Life to the Fullest

II Corinthians 1:3–10

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On Him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.”

The LORD said, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10).” What do we mean when we say live life to the fullest? What does God think about how we should think of our lives? St. Paul wrote about his experiences to the Corinthian church and how he and his companions suffered persecution for their faith —as they lived and expressed it. The Gospel is not easy work, a rich life with God entails counting the costs, and Jesus said, whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it? Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him him, saying, ‘This man could not finish’ what he started to build (Luke 14:27–30). Christian philosopher William Lane Craig reminds us in the face of suffering and evil that we experience, that the chief purpose of life is not happiness, but the knowledge of God—We are not God’s pets, and our end is not happiness in this world, but the knowledge of God, which will ultimately bring true and everlasting human fulfillment. Innocent human suffering provides an occasion for deeper dependency and trust in God. Further to this, the knowledge of God is an incommensurable good — To know God, the source of infinite goodness and love, is an incomparable good, the fulfillment of human existence. The sufferings of this life cannot even be compared to it. Thus, the person who knows God, no matter what he suffers, no matter how awful his pain, can still say, “God is good to me,” simply by virtue of the fact that he knows God, an incomparable good. Then, St. Paul pulls together his idea of his suffering and made it subject to The Risen LORD, in a way which I think is masterful. Paul takes his despair for life, a death sentence, the ultimate evil, the Enemy himself and juxtaposes it with the resurrection. Someone once said from along the lines of Chuck Taylor jokes, Jesus Christ didn’t die, Death got ‘Jesused’! Indeed why fear torture, shame, suffering, and death when the LORD Himself got through it all on the cross for pur comfort, salvation, and restoration of our relationship with God. These happens “that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead (v. 9)!” And indeed He has delivered them, He will deliver them again (v. 10), and He will deliver us! He just won’t stop now because He loves us and He is good. We can trust God, we can safely assume in spite of our agony that He has morally sufficient reasons unbeknownst to us due to our limited perspective — this is humble faith. Job said, with the knowledge of God allowed his affliction, “as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils (Job 27:3).” I trust in the LORD, He is my comforter and friend (John 14;16,26), He is purifying me for His glory, nothing compares to knowing Him, loving Him, and enjoying His presence and when I am tired, sad, stressed and/or frustrated, even at times in the past that I have been, in my eyes, in despair for life, I have Jesus Christ and He invites me, He invites us: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matt 11:28).”