‘But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which he works in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer, and our hope for you is steadfast (firm, gilt-edged), knowing that, as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort.'
It was one of the accusations of Paul's opponents that he was a weak and suffering figure. To them this did not accord with the idea that he was God's chosen representative. Rather they considered that as such a representative of God he should be reigning and triumphant (compare 1 Corinthians 4:8). So, they argued, he was clearly not an Apostle. But Paul here draws attention to the fact that as Christ has suffered so will His true servants suffer, for it is through such suffering that God's purposes will come to fulfilment. God's strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Therefore, rather than it showing him as lacking in God's eyes, it reveals him as a true Apostle of God.
For those who serve God in ministry will go through differing experiences. Sometimes affliction will abound. This is a necessary part of them being able to participate in the encouragement and salvation of His people. And sometimes comfort will abound. God gives them both experiences so that they might be better fitted to bring help and blessing and comfort and salvation to others. But in both cases, whether of suffering or of comfort, it will be so that through their ministry God will work, through the patient endurance by His people of similar sufferings, towards their final comfort and salvation.
So he and his fellow-workers can through their sufferings and through God's working, bring comfort, encouragement and saving deliverance to God's people, as God's people too face the similar sufferings and afflictions which are inherent in serving Christ. For all who are Christ's must suffer in one way or another (2 Timothy 3:12; 1 Peter 4:12-14), and Paul is sure that in doing so they will also experience God's comfort and strength, and salvation, both during it and as its final consequence.
‘As you are partakers of the sufferings.' The Corinthian church was no exception. They too would suffer trauma and afflictions. They should therefore recognise that they are one with the suffering church, and that such sufferings are a sign of the carrying forward of God's final purposes, and of their partaking in Christ' saving work.
The first century church was necessarily a suffering church, and the next three hundred years would at times compound those sufferings, but through it God would establish them and keep them pure. In the words of Tertullian, the blood of the martyrs would be the seed of the church. And through it all God would be their strength and comfort. And through the ages His people have suffered in many ways, sometimes external, sometimes internal, as they have taken forward God's purposes, and they too have experienced His ‘comfort'.
‘It is for your comfort and salvation.' This latter does not infer, of course, that the sufferings of God's ministers are in any way atoning. For full salvation consists of more than just atonement. Atonement is the foundation and the necessary beginning of salvation. And that was what Christ accomplished, sufficiently and totally (Hebrews 10:14). Without it there could be no salvation, and it must necessarily continue to be applied to the end (1 John 1:7), but ‘salvation' is also that whole process which is carried on from when we first believe in Christ through to our finally being presented before Him holy and without blemish, and those who minister to us are part of that process. And in order that this process may succeed, His servants must endure the sufferings which are a necessary part of that process, as must we.
For God's saving work involves them in participating in Christ's sufferings. As Paul says boldly elsewhere, they ‘fill up that which is behind in the sufferings of Christ' (Colossians 1:24). Christ's sufferings obtained full atonement and satisfaction for the sins of the world. They were completely sufficient for that. Nothing else is required. The sufferings of His people as they serve Him are a part of the work of ensuring that the efficacy of those sufferings are applied to all Whom He has chosen, with the result that God works within them to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). Those who are engaged in battle must expect their battle wounds.
‘Our hope for you is steadfast (firm, gilt-edged).' In spite of his afflictions Paul has no doubts. He is fully confident and certain. God has issued a guilt-edged promise, and that is the basis of his hope. So Paul knows that just as he suffers they will suffer, but he knows too that it will be for their final comfort and salvation.
We today do not fully understand these words, for we see ministers of God living in luxury, and we too endure so little. Perhaps we should stop and consider that it may be that which explains why we are so ineffective. Not that we should seek suffering. We should never do that. Jesus warned us that we must pray, ‘deliver us from testing and trial'. To do anything else is to be presumptuous. (Those who deliberately sought martyrdom were often those who failed in the end). But our ‘suffering' can constitute that which we willingly sacrifice for the cause of Christ, and the price we pay in labouring faithfully in His service, and the attacks that we will inevitably face from the Enemy and from sinners if we are live faithfully and speak faithfully. And if we were willing to face up to more of the cost perhaps there might be more of the benefit.
For then we would also find that we have at times to face different afflictions in different ways, for we can be sure that if we serve Christ Satan will not leave us alone for long, and while sinners may approve of us for a time, it will not be long before we cross them because we stand firm to God's demands, with the result that they will suddenly turn sour. So we must not expect that the way will be easy. We too will at times face afflictions and trials. But in the midst of them we may rejoice in that we in some small way thereby share the sufferings of Christ, and will find God's comfort and encouragement abounding in the midst of our afflictions so that we too will have our part in the salvation by God of His people.