“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our suffering, you will also share in our comfort.”
I have turned to these verses time and again for help in understanding why I sometimes have to go through painful experiences. Generally, I pray that God will deliver me from my afflictions, but these verses remind me that he “comforts us in all our affliction”. In turn, as I have been comforted by God, I am in a position to comfort others. But whence comes the comfort? That was the missing piece for me, for I imagined that comfort meant deliverance. Then I noticed a certain phrase while reading this passage again - “if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer”.
When do we experience God’s comfort in our affliction? When we patiently endure the suffering. How does that happen? How does that make sense? How is patient enduring better than quick deliverance? I have yet to fully digest this, but I suggest the following as a starting place.
For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison… (2 Corinthians 4:17).
The kind of beings we are by nature needs to be changed, shaped, and fitted for life with God. Suffering with patient endurance the same sufferings as other believers, which in turn are a sharing in Christ’s sufferings, produces that needed change in us. Only if we consider “glory then” better than “ease now” will patient endurance be better than quick deliverance. If consider it so, we can be comforted by the assurance that whatever affliction comes our way, it is preparing us to experience a greater degree of Christ’s glory upon his return.