9. 2nd Corinthians Bible Study chapter 7–“God comforts the downcast”

9. 2nd Corinthians Bible Study chapter 7–“God comforts the downcast”
Spiritual struggles accompanied the establishment and growth of the church at Corinth. There were issues of doctrine and issues of truth and personal issues with some of the false teachers who wanted to get rid of the Apostle Paul. “When we came into Macedonia,” Paul wrote, “our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn–fighting without and fear within.” 7:5 We’ve all been faced with that kind of situation sometime in our lives. So it’s a welcome sight to see the next verse: “But God, who comforts the downcast. . . .” What great reassurance for those who are “downcast” to know they will be comforted by God.

He had already told us so in 2 Cor. 1:4 “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.” So who then are the “downcast” who receive this comfort from God?
The word in Greek that is translated “downcast” is tapeinos “depressed, i.e. (figuratively) humiliated (in circumstances or disposition).” Literally it means "that which is low, and does not rise far from the ground." It is “to be brought low in the sense of being humbled, to have one’s arrogance knocked out of him.” To “depedestalise”
An extended meaning is to bow in the sense of walking in a dejected manner as in a period of mourning.

In many different ways we are humbled by our struggles with affliction and often discouraged by them. And it is for us who experience those problems to know that God Himself personally and individually “comforts the downcast.” That is a promise to remember and hold in your mind. The very fact that it is in the Bible should comfort and encourage you. Of course that reminds you of Psalm 42 “why are you cast down, O my soul, and why disquieted within me? Hope in God [look to God and expect Him to help] for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God.”

The verse continues: “But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. . . .” So God used other people to bring comfort and encouragement to them. That happens very often. “And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.” 7:13 God has enabled us to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ and bring refreshment of spirit to them. “He restores my soul.” Psalm 23:3 And God does that for us daily: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” 4:16 Encouraging others should be a major part of our ministry as Hebrews 3:14 NIV explicitly tells us: “Encourage one another daily. . . .”

And when we do, it brings joy to us as well as to those we encourage. Jesus’ desire is “that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 15:11 We are now in the Christmas season. How joyful we should be in the Lord. We joy in the Incarnation, in the Cross and Resurrection and that means we share His joy on His terms, meaning we share in His sufferings as He calls us to. Jesus was a “Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” and He experienced pain and suffering. But He endured the cross “for the joy set before Him.” Lift your eyes up beyond your immediate problems to the joy that God has in store for you in the glory that is yet to come.

We have “the sentence of death in ourselves” so that we might learn to “rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” 1:9 “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help” and He heard me and “brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.” Psalm 18:6,19 So much depends on your attitude towards God when you acknowledge what He is accomplishing in your life, making you more like Christ and preparing you for the future and enabling you to help and encourage one another. Take your eyes off your suffering and direct them to the Lord and what He is doing and what He wants you to do. “Rejoice in our sufferings because suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope (or anticipation) and hope does not disappoint us Romans 5:1-5 because God is really there and His grace is really here with us–“He strengthens us, holds us, and causes us to stand upheld by His gracious omnipotent hand.”

He doesn’t remove the problems or the sorrow or the suffering, but it’s OK. It’s OK, Lord–because you are Lord and we are not. His grace really is sufficient for us. Believe it because it’s true!
–Pastor Burnside