God of All Comfort

The Bible reveals the Almighty God as the "God of all comfort" (2 Cor. 1:3-4).  The comfort God provides is often used as motivation for trusting in Jesus Christ as Saviour.  The modern-day Gospel presentation and emphasis of comfort is quite unlike the means used by Ichabod Spencer detailed in his book A Pastor's Sketches.  There was a man who knew something about fruitful soul-work.  When he found people in despair and sorrow, he was very careful NOT to administer the comforts of scripture until all sin had been confessed and forsaken.  Pastor Spencer was sometimes foiled in his attempts to save souls because well-meaning Christians had shared promises of comfort to the unrepentant and unregenerate.  Not wanting to see people sorrowing under conviction, self-justification and promises out of context took away all sorrow.  The conviction of the Holy Spirit was muted by the persuasions of men with soothing words - words spiked with sweet lies of Satan.

When we see someone in deep sorrow or distress, our natural tendency is to rush to their aid with encouragement and comfort.  There is nothing wrong with showing compassion, mercy, and love to those who are hurting.  We can do great damage, however, if we offer the comfort of God to those who have stubbornly refused to meet God's conditions.  God's will is not to comfort a man in his sin, but make him so miserable and desperate that he repents, throwing himself solely upon the grace and mercy of God.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:9-10, "Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. ¹⁰ For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death."  We don't see many tears from the penitent these days because we are quick to bring comfort before godly sorrow produces repentance.  People embrace a mirage of comfort by trusting in the opinions of men rather than the Word of God.

In the preface of the Self-Confrontation manual produced by the Biblical Counseling Foundation, the proper biblical order is explained:  "Confronting yourself in a biblical manner will often be difficult and will sometimes be a grievous experience. However the Holy Spirit, the Helper, will assist you to face your own sins, failures, and shortcomings. Then He will comfort you, teach you, and guide you into all truth so that your sorrow may be turned into everlasting joy."  The modern approach to dealing with sorrow is to ignore biblical self-confrontation and rush to comfort.  This may be a contributing factor to why so many professing Christians become disillusioned, never able to lay hold of the comfort of God in reality.  Specific sins have not been admitted, repented of, or forsaken.  As the infamous daughters of the leech cry "Give, give!" in Proverbs 30:15, so the modern church cries "Comfort, comfort!"  But God will never comfort and soothe men in their sin.  It is not love to comfort a soul heading to ultimate destruction.

I praise God for my Saviour Jesus Christ, the God of all comfort.  Having received the Comforter by grace, I want everyone to taste and see that the LORD is good!  But I must be wise in not giving false assurances of comfort in violation of scripture.  Those who do so have blood on their hands.  This knowledge brings godly sorrow which produces repentance leading to salvation!  God's capacity to comfort is infinite!  2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."