Shared, Real Experiences

From my EBS study on 2 Corinthians with questions by Becky Castle Miller

2 Corinthians 1:1-11

1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

I have long admired Paul’s Spirit-empowered willingness to pastor people who did not like him. The Corinthians were unquestionably shaped by a 1^st Century version of an upwardly mobile status-conscious society. Anyone who welcomed everyone into the assembly of Jesus, as Paul attempted to do, was sure to offend nearly everyone. Everyone, or nearly everyone, knew someone below them they’d rather keep down than welcome as an equal. So the Corinthians had a history of giving Paul an earful and a hard time.

Once we have read 2 Corinthians 10–13 with an ear open to how the Corinthians treated him, we read passages like today’s with a sense of surprise. What surprises me is that he did not begin this letter as he began Galatians where, following the formal niceties of greeting them, Paul launches into immediate rebuke (Galatians 1:6-10). In our letter Paul opens with praise to God for the experiences that united him with the Corinthians.

Shared experience was part of Paul’s strategy for leading the Corinthians to unity in the middle of so much tension.

Paul, of course, opens with a standard letter opening: authors (Paul, Timothy), identifiers (apostle, brother), and recipients. Paul and Timothy. Paul knows he and coworker Timothy are responsible for this letter. Paul, true to form in his life, did not seek to get all the glory. He shared his platform. “Effective ministry is always,” Guy Nave observes with clarity, “a collaborative effort,” and then he adds value with sensitivity: “and coworkers should be recognized and acknowledged” (Nave, 2 Corinthians, 309). He sends this letter to the “church of God in Corinth” and then adds “together with all his holy people throughout Achaia” (1:1). Think of that. This very personal, pastoral letter will not only be read in Corinth’s house churches but to all those in (modern day) central and southern Greece. We know of a church nearby in Cenchreae, home of Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2), but there may well have been others. He blesses all those churches with grace and peace (1:2).

Shared experiences

Paul uses two words to describe the Corinthian experiences: troubles and sufferings. The former leads to the latter. The Greek terms describe a variety of situations, from health issues to physical persecution to the final tribulation. But Paul provides the clues we need when he uses these terms for his own experiences in Ephesus (in Asia; 2 Corinthians 1:8). A big open window on what he experienced can be read in Acts 19:23-41, called the riot in Ephesus. Paul says he experienced “troubles” that involved “great pressure.” I translate “great pressure” as “we were depressed – excessively, beyond ability” (Second Testament). The emotional, psychological dimensions of his experience come to the fore when we use “depressed.” So intense were these troubles that Paul says, “we despaired of life itself,” felt he was issued “the sentence of death,” and called it “a deadly peril” (2 Corinthians 1:8-10). Whatever Paul and others experienced, it was inescapable and unbearable. Some suggest what Paul experienced was the famous thorn in the flesh, which he experienced three times (12:7, 8). Because these experiences edged so close to martyrdom, Paul describes them as “the sufferings of Christ” (1:5).

Paul’s experiences and the Corinthians’ experiences are so similar that Paul says they are the “same sufferings” they “share,” and the word “share” points to a common experience (1:6, 7). Paul capitalizes on that sameness to speak to the Corinthians. The heat from those who worshiped Artemis in Ephesus was similar to the heat some Corinthians were experiencing. But we might add other experiences into their troubles and sufferings, including some at the hand of Paul’s severe letter, which was painful to Paul and to them. Referring to that severe letter, Paul describes it like this: “If I caused sorrow by my letter” that “hurt you” (7:8; look up 2:3-9; 7:8-12; 8:6). So, perhaps their troubles and suffering involved Paul’s pastoral rebuke.

And a word about social media, which constrains us to tell good stories about ourselves, and how the smiley face social media posts both fail to tell the reality and create images that everyone is smiling. Paul does not write smiley faces. He opens his heart to the Corinthians. Philip Plyming, who has explored his own sufferings in light of Paul’s, writes about our human tendency these days to paint a rosy picture of our own life:

As I have read these passages in 1 and 2 Corinthians over the years, I have really appreciated Paul’s honesty and openness. I say that because in some of the Christian circles I have moved in over the last 30 years, that hasn’t been the case. I have often witnessed a pressure to emphasize the positive aspects of our Christian experience. ‘I trust you’re thriving!’ starts the email, and it is quite hard to respond with anything other than the affirmative. At conferences, speakers are frequently unremittingly upbeat, and testimonies often end on a positive note. Christian organizations and institutions cultivate a reputation of growth and achievement; stories that point in a different direction rarely get a mention.

This pressure to emphasize the positive has been turbo-charged by a growth in social media, where so much attention is given to presenting an image that followers will ‘like.’ Along with so many Christians, we find ourselves telling a story in which we are doing well.

The image says we are thriving.

Yet my experience of the Christian life over the last 30 years has been much more mixed. I’ve witnessed some very positive things happen. I’ve seen people of all ages come to faith. I’ve seen people healed. I’ve seen individuals respond to God’s call in their lives to do something new for the Lord. I’ve seen prayers answered and lives changed. I have known joy and hope and peace in my own heart.

But I’ve also seen much more challenging things take place. I’ve seen people walk away from faith. I’ve seen projects go badly wrong. I’ve seen partnerships fail amidst conflict and tension. I’ve taken and spoken at funerals in the most tragic of circumstances. I’ve seen people live with long-term illness and never get better.

This experience of brokenness has also been closer to home. I have reached points of real physical and emotional exhaustion. Anxiety, something that I have lived with since my teenage years, has at times been so bad that sleep has been very challenging.

I’ve also spent all my Christian life coming to terms with abuse that happened to me as a teenager. When I was about 13, I was groomed and then sexually abused by my parish priest. It was a secret, and I didn’t tell anyone at the time. Like many survivors of child sexual abuse, I buried it deep within. Many years later I gave evidence in his trial, which resulted in a custodial sentence. But the experience of giving evidence was as traumatic as the original abuse, and I suspect the impact will be lifelong (Plyming, Being Real, 3-4).

In light of Paul’s own words about his own reality we may need to redefine “thriving” from a happy, rosy life to a rugged life with ups and downs. A life in which God is present, not always felt as we want, but nonetheless always there. A life like Christ’s. Like Paul’s. A life in which “comfort” matters because of experiences of genuine pain and sorrow.

Shared God

We enter into a profoundly important theological distinction. If you mark your Bible, make some marks in 1:3-4 and 1:8-11 for each instance of God. As in “God of all comfort” or “He has delivered us.” God is all over these verses. The Corinthians experienced suffering. Paul inserts God into their experience. Entering God into human suffering requires nuance and care. If one is not careful one ends up blaming God for the experiences that lead to suffering. I don’t believe it is morally justifiable to think God plots, directs, and causes the abuse of children and women. God did not toss the bomb on Hiroshima, God did not stir up Putin to attack Kiev. God does not send cancer cells into a body nor does God block arteries that lead to heart attacks. I know many do think God does these things, but they make God a moral monster, someone who does what we as humans would never believe is right to do to another human. Humans violate the boundaries of other humans, but only a morally corrupted person thinks violating another is a moral good. Or that God violates.

So how do we nuance God in a discussion of suffering? We begin with God as unremittingly good, then we proceed to the human experience, then we remind ourselves God is good and just, and then we explain the suffering as something through which we learned to trust in God and how God preserves us and saves us and comforts us. Explaining violence against an innocent person as an act of God creates both reckless and abusive theology. God does not cause the troubles or the sufferings in today’s passage. God comforts those who are troubled and who suffer. Because we learn something valuable from suffering does not mean God causes the suffering to teach us that. I realize this paragraph may well challenge some of what some believe, so I ask you to ponder these words and discuss them with others.

The God who comforts is the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:3), and this God “raises the dead,” “delivered us from such a deadly peril,” and “will continue to deliver us” (1:9-10). Such a God does not cause troubles or sufferings. Such a God comforts those who are troubled and suffering.

Shared comfort

I have circled the word “comfort” in my Bible. Circles appear throughout 1:3-7. The one use of “compassion” (1:3; “sympathies” in Second Testament) complements the abundance of the term “comfort.” As Judy Diehl makes clear, comfort “is not just a kind thought; comfort is concrete support through an affliction” (Diehl, 2 Corinthians, 80). The support offered corresponds with the trouble or suffering experienced. It is “consolatory strengthening in the face of adversity that affords spiritual nourishment” (Harris, 2 Corinthians, 143).

When Christians learn about, listen to, and empathize and sympathize with those who suffer, they enter into the work God is doing in someone’s life. If God is the God of comfort, and if the God of comfort is with us when we suffer, then when we comfort others we participate in the comforting work of God. Give it up here for psychologists who have learned the art of listening, asking questions, and creating an opportunity for a person to find insight into themselves, their emotions, and their experiences. Give it up for pastoral counselors who have been trained to connect to persons both spiritually and psychologically. Give it up for ordinary believers with eyes to see and ears to hear who use both to console others. Give it up for parents who love their children by listening, mentoring, and co-regulating. Every person who comforts another is doing the work of God for the suffering and troubled.

A final reflection: Paul’s comfort of the Corinthians derives from his experience of comfort by God. He was the mediator of the God of comfort to the Corinthians who were in need of comfort. What Paul learned from his troubles and sufferings was dependence on God. Experiences matter, and experienced or lived theology forms into the purest form of theology on offer. Experienced, lived theology forms wisdom, and what Paul offers in today’s reading is the wisdom of one who has learned God’s comfort.

Questions for Reflection and Application

1. What experiences might have made up Paul’s sufferings?

2. How did the Corinthians possibly suffer?

3. What is the difference between God causing suffering and God comforting those who suffer?

4. How have you experienced God’s comfort in your sufferings?

5. Have you ever had to pastor, care for, or minister to people who didn’t like you? What could you learn from Paul about such a situation?