NOTES for Co2 1:3-4

Paul begins his second letter to the Corinthian church by mentioning the persecutions that fell upon him and his companions in Asia Minor (the Roman province of Asia, v. 8). And he begins with a discussion of what confession and martyrdom are for a Christian (vv. 3-5). To a person who does not know the Kingdom, they often look like the persecutions and harassment that preachers of new ideas or fighters for justice have often suffered in the past and still suffer today. In a certain sense such a view can be considered correct: all the apostles, including Paul, preached Christ and bore witness to the Kingdom, and here there was room both for new ideas and for demanding reminders about the Torah and about righteousness, without which one cannot enter the Kingdom.

But the apostles' witness was still not the presentation of new ideas or a call for justice as old as the world. The Kingdom brought into the world by the Savior is not an idea and not a call to a new life; it is life itself, which for the witness is as real and unquestionable as the life of our world, not yet transformed, is unquestionable for a person who does not know the Kingdom. And the very readiness to die becomes not simply proof of the truth of the witness's words, which he values above his own life, but witness as such, a visible example that the life of the Kingdom is for the speaker precisely a genuine and unquestionable reality, one that proves more real for him even than death, which places the final period in the fate of everyone whose life passes within the boundaries of our world alone, still not transformed. In a world stricken by sin, all are sentenced to death, and the only question is whether a person's life is limited to the bounds of this world, or whether he can still hope in the One who, having Himself overcome the sin of the world, can deliver His followers as well from the power of death (vv. 9-10).

Suffering and death in themselves, of course, prove nothing. Proof can come only from the evident fact that in the witness's life there is something not subject either to suffering or to death, a fact to which the witness is able to bear witness to those around him precisely during sufferings or at the moment of his own death. And such witness is possible only if the witness lives the life of the Kingdom, sensing it within himself even when a person who does not know the Kingdom has nothing left to count on. It is no surprise that those who are not directly involved in such sufferings can also participate in them: the matter concerns the Kingdom, which knows no boundaries (vv. 6-7). Of course, neither suffering nor death in themselves have any meaning or can have any, just as no evil can have meaning. But there is meaning in victory over death, and a Christian can bear witness to it. Then his witness becomes not merely witness to his own fearlessness in the face of death, but witness to the Kingdom.

Paul calls the Lord “the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort,” beginning his letter to the Christians of Corinth with precisely this. Apparently, the apostle considered it extremely important to begin his letter with this particular description of God. These few verses reveal the whole essence of how people in this world are connected through mutual consolation.

Christ comforts us in our sorrows so that we may do the same for those around us who need it. Paul calls us not to shut ourselves up in our sufferings, but to seek comfort from God, who alone can deliver us from them, and at the same time to seek those to whom we ourselves can bring His love. By giving what we have freely received from the Lord, we lose nothing but gain a great deal, becoming part of the circulation of His mercy toward people. Is this not what the example of all Christian saints bears witness to?