2 Corinthians 1:6-11 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation… I. GOD SUFFERS HIS CHILDREN TO FALL INTO GREAT EXTREMITIES. 1. To try what mettle they are made of. Light afflictions will not try them thoroughly, great ones will. What we are in great afflictions, we are indeed. 2. To try the sincerity of our estate, to make us known to the world and known to ourselves. A man knows not what a deal of looseness he hath in his heart, and what a deal of falseness, till we come to extremity. 3. To set an edge upon our desires and our prayers (Psalm 130:1). 4. To exercise our faith and patience. 5. To perfect the work of mortification. 6. To prepare us for greater blessings. Humility doth empty the soul, and crosses do breed humility. The emptiness of the soul fits it for receipt. Why doth the husbandman rend his ground with the plough? Is it because he hath an ill mind to the ground? No. He means to sow good seed there, and he will not plough a whir longer than may serve to prepare the ground (Isaiah 28:24). So likewise the goldsmith, the best metal that he hath, he tempers it, he labours to consume the dross of it, and the longer it is in the fire the more pure it comes forth. 7. That we might set a price upon the comforts when they come. 8. Learn, then — (1) Not to pass a harsh, rigid censure upon ourselves or others for any great affliction or abasement in this world. (2) Not to build overmuch confidence on earthly things. II. AS GOD'S CHILDREN ARE BROUGHT TO THIS ESTATE, SO THEY ARE SENSIBLE OF IT. They are flesh and not steel (Job 6:12). They are men and not stones. They are Christians and not Stoics. III. WE MAY TRIUMPH OVER DEATH BY FAITH AND GRACE. That we may not fear death overmuch, let us look upon it in the glass of the gospel as it is now in Christ, and meditate on the two terms, from whence and whither. What a blessed change it is if we be in Christ! (R. Sibbes, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. |
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