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There is no comfort in suffering, no value, if God is not sovereign over it. To downplay God‟s sovereignty is to render suffering a triumph of evil and sin against the limited will and power of God. But, for the Apostle Paul, God is the one who leads him into sufferings, sustains him in the midst, and delivers him from them. Paul confesses that one divine purpose in suffering is the glory of God (1Cor. 1:3-11), by the sanctification of His people (1:4-10). Much of God‟s ultimate intent in tragic events of life (or even in normal routine matters) are left a mystery to us, yet we do understand that an essential part of God‟s purpose in all things is to honor Himself by creating a people who, like Christ, trust Him in every circumstance (1:9, 10; Rom. 8: 28-30) and it is this confidence that leads Paul to prayer and praise rather than to self-pity. Paul‟s call in 1:3 to praise God as the One who comforts is that very means by which we find the rest that comes from knowing God‟s sovereign commitment to deliver His people. To seek our comfort in God is to glorify Him as the God of all comfort. So, our search for comfort is, in the end, a search for the Glory of God, who shows Himself glorious by comforting His people. Seen in this light, Paul call us to praise God‟s character, and in doing so we are affirming, in the midst of our adversity, that God is the One who can do so. The most comforting thing God can do is to call us to praise Him as the one worthy of our honor. |
