Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Eternal Comfort

2 Thes. 2:16-17
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
  • What is implied about a person if they need comfort?
  • Where does our eternal comfort come from?
  • What is comfort related to in this passage?
  • What is the difference between the "eternal comfort" and the comfort Paul was asking for the readers?
  • Why would we need comfort to do good works and speak good words?
  • Why would we need to be established to do good works and speak good words?
Harold's Musings:
Sometimes the best comfort is simply hope. Most of us have endured some form of physical pain knowing or at least hoping that it would end sometime. When we face the worst the world has to offer, we can endure if we remember that eternal hope laid out in front of us. Hope is so "future" though. We need to be established here to do the job. The NIV and NASB uses strenghtened which is part of it. The underlying Greek word is to be fixed in direction, to be firmly set, to be strengthened in resolve, or to be fortified. It is the word used when Jesus fixed His eyes on Jerusalem knowing what was waiting for Him there. It is making a stand for Christ in spite of the consequences here because we have hope of the eternal comfort that is in store. Let's stand up out there today.

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