Read & explore together
The God of All Comfort
Paul begins this part of 2 Corinthians by praising God for mercy and comfort. He explains how God’s comfort meets believers in affliction and also equips them to help others who are suffering.
Understanding the passage
The setting of these words
This passage is written as part of a letter and teaching. Paul speaks about affliction, comfort, suffering, hope, deliverance, and prayer. He refers to severe trouble in Asia and explains what that hardship taught him about trusting God and how the Corinthians could help through supplication.
2 Corinthians 1:3–11Main takeaway
God comforts his people in affliction so that they may endure, trust him, and share that comfort with others.
Follow the letter’s teaching
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01God is praised as the source of mercy and comfortPaul starts with praise, calling God the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Comfort here is not shallow ease.
Explanation
Paul starts with praise, calling God the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Comfort here is not shallow ease. In these verses, it is God’s help in affliction. Paul says God comforts his people so they can comfort others with the same comfort they have received.
02Suffering and comfort are both linked with ChristPaul says the sufferings of Christ abound to us, and comfort also abounds through Christ. He then explains that both affliction and comfort can serve the Corinthians’ good.
Explanation
Paul says the sufferings of Christ abound to us, and comfort also abounds through Christ. He then explains that both affliction and comfort can serve the Corinthians’ good. Their comfort is connected with patient enduring, showing that comfort does not remove every hardship straight away.
03Severe affliction taught Paul not to trust himselfPaul does not hide the depth of the trouble in Asia. He says they were weighed down beyond their power and despaired even of life.
Explanation
Paul does not hide the depth of the trouble in Asia. He says they were weighed down beyond their power and despaired even of life. He describes this as having the sentence of death within themselves, so that their trust would rest in God who raises the dead.
04God delivers, and prayer leads to shared thanksPaul says God delivered them, does deliver them, and remains the one in whom they have hope for future deliverance.
Explanation
Paul says God delivered them, does deliver them, and remains the one in whom they have hope for future deliverance. The Corinthians also help by supplication. As many people pray and God gives help, many people can also give thanks for what God has done.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01According to verse 4, why does God comfort us in affliction?
Look for the purpose statement in the verse: God’s comfort to us is meant to overflow to people in any affliction.
02What did Paul learn through the affliction in Asia?
Notice that verse 9 contrasts trusting in ourselves with trusting in God who raises the dead.
03How are prayer and thanksgiving connected at the end of the passage?
Trace the movement from supplication, to the gift given, to many people giving thanks.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
2 Corinthians 1:3–11
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.
6But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
7Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so you are also of the comfort.
8For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia: that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.
9Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,
10who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver, on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us,
11you also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift given to us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on your behalf.