TEXT: 2COR. 1: 3-4
''Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; /Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God''
This present life is innately or seminaly full of changes: gains and loses; births and deaths; joyful now, sad the next; nothing is constant here. Man, being a creature of feeling and sight, is largely controlled by what he can see and feel; hence, man is at the beck and call of the mutable nature of this present life, he goes down, when things are down; and up, when the storm ceases. Therefore, man stands in need of a one who can comfort him in time of trouble and warn him in the moment of his excitement less he surfeit himself unto death. All need comfort, but not all can comfort: only the comforted can comfort--he whom God has comforted! It implies then, that before a man learns the art of consoling or comforting others, he must have encountered some situations that warranted him being comforted by another. He who does not know the pain of lose, cannot comfort any one who faces a loss. God, in order to make the saints tender-hearted toward hurting humanity, allows them to experience some hurts as well. Fellow-feeling is vital in our dealing with men; entering their feeling per time, is an art that can only be learnt in the school of adversity. If we intend to be priests to humanity, God must take us into the lots of men and have us feel what they feel: (Heb. 5:1-7; 2:18). To be continued