“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.”
If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer — Paul's distress serves the Corinthians' benefit (this defense of his ministry will intensify as the letter progresses). His comfort, conversely, equips them to endure. Ministry is always for the other; Paul's personal trials are subsumed into apostolic purpose.
Church Fathers on 2 Corinthians 1:6
Having spoken of one, and that the chief ground of comfort and consolation, namely, having fellowship [by sufferings] with Christ: he lays down as second this which he now mentions, namely, that the salvation of the disciples themselves was procured thereby. “Faint not, therefore, he says, nor be confounded and afraid because we are afflicted; for this same thing were rather a reason for your being of good cheer: for had we not been afflicted, this had been the ruin of you…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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