Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (ESV)
Verse Thoughts
Following his introductory greeting to the saints at Corinth, where the amazing grace and abundant peace of almighty God is the heavenly blessing that Paul bestows in great measure on all the congregation there. He turns his wrapped attention and deep affection upon our great God and Father in heaven:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction
When God is ‘blessed’ by psalmist or apostle, by prophet, priest or king, it is a call for His creation to bow low before Him in adoration and worship. When His children are called to ‘Bless the Lord’, we should kneel in humble reverence before His glorious majesty, and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. When the call to “bless the Lord” comes, we should bow down before Him – the Lord is His name.
As the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ we worship our great Creator. He loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son as the sacrifice for sin, so that whosoever believes on Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. Those who believe become children of God and are made a new creation in Him.
As the God and Father of mercies we worship before His throne of grace, acknowledging that without the spilt blood of Christ alone we would be eternally separated from our God and Saviour. But God in His mercy and love looked down in pity on a rebellious race of prideful men, and purposed in His heart that by His grace and mercy, through faith in Christ, He would redeem this lost and dying race.
He is the God of all comforts, Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort others that are in trouble… with the same comfort we ourselves receive from God: the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ- the Father of all mercies and God of all comforts.
Let us bow down before HIM – the Lord is His name.
Our Father in heaven has a wondrous array of divine qualities, eternal attributes and godly characteristics that rejoice our heart and calm our soul, but perhaps one of His essential elements is that He is our God of all comfort – our Source of all consolation.
He Who walked this earth and Who learned obedience by the things that He Himself suffered, is more than adequate to identify with our hurt and pain and to empathise with our sorrow and suffering. Oh yes… He is more than equipped to comfort us in all our afflictions.
And yet there is a deeper meaning, a wider purpose and a greater reason that our Father of mercies, and God of all comfort condescends to stoop down and comfort us in our affliction and to console us in our miseries, for He has purposed that we who are comforted of Him, may be ready and equipped to comfort and succour all those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort and consolation that we ourselves have received from our heavenly Father.