The God of All Comfort
Paul blesses the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts his people in their troubles so that they may comfort others in turn. Just as Christ's sufferings overflow to them, so also comfort overflows through Christ, and Paul's hope for the Corinthians rests on their shared participation in both suffering and consolation.
B3lessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which accomplishes in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we experience. 7And our hope for you is sure, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our comfort.
Paul says that in Asia they were burdened beyond strength and despaired even of life, feeling as though the sentence of death had already been given. Yet this taught them to rely not on themselves but on God who raises the dead, and the God who delivered them from such peril will continue to deliver them as the Corinthians join in through prayer and thanksgiving.
8We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. In Him we have placed our hope that He will yet again deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the favor shown us in answer to their prayers.