And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 1:6 Go To 2 Corinthians 1
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. Knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort.
That for their sakes the Apostles were afflicted, he showed when he said, whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation: he wishes also to show that for their sakes also they were comforted. He said this indeed even a little above, although somewhat generally , thus; Blessed be God, Who comforts us in all our afflictions, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any affliction. He repeats it here too in other words more clearly and more home to their needs. For whether we be comforted, says he, it is for your comfort. What he means is this; our comfort becomes your refreshment, even though we should not comfort you by word. If we be but a little refreshed, this avails for encouragement to you; and if we be ourselves comforted, this becomes your comfort. For as you consider our sufferings your own, so do ye also make our comfort your own. For surely it cannot be that, when you share in worse fortune with us, you will not share in the better. If then ye share in everything, as in tribulation so in comfort, you will in no wise blame us for this delay and slowness in coming, because that both for your sakes we are in tribulation and for your sakes in comfort. For lest any should think this a hard saying, for your sakes we thus suffer, he adds, for your sakes also we are comforted, and not we alone are in peril; for you also, says he, are partakers of the same sufferings. Thus then, by admitting them to be partakers in the perils and ascribing to them the cause of their own comfort, he softens what he says. If then we be beset by craft , be of good cheer; we endure this that your faith may grow in strength. And if we be comforted, glory in this also; for we enjoy this too for your sakes, that thereby ye may receive some encouragement by sharing in our joy. And that the comfort he here speaks of is that which they enjoyed not only from being comforted by themselves, (the Apostles) but also from knowing them (the Apostles) to be at rest, hear him declaring in what follows next, Knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort. For as when we suffer persecution, you are in distress as though yourselves so suffering; so are we sure that when we are comforted, you think the enjoyment also your own. What more humble-minded than this spirit? He who so greatly surpasses in perils, calls them partakers, who endured no part of them whatever ; while of the comfort he ascribes the whole cause to them, not to his own labors.
3. Next, having spoken before only generally of troubles, he now makes mention of the place too where they (Ben. he) endured them.
