It is ever the will of our heavenly Father and Lord to comfort His children, the Church (Isaiah 40:1-2; John 14:16). God, in fact, has saddled us with the responsibility of using the hope He has given us in Christ to comfort one another (1Thessalonians 4:16-18). But what is comfort?
As Amy Carmichael says, “comfort is not soft, weakening commiseration; it is true, strengthening love”. In other words, comfort in God’s term is not a pity party whereby somebody is enabled by their friends to dwell long in their sorrow or weak moments. Rather, comfort is to give strength where and as necessary.
It is the impartation of power (whether spiritual or mental or financial or physical) that helps you cope with, and even triumph over ill situations that would otherwise have overwhelmed you. More pertinent to the Christian, comfort is the divinely bestowed joy and peace amidst the hostility of this present world environment, and which confound mortals’ logic.
Myriads of Holy Scriptures intimate on how costly and dangerous the Christian life can, and will often, get in a godless and volatile world such as it is on earth (2Timothy 3:12; Acts 14:22; Philippians 1:29; Deuteronomy 8:1-5; Philippians 3:10; 2Timothy 2:3-4; Isaiah 48:10; 2Timothy 1:8). Hence, the comforting of the saints in the world is precious in the eyes of the Lord.
The Holy Spirit who is the Great Comforter therefore evidently worked in the early church to strengthen the believers with the preaching of the Word accompanied with great signs and wonders, especially considering that those believers faced great persecution and opposition. Those early Christians did not go to bed hugging the teddy bear of theology, or much worse, psychology. No, they had and felt God Himself by the visible working of His power through the Eternal Spirit.
Theology is only head knowledge of God, and that can be shaken away by just the right quantity of gross experiences and pressures of life. But what the early saints had going for them was that they had heard with their ears, and seen with their eyes and touched with their hands the God of the Holy Scriptures (1John 1:1-5). And so, not even an angel could convince them otherwise.
Unfortunately, the churches of today have needed little or no comforting from God and therefore have had to mostly live with the famine of real power of God. Of course, there has been much psychological hocus-pocus to drum up emotional ecstasies among denominational adherents on many occasions. But in the area of the great things that only God can do, the most prominent of which is the new birth in Christ, today churches have experienced nothing but drought (Revelation 3:1,2,14-17).
Yes, the churches of today share bread and butter testimonies of, for instance, securing a good job, buying a fancy car, getting a spouse, and many of such mundane things. But the people of the world get all those too and even more without pledging allegiance to Christ. I say this without any sense of mockery, but all the testimonies coming out of our fancies churches do not move the world one inch.
In fact, those testimonies many times can be easily explained away by basic science and psychology. And so, the world today is not asking the churches as they asked Samson, “what is the secret of your great strength?” But is there any wonder! Disagree if you like, but the world today cannot tell the difference between their people and our church people. The world is not moved by the churches; rather the churches are moved by the world.
The world now sets the pace for the churches. And church people today are pursuing after exactly all what the people of the world are pursuing after: fame, money and sex. What a pitiful existence! But the world has never been impressed by the quantity of gold and silver possessed by the church because as far as the world is concerned, in the area of materialism the world rules and the church can only continue to play catch up.
The only thing that moves the world is the godliness of the saints and the power thereof. But the churches of today fail in this precious arena.
Godliness produces either of two results: persecution or repentance. But the present day churches have not been able to move the world to persecute them or make the world turn from sin to God. As a matter of fact, to the world the churches of today are as good as nonexistent. Like the Laodicean church, the churches of today are neither cold nor hot.
Therefore, the Lord does not deem it necessary to send them comfort. Disagree if you like, but the following are reasons why the churches of today do not need divine comfort:
- The churches today do not need comforting because the world is not yet dead to them (Genesis 24:67; Galatians 6:14; 1John 2:15-17).
- The churches today do not need comforting because they are busy enjoying the pleasures of sin (Luke 17:26-29; Ezekiel 16:49-50; Isaiah 22:12-14; 5:11-12, 22-23; Jeremiah 22:13; 1Timothy 5:6; Ephesians 5:11-16).
- The churches today do not need comforting because they do not hunger for the genuine and undiluted word of God (Genesis 18:5; Revelations 3:14-18; Isaiah 55:1-2; 30:9-10; Amos 8:11-12; Matthew 5:3, 6; Luke 1:53).
- The churches today do not need comforting because they are neither worried nor mourn that the world around them is going to perish without Christ (Isaiah 22:4-5; Luke 13:34; Isaiah 59:16; Matthew 5:4; Luke 6:25).
- The churches today do not need comforting because they hide away from the dangers of shame and persecution contained in the cross of Christ (Psalm 23:4; John 15:20; Matthew 10:22-25; 2Timothy 3:12; Acts 14:22; Psalm 119:71, 75; 2Corinthians 4:17; Romans 8:18; 2Timothy 1:8; Isaiah 48:10; Philippians 1:29; Revelations 2:10).
- The churches today do not need comforting because they are not in love with the Lord Jesus Christ (Songs of Solomon 2:4-5; Matthew 22:36-37; John 21:15; Ephesians 6:24; Matthew 7:20-23; 1Corinthians 16:22; Romans 8:35-39; 2Corintians 5:14-17).
- The churches today do not need comforting because their sins have not been forgiven (Isaiah 12:1; John 16:8; Hebrews 12:5-8; Luke 7:47).
- The churches today do not need comforting because they wrestle not (Isaiah 40:2a; Ephesians 6:12-18; 2Corinthians 10:3-6; 2Timothy 2:3-4; 1Corinthians 9:26-27; Matthew 11:12; Luke 16:16).
- The churches today do not need comforting because they are too at home, too comfortable, in this world and do not rather long for their heavenly home (1Thessalonians 4:16-18; Matthew 6:19-24; Colossians 3:1-4; Hebrews 11:13-16; John 14:1-3; 2Corinthians 5:1-2).
But the Lord of hosts is faithful and gracious and plenteous in mercy. He is willing to send much comfort to His church in these last days if only the people called by the name of Jesus Christ shall awake out of their inertia in the place of prayer, and from their slumber of greed and materialism, and from their carelessness towards a perishing world.
Then shall the King of glory come as the rising of the sun on a very bright day and He shall comfort His church with the word of promise (Psalm 119:49-50; John 14:1-3); and with the word of instruction and guidance (John 16:13-14; Psalm 103:20; 119:11, 25, 28); and with the word of truth (2Samuel 19:4-8; Matthew 18:7-9; 1Peter 5:7-9; Revelations 2:8-10); and with financial, material and physical blessings (Psalm 119:76; Matthew 4:11; 1Kings 19:4-7). Amen.
