📖WEB · 2 Corinthians 1:7
What does 2 Corinthians 1:7 mean?
"Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort."
— 2 Corinthians 1:7 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.
But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort.
For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.
Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,
who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us;
Explanation
Paul's words here are simple but profound: he tells the Corinthian believers that his hope for them is firm and unshaken because he knows a spiritual principle—those who share in suffering will also share in comfort. In plain terms, Paul is saying, "I am confident about your future because I've seen how this works: the same suffering you endure alongside me and other believers is matched, even outweighed, by the comfort God provides."
To understand this verse, it helps to look at the surrounding context. Paul opens his second letter to the Corinthian church by reflecting on a severe affliction he faced in Asia, one so intense he "despaired even of life" (2 Corinthians 1:8). Rather than dwelling on the hardship itself, Paul pivots to praise God as "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction" (1:3-4). He explains that God's comfort isn't just for Paul's own benefit—it equips him to comfort others who are suffering. Verse 7 is the hinge point in this argument: because Paul and the Corinthians are bound together in shared suffering (likely referring to persecution and hardship faced by the early church), they are also bound together in shared comfort. Paul writes to a congregation he had a complicated relationship with, and part of his purpose is to reassure them of his genuine care and confidence in their spiritual endurance despite tensions between them.
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