Verse 4
Paul’s idea here seems to be as follows. No matter what variety of affliction we may be experiencing, and no matter what its intensity, God will provide strength and encouragement (comfort) that is adequate for our need (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9). He will bestow more comfort than we have affliction.
"The present tense of the verb shows that this God of ours comforts us constantly and unfailingly, not spasmodically and intermittently; and He does so in all our affliction, not just in certain kinds of affliction." [Note: Hughes, p. 12.]
Nevertheless God does not intend this encouragement and strength to end with our personal benefit. Its further purpose is to enable us to become God’s agents in extending God’s comfort to others in their afflictions. As God comforts us in all our afflictions, we are to comfort others in any and every one of theirs.
"There is no exception on God’s side (Ps. xciv. 19), and there must be none on ours." [Note: Plummer, p. 10.]
"That is the very genius of Christianity. Everything received is received on trust. Everything that you and I have from God we have on behalf of others-the comfort of God, the strengthening of God, the upholding of God, the revelation that God is able to make alive from the dead, and then presently salvation from that death which he had feared, on which he had looked with so much trembling." [Note: G. Campbell Morgan, The Corinthian Letters of Paul, p. 228.]
"A life of ease is commonly stagnant. It is only those who suffer much and who experience much of the comfort of the Holy Ghost, who live much. Their life is rich in experience and in resources." [Note: Hodge, p. 5.]
Similar experiences enable us to sympathize with others and thus be effective encouragers and comforters. Yet we would be exaggerating to say that only those who have suffered greatly know how to comfort the afflicted.
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