… ⁴who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

A little-understood truth of the Christian life—in fact, one of the central aspects of living a Christ-centered life—undergirds this passage. It bodes incomprehensible to anyone who has become a “follower of Christ” but who has not understood the “and Him crucified” part of 1 Corinthians 2:2 (“For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified”). It comes across as unfathomable to anyone who embraces the first part of Philippians 3:10 (“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection”) but glosses over the last part (“and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death”).

How does that relate to this passage in 2 Corinthians 1:4–5? God comforts us; that is a promise. But for many Christians that is as far as it goes. They look for the benefit in following Christ; they can say they “know Christ” and enjoy talking about Christian things and pray for protection and help and all that. And God in His grace responds. They can even enjoy seeing and experiencing miraculous things, getting all excited about what an “awesome” God we have.

But they miss the most crucial part of following Christ, namely, knowing Him in His suffering, and experiencing His comfort in distressing circumstances. The goal, however, is not to be relieved from difficulty but to be better equipped to help others when they go through difficulty. Our comfort is not the end game; rather, God intends to comfort others through us, for their benefit. This is love in action, sacrificial to the point of seeing in our suffering the potential to become better helpers to others.

Don’t miss this; the implication is abundantly clear: when we comfort others, it is God comforting them through us. We partner with the divine Helper in His suffering and comforting. In this we become like Christ and Him crucified.

How are the sufferings of Christ ours? When He suffered on the cross, He did that in our place and on our behalf. As we meditate on His sufferings, we enter into a fuller appreciation of what He went through on our behalf. Eternity will not be long enough to exhaust this truth. When we see that Christ’s suffering brought our abundant salvation, we see the power and purpose of our own personal suffering. We are therefore better positioned to help others when they suffer. This is simply the love principle worked out in the most difficult times of our lives, to see suffering as equipping us to be better servants.

Lord, I will not waste my difficulties, but use them to learn how to help others.