Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 2 Corinthians 1:6

"But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which worketh in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer:" — 2 Corinthians 1:6 (ASV)

Verse 6a restates and applies v.4b. Paul’s affliction and endurance of his trials ultimately benefited the Corinthians in that he was now equipped to administer divine encouragement to them when they were afflicted and to ensure their preservation when they underwent trials (cf. Ephesians 3:13; 2 Timothy 2:10). Paul then makes explicit (v.6b) the divine comfort he received in the midst of affliction. Whether he suffered affliction or received comfort, the advantage remained the same for the Corinthians (cf. 4:8–12, 15). They too would know an inner revitalization, an infusion of divine strength that would enable them to endure patiently the same type of trial that confronted Paul (cf. 1 Peter 5:9).

Since Paul realized that to share Christ’s sufferings always involved the experience of God’s comfort through that suffering, his hope that the Corinthians would be triumphant in their time of trial was securely grounded (v.7).