THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Listen to how, in keeping with the subject he has chosen, he begins the epistle: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor 1:3).
What agreement, you ask, is there here with the chosen subject? The closest possible. Look.
The Corinthians were greatly grieved and troubled because the Apostle did not come to them, though he had promised to come. Instead he spent all that time in Macedonia, as though preferring others to them.
Therefore, having this distress in view, he tells them the reason why he did not come. Yet he does not reveal it immediately.
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He does not say, “I remember that I promised to come, but the afflictions that happened to me detained me. Therefore forgive me, and do not accuse me of any contempt or negligence toward you.”
Instead, he leads to this in another way, much more majestic and more persuasive. He first tries to comfort them, so that they will no longer even ask the reason why he did not come.
He does this exactly as someone might do who promised to come to his friend, and after overcoming very many dangers finally came. He might say, “Glory to You, O God, that You have shown me my beloved friend. Blessed are You, O Lord, from what evils You have delivered me!”
Such doxology from the one who has arrived is at the same time a defense before the one intending to accuse him. It does not allow the latter to complain about the delay.
He is already ashamed to summon to judgment one who gives thanks to God for deliverance from so many evils, and to demand an account of his slowness.
Therefore the Apostle also, beginning his discourse with the words “Blessed be the God of mercies,” thereby points to his rescue and deliverance from great dangers.
David likewise does not everywhere call God by the same name, nor does he derive His names from the same properties. When he speaks of war and victory, he says, “I will love You, O Lord, my strength! The Lord is my firm support” (Ps 17:2-3).
When he remembers deliverance from sorrow and from the darkness that possessed his soul, he says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Ps 26:1).
Sometimes he takes His names from His love for mankind, sometimes from His righteousness, and sometimes from His impartial judgment, according to the circumstances in which he found himself.
So also Paul here, at the beginning of the epistle, names God from the side of His love for mankind, saying, “the God of mercies.” This means the One who showed such great mercies that He brought us out from the very gates of death.
Truly, to show mercy in this way above all others is proper and natural to God. Therefore he calls Him the God of mercies.
But notice here also Paul’s humility. Though he endures dangers for the sake of preaching, he does not say that he is delivered from them by God because of his worthiness, but because of God’s mercies.
He says this even more clearly below. Now, continuing his discourse, he says, “who comforts us in all our affliction.”
He did not say, “who does not allow us to fall into afflictions,” but “who comforts us in affliction.” This both shows the power of God and strengthens the patience of those who suffer affliction.
“Affliction,” he says elsewhere, “produces patience” (Rom 5:3). The prophet also expressed this in the words, “In distress You made room for me” (Ps 4:2).
He did not say, “You did not allow me to fall into affliction,” or, “You immediately scattered the affliction.” He said, “During the affliction You enlarged me,” that is, You gave great refreshment and rest.
The same happened with the three youths. He did not forbid them to be thrown into the furnace. Once they were thrown in, He did not extinguish the flame. But while the furnace burned, He gave them refreshment.
This is how God is always accustomed to act. Hinting at this, Paul says, “who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Cor 1:4).
By this he also shows something else. What is it? That God does this not once or twice, but always.
It is not that He comforts today and abandons another time. Always and in every season of affliction He gives comfort.
Therefore the Apostle said “who comforts,” not “who comforted.” He also said “in all affliction,” not in this one or that one, but “in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in every affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
Do you see how he prepares his defense by reminding the hearer of his great affliction? At the same time he humbles himself, when he says that this mercy was shown not because of his worthiness, but for the sake of those who were to receive edification from him.
For this reason, he says, God comforted us, so that we might comfort one another.
In these same words he also gives a sense of the Apostles’ dignity. He shows that, after receiving comfort and rest, he does not give himself to carelessness, as we do. Instead, he proceeds to awaken, strengthen, and restore others.
Some give the Apostle’s words this meaning also: that our comfort is at the same time comfort for others. But it seems to me that here, by way of introduction, he also directs his speech against the false apostles.
They boast vainly, sit at home, and give themselves to comfort. Yet he does not allude to this directly, but as though in passing. His chief aim was to justify himself for his delay.
“If,” he says, “we ourselves are comforted in order to comfort others, do not reproach us for not having come to you. All this time we have spent averting plots, attacks, and various evils raised against us.”