Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
God to be blessed is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort and consolation. He is the source and fountain of mercy and goodness, daily crowning life with tender mercies and supplying every good gift, even giving His Son to die for sin and bearing long with the wicked to call them to pardon. He comforts His people in all tribulation, sorrow, sickness, bereavement and trial, and as sufferings abound so consolation abounds by Christ so that distress cannot separate them from His love. This comfort comes by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, through looking to Jesus who was acquainted with grief and can heal the broken heart. He comforts them so that with the comfort they receive they may comfort all who are in any trouble, carrying consolation to the suffering and sharing it in grateful service.
Father of Mercy and Comfort
The One who is blessed is God, even the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and with the next verse the words form a greeting of grace and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. He comforts His people in all their troubles so that they may comfort others with the comfort they have received, and as the sufferings of Christ abound so consolation by Christ abounds. He establishes believers together in Christ, anoints them, seals them, and gives the earnest of the Spirit in their hearts, and this may be enjoyed by all.
He is the Father of mercies and the source of mercy, daily loading people with benefits and crowning them with lovingkindness and tender mercies new every morning and fresh every evening. Every good and free gift comes from Him as the Father of all mercies, and to trace every enjoyable mercy to Him is higher knowledge and true education. Those who appreciate His gracious gifts trace all good things back to Him, with Jesus very near to those who do so, delighting in His goodness with gratitude in the heart and thanksgiving and praise in clean sanctified words. In households where His Word is taught line upon line, every temporal blessing is received with gratitude and every spiritual blessing becomes doubly precious.
He is the God of all comfort and consolation, the benevolent, loving, care-taking Giver and inexhaustible Fountain of comfort and grace. He is perfect in goodness and full of mercy and compassion, always working for the good and happiness of the human family, with tender mercies over all His works. He opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing, so that the earth is full of His goodness. His goodness, forbearance, love, compassion and care are manifested throughout creation and extend to all His works.
His mercy is shown in giving His Son to live and serve among humanity and to die for human sin. He is longsuffering even toward those who do evil, permitting apostates and rebels to live and supplying their necessities from tender compassion and giving His benefits to all. He endures with much longsuffering those fitted for destruction, calling the wicked to forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and to return for mercy and abundant pardon, which encourages the sinner to surrender the will and profit by the Word. Because He is this good and merciful Father He claims the highest reverence, to be feared and loved and obeyed in all His precepts, while human plans contrary to His will and way bring unhappiness, suffering and eternal disappointment.
As the Father of mercy the heart's honest cry subdued by awareness of sin and weakness reaches Him, though prayer does not atone for sin or earn merit and set phrases without felt need are empty. This title grounds appeals for Him to pity the suffering church and individual believers and to remove whatever defiles them without taking away His Holy Spirit. It grounds appeal for Him to pity oppressed and mistreated people, to breathe spiritual life into them, and to give the Spirit to those sent to serve them and to those planning the work.
Comfort in Every Tribulation
God comforts His people in all tribulation, sorrow, trouble, temptation and trial, sustaining, encouraging, strengthening, blessing and helping them with strong consolation, comfort and peace and hope. That comfort is given especially to those who mourn and to the grieving in the loss of a loved one, healing the wound, strengthening and encouraging them, and it is given to the sick and to those in severe affliction, who may lean on Him without fear for strength and support and sustaining grace. It is also given to those who suffer in doing His work, in bereavement, want, loneliness, trial and deprivation in a foreign country, and in sorrow over the sick, wretched and dying around them and over the sickness and death of fellow workers. As the sufferings of Christ abound in believers so their consolation abounds by Christ, and those who share the sufferings also share the consolation, so distress does not separate from the love of Christ because He is consolation. When the cup of suffering is placed to the lips the cup of consolation is always given if the mind stays upon God, and even when prayer for removal is not yet fully answered Jesus knows and helps, giving comfort, light, power to rejoice, uplift into a purer atmosphere and present relief for thanks, and He will not leave nor forsake. So Paul amid persecution, discouragement, outward dangers, inward fears and the burden of the churches found consolation in Christ.
Tribulation is not strange but is part of moral discipline necessary to an all-round spiritual education, and no pure noble character is formed without disappointment and self-denial, for accepting Christ does not remove all briers and thorns from the pathway. Both affliction and comfort work for the consolation and salvation of others by producing endurance of the same sufferings. In this setting the verse calls a large self-satisfied gathering that thinks a great work is being done to humble themselves before God, confess sins and heed repeated warnings and His word so truth for this time may impress their hearts. This comfort comes by the Comforter with those who look to Jesus, by God giving consolation by His Spirit with precious light from Jesus reflected in life and character, through the Holy Spirit and through rest granted in answer to prayer. It is realized when the tongue is kept from wrong expressions, faultfinding, murmuring and complaining and speech is used with sobriety to glorify God and give thanks, and then His promises become everything to the believer.
No elegance, wealth, honor, fame, genius or skill can heal a broken heart, calm anxiety or gladden the sorrowful, but the life of God in the soul is a well-spring of joy and Christ as divine-human physician heals, cleanses and saves. He is able to enter all wants because He Himself was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and hunger and thirst, and those who walk with Him as His representatives have Him with them in all places and at all times. All comfort is given in Christ mingled with decided warning and reproof that breaks strongholds of iniquity and workings of Satan, arouses conviction and turns men to repentance where consolation comes in seeing what sin is. He is the source of all strength and the only place where needed consolation for coming seasons of trial and conflict can be found, for there will be great need of special help in the near future and no sophistry will sustain in the anguish to try all on earth. Help is received by making God the entire trust with unhesitating obedience and simplicity of faith, letting troubles drive to Him as strength and burden bearer to bear them with calmness, humility and perseverance rather than fleeing to human aid which cannot avail, giving increase of faith, power to prevail over darkness and power for correct religious influence.
Comfort Received to Share
God comforts believers in all their tribulation so that with the very comfort they themselves have received from Him they may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble. Whenever a person truly has God's consolation he feels an earnest desire to share it, and in sharing it he gains the confidence and love of the brethren. Both the affliction and the comfort work together for the consolation and salvation of others, by producing endurance of the same sufferings that Christ's followers share. As the sufferings of Christ abound in believers so their consolation abounds by Christ, and those who partake of the sufferings also partake of the consolation.
This shared consolation is to be carried to those who suffer, including the widow, the orphan, the sick and the dying. Those who look to Jesus and draw knowledge, strength and grace from Him can share His consolation because the Comforter is with them. Having known his own weakness and received God's comfort, a believer should sympathize with a brother in spiritual distress and help him rather than pass him by. The same comfort is to be carried to those who while suffering wrong have endured temptation to harbor a sense of injustice in the mind, mingled with decided warning and reproof that breaks strongholds of iniquity and turns men to repentance where consolation comes in seeing what sin is. When troubles are borne with calmness, humility and perseverance by letting them drive the soul to God as strength and burden-bearer rather than fleeing to human aid which cannot avail, a right spirit in trouble exerts a saving influence upon others, including husband and children, and gives power for correct religious influence.
Continual mercy, loading people daily with benefits and crowning them with lovingkindness and tender mercies new every morning and fresh every evening, grounds strong and increasing obligation to serve Him. That obligation calls for keeping natural appetites under control and glorifying Him in eating and dressing and working. Every enjoyable mercy and every good and free gift is to be traced to Him as the benevolent, loving, care-taking Giver and inexhaustible Fountain of comfort and grace, and to know this is higher knowledge and true education. The one in whom truth abides delights in His goodness, holds gratitude in the heart, and returns thanksgiving and praise in clean sanctified words, with Jesus very near to those who trace all good things back to Him. In households where His Word is taught line upon line every temporal blessing is received with gratitude and every spiritual blessing becomes doubly precious, and gospel missionary work brings people into connection with God as the God of all comfort, into fellowship with the Son as Redeemer and into communion with the Spirit as Comforter, so that all they have is gladly given to advance His work and multiplied through converted souls.
God to be blessed is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort and consolation. He is the source and fountain of mercy and goodness, daily crowning life with tender mercies and supplying every good gift, even giving His Son to die for sin and bearing long with the wicked to call them to pardon. He comforts His people in all tribulation, sorrow, sickness, bereavement and trial, and as sufferings abound so consolation abounds by Christ so that distress cannot separate them from His love. This comfort comes by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, through looking to Jesus who was acquainted with grief and can heal the broken heart. He comforts them so that with the comfort they receive they may comfort all who are in any trouble, carrying consolation to the suffering and sharing it in grateful service.
Father of Mercy and Comfort
The One who is blessed is God, even the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and with the next verse the words form a greeting of grace and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. He comforts His people in all their troubles so that they may comfort others with the comfort they have received, and as the sufferings of Christ abound so consolation by Christ abounds. He establishes believers together in Christ, anoints them, seals them, and gives the earnest of the Spirit in their hearts, and this may be enjoyed by all.
He is the Father of mercies and the source of mercy, daily loading people with benefits and crowning them with lovingkindness and tender mercies new every morning and fresh every evening. Every good and free gift comes from Him as the Father of all mercies, and to trace every enjoyable mercy to Him is higher knowledge and true education. Those who appreciate His gracious gifts trace all good things back to Him, with Jesus very near to those who do so, delighting in His goodness with gratitude in the heart and thanksgiving and praise in clean sanctified words. In households where His Word is taught line upon line, every temporal blessing is received with gratitude and every spiritual blessing becomes doubly precious.
He is the God of all comfort and consolation, the benevolent, loving, care-taking Giver and inexhaustible Fountain of comfort and grace. He is perfect in goodness and full of mercy and compassion, always working for the good and happiness of the human family, with tender mercies over all His works. He opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing, so that the earth is full of His goodness. His goodness, forbearance, love, compassion and care are manifested throughout creation and extend to all His works.
His mercy is shown in giving His Son to live and serve among humanity and to die for human sin. He is longsuffering even toward those who do evil, permitting apostates and rebels to live and supplying their necessities from tender compassion and giving His benefits to all. He endures with much longsuffering those fitted for destruction, calling the wicked to forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and to return for mercy and abundant pardon, which encourages the sinner to surrender the will and profit by the Word. Because He is this good and merciful Father He claims the highest reverence, to be feared and loved and obeyed in all His precepts, while human plans contrary to His will and way bring unhappiness, suffering and eternal disappointment.
As the Father of mercy the heart's honest cry subdued by awareness of sin and weakness reaches Him, though prayer does not atone for sin or earn merit and set phrases without felt need are empty. This title grounds appeals for Him to pity the suffering church and individual believers and to remove whatever defiles them without taking away His Holy Spirit. It grounds appeal for Him to pity oppressed and mistreated people, to breathe spiritual life into them, and to give the Spirit to those sent to serve them and to those planning the work.
Comfort in Every Tribulation
God comforts His people in all tribulation, sorrow, trouble, temptation and trial, sustaining, encouraging, strengthening, blessing and helping them with strong consolation, comfort and peace and hope. That comfort is given especially to those who mourn and to the grieving in the loss of a loved one, healing the wound, strengthening and encouraging them, and it is given to the sick and to those in severe affliction, who may lean on Him without fear for strength and support and sustaining grace. It is also given to those who suffer in doing His work, in bereavement, want, loneliness, trial and deprivation in a foreign country, and in sorrow over the sick, wretched and dying around them and over the sickness and death of fellow workers. As the sufferings of Christ abound in believers so their consolation abounds by Christ, and those who share the sufferings also share the consolation, so distress does not separate from the love of Christ because He is consolation. When the cup of suffering is placed to the lips the cup of consolation is always given if the mind stays upon God, and even when prayer for removal is not yet fully answered Jesus knows and helps, giving comfort, light, power to rejoice, uplift into a purer atmosphere and present relief for thanks, and He will not leave nor forsake. So Paul amid persecution, discouragement, outward dangers, inward fears and the burden of the churches found consolation in Christ.
Tribulation is not strange but is part of moral discipline necessary to an all-round spiritual education, and no pure noble character is formed without disappointment and self-denial, for accepting Christ does not remove all briers and thorns from the pathway. Both affliction and comfort work for the consolation and salvation of others by producing endurance of the same sufferings. In this setting the verse calls a large self-satisfied gathering that thinks a great work is being done to humble themselves before God, confess sins and heed repeated warnings and His word so truth for this time may impress their hearts. This comfort comes by the Comforter with those who look to Jesus, by God giving consolation by His Spirit with precious light from Jesus reflected in life and character, through the Holy Spirit and through rest granted in answer to prayer. It is realized when the tongue is kept from wrong expressions, faultfinding, murmuring and complaining and speech is used with sobriety to glorify God and give thanks, and then His promises become everything to the believer.
No elegance, wealth, honor, fame, genius or skill can heal a broken heart, calm anxiety or gladden the sorrowful, but the life of God in the soul is a well-spring of joy and Christ as divine-human physician heals, cleanses and saves. He is able to enter all wants because He Himself was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and hunger and thirst, and those who walk with Him as His representatives have Him with them in all places and at all times. All comfort is given in Christ mingled with decided warning and reproof that breaks strongholds of iniquity and workings of Satan, arouses conviction and turns men to repentance where consolation comes in seeing what sin is. He is the source of all strength and the only place where needed consolation for coming seasons of trial and conflict can be found, for there will be great need of special help in the near future and no sophistry will sustain in the anguish to try all on earth. Help is received by making God the entire trust with unhesitating obedience and simplicity of faith, letting troubles drive to Him as strength and burden bearer to bear them with calmness, humility and perseverance rather than fleeing to human aid which cannot avail, giving increase of faith, power to prevail over darkness and power for correct religious influence.
Comfort Received to Share
God comforts believers in all their tribulation so that with the very comfort they themselves have received from Him they may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble. Whenever a person truly has God's consolation he feels an earnest desire to share it, and in sharing it he gains the confidence and love of the brethren. Both the affliction and the comfort work together for the consolation and salvation of others, by producing endurance of the same sufferings that Christ's followers share. As the sufferings of Christ abound in believers so their consolation abounds by Christ, and those who partake of the sufferings also partake of the consolation.
This shared consolation is to be carried to those who suffer, including the widow, the orphan, the sick and the dying. Those who look to Jesus and draw knowledge, strength and grace from Him can share His consolation because the Comforter is with them. Having known his own weakness and received God's comfort, a believer should sympathize with a brother in spiritual distress and help him rather than pass him by. The same comfort is to be carried to those who while suffering wrong have endured temptation to harbor a sense of injustice in the mind, mingled with decided warning and reproof that breaks strongholds of iniquity and turns men to repentance where consolation comes in seeing what sin is. When troubles are borne with calmness, humility and perseverance by letting them drive the soul to God as strength and burden-bearer rather than fleeing to human aid which cannot avail, a right spirit in trouble exerts a saving influence upon others, including husband and children, and gives power for correct religious influence.
Continual mercy, loading people daily with benefits and crowning them with lovingkindness and tender mercies new every morning and fresh every evening, grounds strong and increasing obligation to serve Him. That obligation calls for keeping natural appetites under control and glorifying Him in eating and dressing and working. Every enjoyable mercy and every good and free gift is to be traced to Him as the benevolent, loving, care-taking Giver and inexhaustible Fountain of comfort and grace, and to know this is higher knowledge and true education. The one in whom truth abides delights in His goodness, holds gratitude in the heart, and returns thanksgiving and praise in clean sanctified words, with Jesus very near to those who trace all good things back to Him. In households where His Word is taught line upon line every temporal blessing is received with gratitude and every spiritual blessing becomes doubly precious, and gospel missionary work brings people into connection with God as the God of all comfort, into fellowship with the Son as Redeemer and into communion with the Spirit as Comforter, so that all they have is gladly given to advance His work and multiplied through converted souls.