asked the obvious question. They said, "Look, the man is suffering. Suffering is the result of sin. Who was it who sinned? Was it this man, or was it his parents?" Now, it’s hard to understand how it could be this man because he was blind from birth, unless God foresaw that he was going to sin, and so God got his punishment in before he did it. Maybe there's a sense in which it could have been the sin of his parents. But at any rate, Jesus replied in a very profound way. He said, "Neither did this man sin nor his parents, but this is that the glory of God might be revealed." And then he healed the man, and glory was given to God. And what the story teaches is that God allowed that man to be born blind and to sit there in darkness all his life in order that on that occasion, Jesus might come and heal him, and the power of God in such a healing might be seen. I say that's a difficult thing for many people to understand, and yet that's the teaching of the Bible. And as we grow in grace, we begin in part to understand, especially as we suffer. We begin to understand it. And then there’s a fourth reason. And the fourth reason is what Paul talks about here. Paul says that God allowed him to suffer and experience the comfort of God in his suffering in order that he, as a minister of God, might comfort those who are likewise suffering. Have you ever thought about your suffering that way? You experience a great illness. Have you ever thought that God allows you to have that in order that you might speak as a Christian a word of comfort to someone else who is going through the same thing? You suffer a death in your family. It's a great loss, very painful. You think nobody could possibly understand that. And it’s true; people who have not gone through that experience can’t fully understand. But then somebody else has the same experience, and they understand, and you go to them—not to say, "Ah, here is somebody who understands me," but rather go to them to say, "Look, when I was suffering exactly the same loss, God comforted me, and that’s what I want to share with you." That's what Paul is talking about here. So here is Paul, who apparently went through one of the great crises of his life, so he despaired even of life. And yet he looks back on that and he said, "God allowed that to come into my life so that I might be able to comfort you." This is a book that talks a great deal about suffering. In the introduction to the Scofield Reference Bible, where there are little paragraphs at the beginning of each of the books, there are several lines that emphasize how much Paul talks about suffering and tribulations in this book. I counted up the number of words there, just list the different words Paul uses for the things he endured. There were 16 of them in that particular list. And I find some of them here as you run through it. You find words like "troubles" and "suffering" and such things. You find a great many more in the 11th chapter, where Paul actually lists in detail his sufferings: that he was flogged, and exposed to death, and shipwrecked, and in danger, and all those things—word after word after word. Certainly, it’s a book of suffering. But look, when Paul begins to write about it, he brings it in right at the beginning, the first of his themes here. The kind of things he endured when he was in Asia, when Paul brings it in, the first thing he mentions is not the suffering. He doesn't give a catalog of all the horrible things that happened to him. What he talks about is God’s comfort. You notice how many times he talks about comfort in this paragraph? In verses 3 to 7, he uses the word "comfort" nine times. It’s almost redundant. You know, I do a lot of editing, and this is the sort of thing you strike out as an editor. You don't want that word "comfort" appearing again and again and again. You say, "Paul, don't you know any synonyms? Don't you have a Roget's Thesaurus? Why, get it out! Let's write better than that." Paul says, "Oh, come on now." He said, "I'm trying to make a point. What I want to talk about is comfort. And if you can’t get it any other way, I'm going to repeat it." And so here I go: "Praise to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who does what? Comforts us naturally in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." Five of them right there! And then he goes on to say, "So also through Christ, our comfort overflows. If we’re distressed, it’s for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it’s for your comfort." And verse 7: "And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our suffering, so also you share in our comfort." Now, what does he say about comfort? Well, I think it's obvious. He says all comfort is from God. And furthermore, that comfort which is from God is for all our troubles. Isn't that wonderful? There’s no trouble you have, nothing you go through, no distress you experience that God is not able to be present in that trouble and bring you comfort. And moreover, all real comfort is from him. Why is that? Why does Paul say that he’s the God of all comfort? Doesn't he understand that sometimes people can comfort other people, and you might say, "Well, there's a good comforter, somebody who helps"? Ah, no, see, Paul is thinking more deeply than that. He’s well aware that somebody who knows nothing at all about God can get next to somebody who’s suffering and say, "Come on now, buck up, I’ll stick with you, I’ll help you." In a certain sense, that’s comfort. But Paul, you see, knows that if there’s no God, if there’s no God who is a sovereign God in charge of everything, who gives purpose to life because he orders life so that nothing happens that doesn't flow through his will, then in the ultimate sense, there’s no comfort in anything because nothing means anything. You’re suffering? So what? But if God’s in charge, especially if God is working in the lives of those who are his people, then there is comfort because whether you understand it or not, the comfort means something, the suffering means something, and God is doing something in you which can be a blessing to others. As I read it, I think Paul also says about this subject that because God comforts us in our suffering, we learn to trust him. You see, if you look back over your life and you say, "Well, there was a period where things were really bad, horrible things came in. I lost my job, my business went to pieces, I experienced all kinds of personal difficulties with someone else," but as I look back, I see that God was there, God was upholding me, God was helping me, God got me through it, God strengthened me, God comforted me in the midst of the loss. If you can look back and see that, then you can trust God now. You can say, "God is faithful. God is the same God. God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the same yesterday, today, and forever. And if he comforted me then, he will comfort me now." And so you begin to grow, and you learn to give the same kind of testimony that Job gave. You see, that's what a Christian can do. Paul knew that, and he knew it in a personal way. About the same rough timeframe that the Apostle Paul was writing, there was a great Roman, Cicero, who has done a lot of writing and we know about from his writing. He lost his beloved daughter, whose name was Tullia. Tullia was the chief delight of his heart, and she died at a young age, and Cicero was absolutely broken by the loss. He had a friend whose name was Sulpicius Severus. Sulpicius Severus did what any good friend would do; he wrote a letter to him and he tried to comfort him. We have the letter. He tried to remind him that after all, suffering and death is the common lot of humanity and all of us have to die sometime. And he reminded him that she had died at a period of Roman history where the republic itself was failing, and that in the long run, it might be good that she didn't live to see the dissolution of the empire. And yet, you see, you read that, you recognize that here is a friend learned in all the wisdom of the ancients trying to do the best he can for a man who was close to him. And yet, it's not much comfort there. At best, there’s understanding, sympathy, but not comfort. Now contrast that, the greatest of the Romans doing the best they can, with what Paul himself does when he writes to the Thessalonians. They had lost friends, those of their number who had died. And what Paul does there is speak about that time when we’re going to see them again. He says, "I tell you a mystery: we won't all die, we’ll be changed, we’ll be caught up in the air." He says that the Lord is going to descend from heaven with a shout; we’re going to see our loved ones again. And he gets to the end of it and he says, "Therefore, comfort one another with these words." You see what I mean when I say that God is the God of all comfort and that the experience of that comfort in suffering teaches us to trust him and gives us the ability to comfort others? Paul says, "Oh, it's true. It is true. Life is filled with troubles. I've experienced more than most." Who of us can match the sort of thing that Paul talks about here in the 11th chapter where he runs down one great tragedy after another? It’s worse than a soap opera. Who can match that? Paul says, "I understand all of that. But look, there is great comfort because God is in charge of all and because God is sovereign in the end. Good triumphs over evil, sin will be punished, and all that is endured for Christ's sake, in righteousness, will be rewarded at that last day." I only have one more thing I want to say, and it's to those who may not be Christians. If you're not a Christian, I just want to say, think what you're missing. You may be in a period of your life when some of these things that I've talked about have not yet happened to you, but if they haven't happened yet, they will. Doesn't make any difference how healthy you are; someday you’re going to get sick. Doesn't make any difference how young you are; someday you’re going to get old; eventually, you’re going to die. Doesn't make any difference how blessed your life has been; the time will come when those close to you will be taken away. You’re going to go through these things. The question is, how are you going to go through them? Are you going to go through them without the comfort that comes from God? Or are you going to go through them with the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles? I commend the Christian way. I commend Jesus Christ, who endured all of this for you—suffering, death for every man in order that he might bring many sons into glory. Let us pray. Father, when we talk about suffering and your purposes in it, we know we're in an area where we understand very little and certainly at best see through a glass darkly. Someday we’ll know, someday we’ll look back on this and we’ll say, "Ah, that's what God was doing." But we don’t see that now. What we do see is Jesus, and knowing that he is our savior and sovereign Lord, we trust him and so go through these things with confidence and with an ability to help others who likewise suffer. Our Father, make us strong to do that. And we would pray that if there are those here who listen to these things, who perhaps have heard them many times but who have not come to Christ as savior, that they might do so so that when the sorrows of life come and the hardships of life break upon them, they might stand firm because they're fixed upon that rock which is the Lord Jesus Christ and they know that you are the God of comfort even in those difficulties. We pray this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.
Guest (Male): You're listening to the Bible Study Hour featuring the teaching of Dr. James Boice. Psalm 61 is a cry from the psalmist who found himself at the end of his rope and with a heart that had grown faint. At times, we find ourselves in the same predicament. You’ll learn more in our free CD offer entitled, "The Rock That is Higher Than I." It’s another message by Dr. Boice. This free CD offer is our gift to you. Call us at 1-800-488-1888 and we’ll be happy to send you a copy of "The Rock That is Higher Than I." That number again is 1-800-488-1888. The internet has changed the way we think and work. Many of those effects have been negative, but through the World Wide Web, the Bible Study Hour has been able to reach countless thousands of listeners around the world that otherwise may not have been reachable. You can help us with a donation of any size or by becoming a monthly supporter when you visit our website at thebiblestudyhour.org. You could also call us directly at 1-800-488-1888. And our mailing address is 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. In Canada, you can reach the Bible Study Hour at P.O. Box 24087, RPO Josephine, North Bay, Ontario, P1B 0C7. We all love how Dr. Boice's sermons put life in a biblical perspective. It's often impossible, though, to include every biblical reference in detail in a 26-minute broadcast. You can purchase complete preached messages at reformedresources.org. That's reformedresources.org. I’m Mark Daniels. No one likes to have their carefully laid plans changed and their course redirected. Join Dr. James Boice as he directs our attention to the change in Paul's plans to revisit the church at Corinth and the foothold that change provided his enemies. That’s next time on the Bible Study Hour, preparing you to think and act biblically.