God of Comfort

The City of Corinth and Paul’s Ministry

Ever felt so discouraged that discouragement was your only friend? Ever felt like the pressure’s built to the point where you thought one more thing and you can’t take it? Ever had those experiences where you think, I don’t see an end to this, and until I see the end to it, all I know is the pain that comes? Life at times throws us a lot of uncertainty. At times we find ourselves lost and we find ourselves wondering, where is God?

The city of Corinth that Paul visits was established in 44 BC by Julius Caesar, who began to repopulate this area with tradesmen, old soldiers, freed slaves, and laborers. This was not an easy rebuild. The city had been desolate for over a hundred years, and by the time people started moving in, it took a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps kind of mentality. If you were going to survive, you had to do it on your own. By 27 BC, about fifteen years later, Corinth had become a political center, and with politics came money and power.

Archaeologically, we know a great deal about this ancient city because it was destroyed in 521 AD and never rebuilt. The marketplace was extremely large, with a 600-foot covered walkway called a stoa, which was the largest in the world at the time. It was like an outdoor mall filled with shops where people could walk under the covered walkway and shop without any problem. The marketplace itself used 76,000 square feet of space. Visible from the marketplace were temples, statues, and fountains, and there was also a 15,000-seat theater nearby where people could go for entertainment. The population of the city at the time Paul arrives is around 100,000 people.

Paul arrives in Corinth in 50 AD and stays for eighteen months. After he leaves, he goes to Ephesus and spends three years there. During this whole time, Paul is preaching the gospel. He writes a letter about sexual immorality that is mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter five, verse nine, but it’s a letter we don’t have—it has been lost to us. The Corinthians write a letter back to Paul with lots of questions, and that’s what 1 Corinthians is responding to.

The Letters to Corinth and the False Teachers

Paul writes 1 Corinthians around 54 AD, and Timothy delivers the letter. Timothy finds that there are false teachers in Corinth, which upsets Paul rightfully so. When Timothy comes back to Ephesus and tells Paul what’s going on, Paul immediately drops what he’s doing and sails to Corinth to try to correct the situation. The upheaval with these false teachers is so significant that his trip is unsuccessful—people don’t change. Paul returns to Ephesus with great heartache.

He then writes what we might call the tearful letter, mentioned in 2 Corinthians chapter two, verse four. This is a second letter to Corinth, not our 2 Corinthians. It’s actually the third letter Paul has written to Corinth. We don’t have the first, and we don’t have the third. Paul pours his heart out in this letter, trying to convince them to come back to Jesus. Titus takes this letter, but there’s a riot in Ephesus that requires Paul to leave the city. Eventually Paul meets Titus in Macedonia, and Titus tells him things are better, but they’re not there yet. There are still some issues.

That’s when Paul writes 2 Corinthians, the letter that we have, in 55 AD. The letter tells them to restart the collection for the famine victims in Jerusalem, but it’s also a defense of himself. Paul knows from his time in Corinth that there are divisions within the churches there, and those divisions revolve around Paul, Apollos, Peter, and Jesus. The main problem is that Paul had promised to come back to Corinth and he didn’t do it. There are those who call Paul a liar, who say he’s not a truthful person. Instead of going back for a third visit, he wrote that tearful letter, which just upset some folks even more.

When Titus tells him they’re better, Paul hears that there are people who are really upset with him because he didn’t show up. He writes 2 Corinthians and at the end says, I’ll be there soon. I’m coming. So he writes 2 Corinthians in 55, and in 56 he shows up and stays in Corinth from January through March. It’s during this winter visit that he writes the letter to the Roman churches. Eventually he leaves Corinth, returns to Philippi, and sails to Jerusalem to take the contribution from all the churches for the famine victims. On this final trip, he’s arrested and taken into Roman custody.

Paul’s Dark Days and the Corinthian Criticism

The city of Corinth, with its competitive spirit born from its difficult founding and rebuilding, had created a culture where people judge strength and authority by outward signs. When Paul arrives, the Corinthians see him as weak. First, he won’t take money from them except to give it to the famine victims, and they think everyone else is taking money. Why aren’t you taking money from us? That’s a sign that you don’t have a strong message. Second, they think he’s a liar because he didn’t show up when he said he would. Third, that leads them to question his apostleship and whether he’s really the person they thought he was.

We have this vision of Paul as a guy who has everything all together, as if the challenges were just gnats on a bad day that he could swipe away. But that’s not the real Paul. If we turn to chapter eleven, verse twenty-three, Paul tells them what he’s actually experienced. I’ve worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes, minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, my own countrymen, from Gentiles in the city, in the country, at sea, and false brothers. I’ve labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep. I’ve known hunger and thirst and often gone without food. I’ve been cold and naked.

The Corinthians think Paul is weak because he didn’t show up. But Paul explains that he didn’t show up because he was under a death threat and had to protect himself. The incident in Acts 19 fits this scenario. Paul is in Ephesus and there’s a riot. He wants to go to the amphitheater to explain himself and defend himself, but the people tell him, if you go, you’ll die. They will kill you. So he goes into hiding. It’s no wonder that Paul doesn’t show up to Corinth—he has to go into hiding in order to protect himself.

By the time Paul gets to Corinth in 50 AD, he’s already been politically, financially, spiritually, and physically challenged in so many ways. He knows it’s not over. He knows there’s more to come. You’ve had some dark days. We’ve all had some dark days. I’ve had some dark weeks. I’ve had some dark months. I’ve had a couple of dark years. I know something about that. And you do too.

Running to God in the Dark Days

When Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, he begins by saying that the way he’s been able to handle the dark days is through comfort and encouragement from God. He is such a comforter. He is such an encourager. And by the way, that same God will comfort and encourage you too in your dark days. Notice how Paul turns this from accusation into finding common ground. He’s just come from dark days and is writing this letter to explain why he didn’t show up when he said he would. But now he wants them to know that in his darkest days, God has been his source of strength and comfort, and he’s theirs too.

Some people handle the dark days by complaining about God’s absence. Some people handle them by stating that God has abandoned them, that God has left them, that God has somehow turned his back on them. For some people, there’s this idea that life is supposed to be lived in perfection, that nothing bad is supposed to go wrong, and if something bad happens, it’s obviously God’s fault.

Consider teaching a child to ride a bicycle. You don’t put them on hard concrete right away—you put them on soft earth so that when they fall, they’ll fall on something a bit softer. But eventually, you have to put them on the concrete and let them learn. When they fall and skin their knee, you run to them and console them. But you don’t turn around and say, bad bicycle. We should never let you ride a bike. Of course not. You say, time to get back on. Time to do it again. And before the day is over, even before the blood has completely dried, they’re smiling because they figured out how to ride a bicycle.

The point is this: we can blame God for allowing dark days, or we can run to Him. If you blame God, that’s the sure way to make sure separation takes place. There’s a wall between you and God because you pushed Him away and said you’re to blame. You shouldn’t have let me experience this. Or you’re on the other side where you run to Him and say, oh, it hurts. It hurts so bad, and I don’t like this hurt. And God says, I know. I know what it feels like to feel pain. I experienced it with my Son. I know what it’s like to feel rejection and hurt. But I never left Him and I’m never leaving you.

In the dark days, we really do have this choice. Do we see God as a God of comfort, or do we blame Him for allowing the dark days? There are enough people in this world who are mad at God because He didn’t keep them from getting hurt. But God is a God of comfort. He is a God of encouragement. He who did not abandon His Son will not abandon you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.

Follow Jesus

If you’d like to respond to this message or learn more about following Jesus, please reach out.