THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
<...> listen 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" (v. 3).
But what, you ask, is the connection here with the chosen subject? It is very close. Look carefully. The Corinthians were deeply grieved and troubled because the Apostle had not come to them, although he had promised to come. Instead, he had spent all this time in Macedonia, as though preferring others to them.
Having this anxiety in view, he tells them the reason why he did not come. Yet he does not reveal it at once. He does not say, "I remember that I promised to come, but the afflictions that befell me detained me. Forgive me, and do not accuse me of contempt or negligence toward you."
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Rather, he leads them to this by another path, one far more majestic and persuasive. He first tries to comfort them, so that they will no longer even ask the reason why he did not come.
He acts just as someone would who had promised to visit a friend and, after overcoming very many calamities, finally arrived and said: "Glory to Thee, O God, that Thou hast shown me my beloved friend! Blessed art Thou, O Lord, from what evils Thou hast delivered me!"
Such doxology from the one who has arrived is also a defense before the one intending to accuse him. It does not permit the latter to complain about the other's delay. He is ashamed to summon to judgment one who gives thanks to God for deliverance from so many evils, or to demand an account of his slowness.
Therefore the Apostle, beginning with the words "Blessed be the God of mercies," indicates by this his rescue and deliverance from great dangers.
In the same way David does not everywhere call God by the same name, nor does he derive His names from the same attributes. When he speaks of war and victory, he says: "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength! The Lord is my rock" (Ps 17:2, 3).
But when he recalls his deliverance from affliction and from the darkness that had seized his soul, he says: "The Lord is my light and my salvation" (Ps 26:1). At times he takes His names from His love for mankind, at times from His righteousness, and at times from His impartial judgment, according to the circumstances in which he finds himself.
So here also, at the beginning of the Epistle, Paul names God from the side of His love for mankind, saying, "the God of mercies." That is, He has shown such great mercies that He has brought us out from the very gates of death.
Truly, to have mercy in such a way above all belongs properly and naturally to God. Therefore he calls Him the God of mercies.
But notice here also Paul's humility. Though he suffers evils for the sake of the preaching, he does not say that God rescues him from them because of his worthiness, but because of God's mercies. He states this still more clearly below.
Now, continuing his discourse, he says: "Who comforts us in all our affliction." He did not say, "Who does not permit us to fall into afflictions," but, "Who comforts us in affliction." This both shows the power of God and strengthens the endurance of those afflicted.
"Affliction," he says elsewhere, "produces patience" (Rom 5:3). The prophet expressed this in the words: "In distress Thou hast enlarged me" (Ps 4:2). He did not say, "Thou didst not permit me to fall into affliction," or, "Thou didst at once scatter the affliction."
Rather, he says, "During the affliction Thou didst enlarge me." That means, Thou gavest me great refreshment and repose.
The same happened with the three youths. He did not prevent them from being cast into the furnace. When they had been cast in, He did not extinguish the flame. But while the furnace burned, He gave them refreshment.
So God is always accustomed to act. Hinting at this, Paul says, "Who comforts us in all our affliction" (v. 4).
But by this he also shows something further. What is it? That God acts this way not once or twice, but always. He does not comfort now and abandon at another time. Rather, always and in every season of affliction He gives comfort.
For this reason the Apostle said, "Who comforts," not, "Who comforted." And he said, "in all affliction," not in this or that affliction, but "in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in every affliction with the comfort with which God Himself comforts us."
Do you see how he prepares his defense by reminding the hearer of great affliction? At the same time he humbles himself, saying that this mercy itself was shown not because of his worthiness, but for those who were to receive edification from him.
God comforted us, he says, so that we might comfort one another. Yet in these same words he also lets the dignity of the Apostles be felt. He shows that, after receiving comfort and repose, he does not give himself over to carelessness, as we do. Rather, he begins to awaken, strengthen, and restore others.
Some give the Apostle's words this further meaning: that our comfort is also comfort for others. But it seems to me that, by way of introduction, he is also directing his discourse against the false apostles, who boast vainly, sit at home, and give themselves to luxury.
He hints at this, however, not directly, but as if in passing. His chief purpose was to justify himself concerning his delay.
"If," he says, "we ourselves are comforted in order that we may comfort others, then do not reproach us because we did not come to you. All this time we spent in warding off plots, attacks, and various evils raised against us."