Verse 9 "the sentence of death"
There are a number of commentators who feel that Paul is not at all using an analogy here but he is under an actual sentence of death. They believe that somehow, in the Roman court system, Paul had been linked to some of the problems in Ephesus and that he had been convicted under what they see in Roman law as a “known associates” law and had been given a death sentence. If these commentators are correct, Paul walked around day and night knowing if the Romans found him they would execute him. He did not know how to deal with this, and found it had so utterly burdened him to bring him to what we would call clinical depression.
I'm not sure these commentators are correct, as it does go against what I've been taught. But as I considered this, I must say it made the passage come much more alive. Paul isn't just throwing out Christian platitudes, but is showing the Corinthians his true humanity. Today we say Paul was being vulnerable or transparent. This I do hope is true for a Paul who can suffer and find hope in Christ is a Paul I can look up to.
Verses 3 through the end of the book
The word comfort is an interesting one. In the Greek is made up of a combination of two words, PARA and KALEO. The preposition PARA means alongside of, and the verb KALEO means to call. The word PARAKALEO is Greek for “to call one alongside.” Just for kicks, I ran a search on the Greek noun and the Greek verb as translated in the ESV. What I found was that the word is translated with an wide range of meanings, here's my list. This isn’t every occurrence, just every first occurrence.
As a Noun:
Consolation – Lk 2:25
Encouragement – Acts 4:36 (Barnabas, Son of Encouragement)
Comfort – Acts 9:31
Earnestly (Adj) – 2 Cor 8:9
Appeal – 1 Th 2:3
Exhortation – 1 Tim 4:13
As a Verb:
Comfort – Matt 2:18
Appealing – Matt 8:5
Begged – Matt 8:31
Implored – Matt 14:36
Pleaded – Matt 18:32
Entreated – Lk 15:28
Exhort – Acts 2:40
Invited – Acts 8:31
Urge – Acts 9:38
Apologized – Acts 16:39
Asked – Acts 28:26
Encouraged – Eph 6:22
Give Instruction – Tit 1:9
I also read quite a bit of the background on the words and came to the conclusion, for myself, that the commonality in all of them was a commonality of proximity. What I mean by that is all of these things whether encouragement, exhortation, comfort, consoling, asking, urging, begging, whatever were done face to face. There was nothing long-distance here, the closeness of relationship is what matters.
The comfort which Paul speaks out and offers, is the comfort of one who really understands, has been missed through what we are going through, and offers to walk with us for what. This isn't the comfort of a doctor who says, “I can alleviate the suffering, I can give you a pill, I can do an operation.” This is the treasured touch of a friend who says even in the midst of this “I'm here with you.”
