About Jesus  -  Steve Sweetman

The Meaning Of Biblical Comfort

2 Corinthians 1:1 through 4 reads as follows.

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and Timothy our brother:  to God's church at Corinth , with all the saints who are throughout Achaia. 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.  He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God."

To be hermeneutically honest, we must understand what Paul wrote as he understood, and he wrote and lived in a language and culture few of us know anything about today.  For this reason, we will define a couple of words Paul used in the above passage.       

The Greek words "ekklesia" (church in English) and "paraklesis" (comfort in English) are linguistic limbs, sprouting from the same Greek root word.  Both words find their root in the Greek root word "klesis," which means, "call, called, or, to call." 

Ekklesia (church) means a group of people who have been called out of the general public for a specific purpose.  Ekklesia, then, as it applies to church, is a group of people whom Jesus has called out of the general public to serve Him.  Paraklesis (comfort) means people, or a person, who are called alongside another or others for a specific reason.  In relation to Christians, Christians are called alongside of others in the Body of Christ for a specific reason. 

In the above passage, Paul was encouraging the church at Corinth by offering his comforting support.  The Corinthian Christians, and us too, are not exempt from the difficulties of life.  Paul himself certainly endured much suffering, but in the midst of this suffering, he was comforted by Jesus.  It was for this reason that he could, with the same comfort, comfort the Corinthian believers in their time of suffering.  In the language of "paraklesis," Jesus came alongside of Paul with supportive comfort, and Paul extended the same comfort as he came alongside of the Corinthian believers.   

Once coming alongside those to whom God had placed him,   Paul would wisely determine what kind of comforting support was needed.  It wasn't always soothing words that would generate warm fuzzy feelings.  It was often words of admonishment, instruction, counsel, direction, and even correction, something the New Testament encourages us all to do.  For example, unless our words of love are put into action, we don't love (1 John 3:18).  Unless our words of faith are put into active works, we have no faith (James 2:17).  In like manner, unless our words of comfort are demonstrated by practical supportive actions, we don't comfort.   

If you can dig your way beneath our English text into the world of the first-century Greek language, you will understand that church is all about Jesus calling people out of the general public and placing them alongside of others for comforting support as we all do our part in facilitating God's will.