2 Corinthians 1:1-12

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.

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.
 

12Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace.

Paul wrote this letter with the help of Timothy to the church in Corinth, between 55 - 57 AD, addressing the troubled Corinthian Christians. 

He starts off in verse 3 by reminding the church about the qualities of the God that they had put their trust in: 'Father of mercies and God of all comfort'. Paul further explains how that through this God, they are are empowered to comfort others.

Paul also speaks about how the church suffers because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they are also comforted by the same Gospel, giving much assurance to the afflicted church in Corinth because in persecution and in comfort, it is all for their consolation and salvation.

Paul tells the church about how he and Timothy could find assurance even in the midst of persecution because in verse 9 we see that it is because they 'should not trust in (themselves) but in God who raises the dead, who delivered (them) from so great a death, and does deliver (them); in whom (they) trust that He will still deliver (them)...'. Paul also brings this idea up again when he writes to the church in Rome, as we see in Romans 8:18, where he asks them to 'consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us'. 

The reason this glory is something all Christians, in the past, present and future can subscribe to, is because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross. In His obedience to the Father's will to the point of dying on the cross, Jesus is now 'exalted to the highest place and given the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father' (Phil 2:8-11). How more glorious can you get than that?

Paul also then thanks the Corinthian church for remembering him and Timothy in their prayers so that others may give thanks to God for Paul and Timothy's work. He follows that by reminding the church of their boast in Christ: that they have been a testimony in the World not by worldly wisdom, but by God's grace.

In the light of recent events where the churches all around Malaysia have begun to feel a sense of persecution, this passage provides us with comfort and encouragement. We can take comfort in the fact that the God that we have surrendered our life to remains the 'Father of mercies and God of all comfort', even in such unsure and dangerous days.

Yet at the same time, Paul reminds us that the church of Christ will never be free from persecution because of the Gospel we preach. Jesus also spoke of this as recorded for us in the book of Matthew 10:22.

In spite of all these trials and tribulations promised to us, by looking towards the glory we will find in Jesus Christ when we meet Him face to face, we can find this burden in a temporary world much easier to bear.

As the church in Corinth prayed for Paul and Timothy while under persecution, we should also follow that example and pray, not only for our fellow Christians all around Malaysia, but also for the ability to love our persecutors, and not hate them.