Godly character is crucial for those who lead God’s people because our lives are an “example” or “model” to those we lead. They become like us!
But how is godly character developed?
Character develops out of our response to trouble and tribulation. The way we respond and the decisions we make while under stress shapes the kind of people we become.
Accepting responsibility, making decisions that please God, speaking the truth in love and trusting God in impossible situations, over time, leads to growth in godly character. This cannot occur without the training of our conscious by the Word of God to discern right and wrong.
As part of his training program, God allows trouble and difficulty to flow into our lives. These times of “suffering” are for our good. In 2 Corinthians 1:3-11, Scripture gives us several truths that help us through these difficult times:
When we suffer, God comforts us
The word “comfort” occurs 10 times in vv. 3-7. The Greek word means “standing beside a person to encourage him when he is undergoing severe testing.” Here it is in the present tense – God comforts us constantly and unfailingly – in our afflictions. Comfort in the New Testament is more than just sympathy. It is the comfort which brings courage and enables a peson to cope with life’s problems.
Our experience of God’s comfort equips us to give comfort to others
We have to pass through suffering to be equipped to comfort others.
The proper response to suffering is patient endurance
Greek word is here is hupomone. The word means, not bleak, grim acceptance, but triumph in times of trouble. We are not simply to accept suffering but to triumph over it. It literally means to “remain under the pressure.” If we “get out from under it the trouble” then we will face this lesson all over again in God’s curriculum.
Suffering teaches us to rely on God
Something happened to Paul in Ephesus which was almost beyond bearing. Our human tendency is to advertise the fact that we are suffering. Paul didn’t do this. In this section he doesn’t even tell us what the suffering was! Instead the focus of the text is on what resulted from Paul’s troubles – it taught him, Paul says, to rely on God.
Suffering causes us to depend on the prayers of others
The other extreme is to avoid even mentioning our troubles. This is not the right approach either. Paul shared his problems so that people would pray. It often is our pride that keeps us from doing this. The end result, says Paul, is that God is robbed of the glory and thanksgiving that he would otherwise receive had people prayed for us in our need and seen God answer those prayers.
