Blessed be that God
and Father
of our Lord Jesus
Christ,
the Father of mercies
and
God of all comfort,
who comforts
us in all our
tribulation,
that we may be able
to comfort
those who are in any
trouble,
with the comfort with
which
we ourselves are
comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1: 3: 4
Paul wrote
this letter from Macedonia on his third missionary journey, in order to express
his relief and joy at the favorable response of the majority of Corinthian
Christians. Also in this letter Paul
finds necessity to defend his apostolic authority for there were still a minor group of people in the church who denied that he had that right. I believe it would be hopeful to once again
understand history, the times in which Paul lived and wrote, as well as those
Christians, for it will help us to understand some of the things that Paul
wrote. First and foremost God is to be
blessed due to the fact that he sent Jesus Christ and is the Father of all
mercies, and comfort, and comforts us in our tribulations. The city of Corinth had regained its importance and this importance was important to the Roman empire. Rome would station soldiers in these major cities to ensure that
Roman law would be enforced and kept.
The Roman emperors were men of all different ideologies and thoughts
about the Roman empire. Claudius (41 --
54 A. D.), known by his name Claudius
Nero Germanicus, became emperor, and at this time the Roman Senate was
discussing the idea of restoring the Republic for it had become an empire that became morally corrupt, and had many enemies from other nations, and the senate wanted to maintain their powers, but
in this case they granted to Claudius all of the Imperial power. If we would remember that under Augustus
came a period called Roman Pax, that is Roman peace, but Claudius did not
follow after Augustus. Claudius was dealing with various rebellions one such being
the annexation of Britain, and other attempts to dethrone him and even kill
him. A time of much tumult and Claudius
had to deal with non-Romans and in Egypt relating to this problem that
confronted him may cause for a violent, bloodthirsty, and long-standing dispute
between the Greeks and the Jews of Alexandria.
This boiled over to other Jews in other parts of the empire causing in
several localities throughout the Roman Empire to cause an uproar and uprising
against Jews and especially to the sect of the Jews as they were thought to be,
the Christians. Claudius died in
October 54, he was 64 years old, and Nero became the air to the throne with
this time was 17 years old. Nero had
been the despair of his grandmother Antonia; she described him as a monster
whom nature had started work upon, but failed to complete. Nero was poor and health, but all the same,
there must have been something fundamentally wrong with him: and the diagnosis
by some historians was polio, or prenatal encephalitis, multiple sclerosis and
congenital cerebral paralysis, and all this gave him a variety of conspicuous
disabilities. Claudius like Augustus,
whom he admired tried to blend tradition with innovation. This was not true for Nero (54 -- 68 A. D.),
and this is the time in which Paul lived and as other Christians had to deal
with troubles come soulful Paul as he traveled about bringing the Gospel into
other parts of the Roman empire. Not
everything about he wrote during his reign was banned for he entertained
progressing, liberal feelings, and even there were those who tried to abolish
indirect taxes throughout the empire, and to abolish the stationing of praetorian guardsmen in circuses and theaters and to forbid the killing of
gladiators and condemned criminals in public spectacles. But these ideas proved impractical because
this meant that direct taxes need to be taken and had to be greatly increased and due to the fact
that the brawling in the gladiatorial arenas was supported by the public and to
deny this was not forthcoming by the public.
Situations in Rome were taking a turn for the worse especially after the
events of the great fire of Rome in A.D., which he blamed upon the Christian
community. This small Christian
community there in Rome who he regarded as a dissident group of Jews and burnt
many of them alive, and even it is said that the martyrdom of St. Paul and St.
Peter were ascribed to these persecutions.
So then Paul in addressing the Corinthian church in this letter reminds
of them, and us that God our father is a God of mercy and comfort and will
comfort as in all tribulations. Is this
just to give us some sort of comfort so we can sit back and enjoy the mercies
of God? No! Paul writes: "who
comforts us in all our tribulations, (here it is that we must be mindful
of) that we may be able to comfort those
who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted
by God" (vs 4). We here in the
United States do not feel some of the tribulations and terror that comes upon
Christians living in other countries where Christianity is condemned and even
Christians put to death for their Christian beliefs. We sort of have a very easy Christianity. But we do go through tribulations and trials
do we not? Yes! But as this was recorded first and foremost
for the Corinthian Christians, God inspired this letter to be saved and written into the
cannon called the Bible for us so that we too can be blessed no matter what
trouble comes our way: we can be comforted by God. This does not mean that God will take away the troubles in trials
and tribulations for we have examples of this by Paul and Peter and other
Christians who were executed by the horrible emperor Nero. And even in our times we hear of Christians
being killed, beheaded, all for the fact that they are simply Christians. This is not some story that we read and get
some sort of sad emotion over, this is reality, and it is real for all those
going through such events that are horrendous, and we have been instructed to
bring to them and others who are undergoing such events comfort and help, not
to just sit back and wish them, or just pray for them, which is important, but
what they need is our support. This may
mean our time, or our money, or even if God has called us to do so to go into
those countries bringing the Gospel, and bringing to them all the help that we
can. This is what it means to be an Authentic
Christian. Start at home, then in your
congregation, extend to your community, your state, and your nation, then allow
this extension to reach into the outermost parts of the world (Acts 2 -- 8). Paul starts right bringing to the
Corinthians and to us praise and go away, and Thanksgiving: let that be
something that we bring to our world of influence.
With us says the LORD of hosts:
" Let
your hands be strong,
you who have been hearing in these days
these words
by the mouth of the prophets,
who spoke in the day the foundation was lai d
for the
house of the LORD of hosts,
that the temple might be built.
Zechariah
8: 9
You are the temple of God
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