The first Paragraph of Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians has always intrigued me.

It is LOADED with encouragement!

But this morning I have seen a “new” (well, “fresh” is a better word) truth sparkling within its Sentences.

I am excited, too!

“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth (overflows all around) by Christ.” Paul, under the Guidance of the Holy Spirit, promises this great Blessing to us who believe.

The Apostle here has drawn what I call a “word picture.”

Imagine a pair of scales, the old fashioned kind. With a pail (bucket) on the left of side the fulcrum (balance bar) and one of equal size on the right.

In the Basket on the left pour a sizeable amount of “sufferings.” The noun is “pathema,” a Greek word implying “passion, pain, fervor,” literally “pathos.” Essentially here, things like Jesus endured!

Now … IN EQUAL MEASURE … in the right hand container pour “consolation” (in Greek “paraklesis” basically meaning “comfort” or “strength”)!

Jesus plans to fill us with, ounce for ounce, as much love and grace and help and encouragement … as we have experienced (endured) trials and heartaches and tribulation in this old world!

So … if lately you’ve experienced very little of the “comfort” (“consolation”) of Jesus in your heart … maybe you have endured none of the sufferings a Christian is promised to undergo either!

Here I quote form a Preacher (a Writer too, obviously) who often suffered despression …

“Here is a blessed proportion. The Ruler of Heaven and earth bears a pair of scales … in this side He puts His people’s trials, and in that He puts their consolations. When the scale of trial is nearly empty, you will always find the scale of consolation in nearly the same condition; and when the scale of trials is full, you will find the scale of consolation just as heavy. When the black clouds gather most, the light is the more brightly revealed to us. When the night lowers and the tempest is coming on, the Heavenly Captain is always closest to His crew. It is a blessed thing, that when we are most cast down, then it is that we are most lifted up by the consolations of the Spirit.”

Amen!

Jesus never fails!

This TRUTH, I sense, helped Paul though many a hard time in life. The more I suffer, the more He comforts!

Glory to God!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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