1.
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2.
Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.
3.
I speak not this to condemn you: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.
4.
Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.
JOY IN TRIBULATION
‘I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.’
2 Corinthians 7:4
The circumstances which gave the Apostle comfort and filled him with exceeding joy in the midst of his tribulation may well be considered.
I. The character of his consolations.—These words imply—
( a) More than mere resignation.
( b) More than mere acquiescence in the will of God, Who had seen fit that His servant should suffer.
( c) More than that chastened thankfulness which a man feels when he confesses that God’s will is good will, and that ‘all things shall work together for’ his ‘good.’
( d) It was composure rising into the highest rapture that he was counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake. ‘I am filled as full as I can hold, body, spirit, soul, with consolation. I abound much more exceedingly than I can conceive or describe in joyfulness.’ A comfort to which nothing can be added, a joy which it is impossible to exaggerate. How seldom do men in their highest spiritual moods, with all the bounties of God’s providence surrounding and crowning them, feel like that! Yet that was St. Paul’s experience in the midst of trials and difficulties which seldom fall to the lot of any man.
II. The grounds of the Apostle’s joyfulness and comfort were twofold: human and Divine. Let us glance at the Divine and consider this as applicable to ourselves. What are they?
( a) The Divine indwelling. ‘Ye are the temple of the living God.’ Mark the contrast: ‘Without were fightings, within were fears.’ God dwelleth in me. Not God comes occasionally and soothes a sorrow and dries a tear; not God comes so near that I may touch the hem of His garment; but, He ‘dwells in me.’ Realise that and ‘labour will be rest and pain sweet.’
( b) The Divine possession: ‘And I will be their God and they shall be my people,’ which makes the indwelling perpetual. God is not merely the tenant, but the owner of the soul. The idea is twofold. St. Paul could say, I am His and He is mine. ‘I am His.’ Why? God had purchased him, he was not his own, he was bought with a price. And he felt he was valuable in God’s eyes in proportion to the price that was paid for him. Hence St. Paul felt safe. ‘Well, what if I am in tribulation, what if there are fightings and fears, I don’t belong to them, I belong to God, therefore they cannot harm me.’ It was this thought that supported the Apostle in all his trials and nerved him for that noble and heroic life of his.
5.
For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.
6.
Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;
7.
And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.
8.
For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season.
9.
Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.
10.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
11.
For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
12.
Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.
13.
Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.
14.
For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth.
15.
And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him.
16.
I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things.