Verse by Verse

Jim Franks: 00:01

Hello, I'm Jim Frakes, and this is verse by verse, a short podcast that will explore the insights and lessons from the word of God. Have you ever felt discouraged and as though God really didn't care about what was happening in your life? Well, there are times when we all feel like that, and it causes us to wonder if there's any hope for us. After all, we all sin and sadly with some regularity. Today we will look at a passage of Scripture that gives us understanding about God and true hope for the future.

Jim Franks: 00:36

If you think about it, there are 3 ways that we learn about God. Through prayer, we see how God hears us and answers our requests. Through living as God directs us, we see how he guides us through his Holy Spirit. And through reading the scriptures, we get insight into the characteristics of the God we serve. Let's take a look at our scripture for today.

Jim Franks: 00:56

I will be reading 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3. But to get the context, let's begin in verse 1. Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaea. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.

Jim Franks: 01:28

Now let's read verse 4, which takes us to the end of this sentence. Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. This is an amazing section of Scripture. It describes God as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. In our modern world, there are 2 things that seem to be entirely missing, mercy and comfort.

Jim Franks: 01:55

We live in a world that desires mercy, but rarely is anyone willing to extend mercy to another human being. And when it comes to comfort, forget it. We are truly living in a day when it seems that everyone is a lover of himself, as Paul later wrote in 2nd Timothy. Rarely do we see genuine concern or willingness to help our fellow man. So what is Paul saying in these verses?

Jim Franks: 02:17

What does it mean when you say that God is the father of mercies? By father, we mean the origin of something. In a family, a father begets life in the womb of the mother. He is the father. That is where that life originated.

Jim Franks: 02:31

So we see that God is the father of mercies, the origin of mercy. There are many scriptures that tell us about God's extraordinary mercy for human beings. We can begin with the fact that he sent his son to die for our sins. What an extraordinary act of mercy. Even though human beings rejected Jesus Christ, that did not thwart or minimize his sacrifice.

Jim Franks: 02:54

And I'm not sure we can even comprehend the depth of that sacrifice. Jesus Christ was the only being whose life, as God in the flesh, could be worthy of extending mercy and forgiveness to every human being. No other life has the value of Jesus life. The word mercy is found in 54 verses in the New Testament, and in virtually every case it is referring to some aspect of God's mercy. One verse really jumped out at me while I was studying this subject of mercy.

Jim Franks: 03:26

It is found in 1st Peter 1 verse 3. Here Peter writes in the introduction to his epistle, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. One aspect of mercy is the concept of forgiveness. Once we start down the Christian path we realize how often we fall short in our obedience. While we should never take sin lightly, we are assured that whatever sin we have committed, with the exception of the unpardonable sin, which is in reality a sin for which there is no remorse or repentance, God will forgive us.

Jim Franks: 04:08

We're told that he will remove the sin from our lives once we have repented as far as east is from west. I really like what the Albert Burns commentary has to say about this phrase, father of mercies. This is a Hebrew mode of expression, where a noun performs the place of an adjective, and the phrase is synonymous nearly with merciful father. The Hebrews use the word father often to denote the author or source of anything. And the idea in phraseology like this is that mercy proceeds from God, that he is the source of it, and that it is his nature to impart mercy and compassion as if he originated it, or was the source and fountain of it.

Jim Franks: 04:51

It is one of his special attributes that he thus produces consolation and mercy, and that's found in the Albert Barnes commentary. Life is difficult at best, but for those who strive to live according to God's way of life, there's an added level of pressure. What wonderful news it is to know that God the father is willing to extend mercy, undeserved forgiveness for our sins to each and every one of us.

Kevin Scarbrough: 05:18

Verse by Verse is a companion podcast to the daily bible verse blog which you can find on the Life, Hope and Truth Learning Center. Check out the show notes for more.