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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
1:3-11 Introduction to the Letter. Paul's prayers not only extol God but also introduce the main themes to follow. He praises God for the very suffering that his opponents use to call his apostleship into question. To support his praise for God as expressed in vv. 3-7, Paul relates in vv. 8-11 how God used his experience in Asia to teach him the same lessons he hopes the Corinthians will learn from him.
1:3 Blessed be. This is a standard Jewish praise formula that introduces the tone and themes to come. Paul begins by identifying the one whom he extols as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. These titles describe Yahweh's relationship to Jesus and Jesus' relationship to his people ("Lord" designates his absolute rule over his people). Comfort is the overall disposition that comes from resting in God's sovereign and loving rule as manifested in Christ's lordship (cf. Isa. 40:1).
1:4 so that we may be able to comfort. One of God's purposes in the suffering of Christians is that they would experience direct, personal comfort from God, and then from that experience be able to minister God's comfort to others. us . . . our. Most of the plural first-person pronouns in 2 Corinthians ("we," "us," "our") seem to refer to Paul himself (see v. 8; 7:5-7), but these plurals at times (depending on the context) may also include Timothy (who is named as a "co-sender" of the letter in 1:1), other ministry partners (1:19, 21), or Christians generally (5:1-10). In this verse, Paul probably uses the plural to indicate that he views himself as representing both the apostolic office and believers generally. Affliction can refer to both outward circumstances (4:17; 6:4; 8:2) and inward states of mind (2:4; 7:4-5).
1:5 Christ's sufferings refers not to Jesus' atonement for sin, which was unique to Christ (Rom. 5:8-10; 6:10), but to Paul's sufferings in imitation of Christ, which Paul endured because of his faithfulness to God and for the sake of God's people.
1:6-7 it is for your comfort. The opponents maintained that Paul's sufferings disqualified him as an apostle, but Paul maintains that his sufferings are the means God uses to strengthen other believers.
1:8 Asia. May refer back to Paul's suffering in Ephesus (1 Cor. 15:32) but the precise location and nature of the affliction are not certain. That Paul was burdened (Gk. bareō, "weighted down") and despaired in Asia points forward to 2 Cor. 4:8, 17 (see note on 4:17-18).
1:9 sentence of death. Paul's suffering was so severe that it seemed to Paul as if a death sentence had been decreed against him by a ruler or a judge.
