2 Corinthians 1:3 “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;”

2 Corinthians is an amazing book of the Bible in the New Testament.

It’s Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, which was a major coastal city of Greece at the time.

… the church had had a lot of problems, and Paul had written quite sternly to them the first time, because they needed the rebuke, reproof, correction, instruction and exhortation of God’s word to straighten them out… as do we all!

… and they did! They did obey what Paul had written. Therefore they grew as Christians. And so the second epistle takes a different deeper spiritual tone as Paul like a caring father builds them up and nourishes them with the words of truth, telling them all about Christ, the ministry of Christ and his own ministry personally.

And here we read at the start of the book, as Paul writes his greetings and salutation, that two of God’s titles are “the Father of mercies” and “the God of all comfort”… and I’ve found them wonderful true titles of God.

As Paul blesses God for these, so should we bless God. God is the source of all blessings, and he’s bestowed all of them upon us through his Son Jesus Christ.

God is the Father of Jesus Christ. Jesus is his Son. He is God in the flesh. But God can be our father too when we believe in Christ, becoming sons of God through the Son of God.

If you do not have Christ… you are not God’s child in this world… but you can be! Do you want to be a child of God… saved, protected, kept, comforted, preserved, sealed and blessed forever in him?

This is only possible through something that what we all need… which is a thing called “mercy”. And many mercies are required for each of us when we truly look at our own lives.

Mercy is an amazing attribute of God and a heavenly attribute for us to possess because of God in our lives.

We all need mercy… in fact that’s the only way we can ever be saved “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us”.

… salvation hinges entirely on God having immense mercy upon us.

What is mercy? Mercy is God forgiving us when we’ve done the unforgivable. Mercy is us not getting what we rightfully honestly truly deserve in light of our actions.

And Mercy should be an attribute of God’s children too, because it’s an attribute of God, transcending our earthly human existence because it is a heavenly quality. Animals don’t have mercy on other animals. But human beings can have mercy on each other.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” …I don’t know if you’ve ever felt you needed mercy from another person or from God, but I have. There are many things in our life which truly we are just guilty for, and no matter how we try and twist and squirm and justify our way out… we are guilty and could rightfully be held to account and consequences.

At that point we can only appeal for mercy. Mercy happens when the person that’s endured the offense and is owed the debt chooses to forgive rather than carry out the sentence of vengeance and execution.

That’s what God’s done with our sin! … you see, all have sinned and all sin is totally against God. Yes, we might feel we have the “right” to do whatever we want in life… but we actually don’t. We don’t have the right to disobey God! We dont have the right to and yet we all have violated, trespassed and transgressed God’s law and commandments…

… but yet God showed mercy to us in Christ. And for that, he is “the Father of mercies”.

And that also is why he is “the God of all comfort”. You want to find true comfort in this world? Look to Jesus Christ, who God sent to save and free us from our sin debt that we could never repay.

… And then extend that to others! …not at the cost of truth and justice… but as an attribute of God that is bestowed on the repentant.

Because here’s the key 🔑. Repentance is the key to mercy! The Corinthian church received mercy and comfort… because they repented! because repentance is how we receive forgiveness!… so that then Paul could say “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;”

We need to realize that mercy isn’t God saying sin is ok… but mercy is how God saves and heals the repentant heart of the broken sinner and the wounds that sin has so mortally dealt in all our lives.

Truthfully, we all deserve hell… but God made a way for us, not through sacrificing justice and truth, but through satisfying it with sacrificing his Son for us. … that’s quite an act of mercy. Why would we despise and reject that? Are we that hard hearted to God? Choose the mercy and comfort of God, it will transform your life toward God and others… your soul will bless him forever for it.

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