Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
This world offers us a lot of things that we truly need. We need love. We need hope. We need comfort. The list of our needs doesn’t end here, but these needs are mentioned by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17. And the world promises to meet these needs, like all others that we have. The only problem with this world is that it cannot deliver on the things that we need. If not immediately, the world will eventually fail us. The world, try as it may, can only hand us an empty counterfeit.
How many of us need love? Paul says that God loved us and that our God gave us something the world cannot: eternal comfort. There are things in this world that may bring some level of comfort (like the comforter on my bed), but it is shallow and hollow compared to that eternal comfort that God offers.
I have had some rough days. On those days, I turn to God, and I turn to things that bring me some comfort: my family, a warm cup of tea, a walk around the neighborhood, etc. These things are gifts from God that bring me some temporary comfort in a present difficulty; I thank Him for them. The comfort of God, however, is an unending and inexhaustible comfort that sustains us until the end of time (and beyond).* It’s not just for the moment.
Think about that. Comfort that doesn’t end. I have had pain that seemed like it wouldn’t end. I’ve had difficulty and hardship that had no end in sight. The comfort of God is enough for that and more because it has no end. Pain has an end for those who believe, and that is our hope.* Even though pain ends, though, His comfort doesn’t.
Think about that some more. Pain ends, but His comfort doesn’t. Why would His comfort continue when the cause of our need for comfort (pain, sin, etc) disappears? Wow does God love us!
Furthermore, the eternal comfort of God isn’t skin deep. He comforts our hearts and establishes our hearts in word and deed.* What does this mean? As we walk faithfully, with hearts pointed toward Him, doing what He asks us to do and saying those things He asks us to say, He will reach to the depths of our hearts even when our circumstances are anything but comfortable and establish us in Him.* How much comfort do we find in that feeling of steadiness and anchoring that only He can provide? How amazing is it to be anchored even while in a storm?
The world cannot help us in this way. The world cannot comfort us in our hearts (inmost being) when life is broken and hurting. When we turn to the world for comfort, we only find more emptiness and brokenness. Any comfort we experience from this world isn’t deep enough, and it doesn’t last long enough.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to allow Him to comfort you… eternally. Perhaps today He wants you to receive the hope that He has for you: the end of pain and sorrow by being with Him in eternity. Maybe today God wants you to know that He loves you.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
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*Holmes, M. (1998). 1 and 2 Thessalonians (pp. 254–255). Zondervan Publishing House.
Shogren, G. S. (2012). 1 & 2 Thessalonians (pp. 306–307). Zondervan.
Green, G. L. (2002). The letters to the Thessalonians (pp. 330–333). W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos.
Kim, S., & Bruce, F. F. (2023). 1 & 2 Thessalonians (D. B. Capes, Ed.; Second Edition, Vol. 45, pp. 632–637). Zondervan Academic.
Morris, L. (1984). 1 and 2 Thessalonians: An introduction and commentary (Vol. 13, pp. 136–137). InterVarsity Press.
Beale, G. K. (2003). 1–2 Thessalonians (pp. 231–234). InterVarsity Press.
Weima, J. A. D. (2014). Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: 1–2 Thessalonians (R. W. Yarbrough & R. H. Stein, Eds.; pp. 559–564). Baker Academic.