2 Corinthians 1:1-11
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:
2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The God of All Comfort
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If 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. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as 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.
St. Paul tells us in the greeting to the Corinthians Timothy is with him...St. Paul certainly loved Timothy and treated him like a son, in many respects...
St. Paul was a very focused, high energy person...His focus after his conversion on the road to Damascus was on spreading the gospel of Jesus...Before his conversion, persecuted Jesus (even though He was deceased) and His followers, as a Pharisee...
After St. Paul was blinded by Jesus on the road to Damascus, he goes to that city and stays at Straight Street...Another follower of Jesus, a man named Ananias, has a vision about St. Paul and finds out the LORD wants him to go to Straight Street and place his hands on Paul so he may regain his sight...Ananias and Paul meet and Paul regains his sight...Ananias is told in his vision that Paul will be shown how much he will have to suffer for My name...
St. Paul tells us here in second Corinthians that he has hardships and suffered much in Asia...Paul does not tell us specifically how he has suffered, but they were under great pressure and feared for his life...But St. Paul's focus is not on his hardships, but on Jesus and His resurrection and spreading the good news to the Gentiles...His focus on God, no doubt helped him through his hardships...He trusted in God...
As a Pharisee, St. Paul believed in the resurrection of the dead...St. Paul knows that God can do anything and the resurrection of Jesus and other followers is a part of his belief and faith...He tells us that God has delivered us and He will continue to deliver us...We must rely on God, who raises the dead...There is no one else...
Paul tells us, we must rely not on ourselves, but on God...Because when we have passed on, it is only God who can resurrect us, and no one else...It is in Him we must trust to make it to heaven...