2 Corinthians 1:4 - Exposition

Who comforteth us. The "us" implies here, not only St. Paul and Timothy, but also the Corinthians, who are one with them in a bond of Christian unity which was hitherto undreamed of, and was a new phenomenon in the world. St. Paul always uses the first person in passages where he is speaking directly of individual feelings and experiences. In other passages he likes to lose himself, as it were, in the Christian community. The delicate play of emotion is often shown by the rapid interchanges of singular and plural (see 2 Corinthians 1:13 , 2 Corinthians 1:15 , 2 Corinthians 1:17 ; 2 Corinthians 2:1 , 2 Corinthians 2:11 , 2 Corinthians 2:14 , etc.). The present, "comforteth," expresses a continuous experience, with which the Christians of the first age were most happily familiar ( John 14:16-18 ; 2 Thessalonians 2:16 , 2 Thessalonians 2:17 ). In all our affliction. The collective experience of affliction is sustained by the collective experience of comfort. That we may be able to comfort. Thus St. Paul takes "a teleological view of sorrow." It is partly designed as a school of sympathy. It is a part of the training of an apostle, just as suffering is essential to one who is to be a sympathetic high priest ( Hebrews 5:1 , Hebrews 5:2 ). In any trouble. The original more forcibly repeats the words, "in all affliction." Wherewith we ourselves are comforted. By means of the comfort which God gives us, we can, by the aid of blessed experience, communicate comfort to others.