What Does 2 Corinthians 1:5 Mean?

(5) **Abound in us.**—Better, *overflow to us.* The sufferings of Christ, as in 1Peter 4:13; 1Peter 5:1 (the Greek in 1Peter 1:11 expresses a different thought), are those which He endured on earth; those which, in His mysterious union with His Church, are thought as passing from Him to every member of His body, that they too may drink of the cup that He drank of. For the thought that in our sufferings, of whatever nature, we share Christ’s sufferings, comp. 2Corinthians 4:10; Philippians 3:10; Colossians 1:24; 1Peter 4:13. The use of the plural, “*our* tribulations,” “overflow to *us,”* is dependent partly on the fact that St. Paul has joined Timotheus with himself in his salutation, and partly on the fact that it is his usual way of speaking of himself unless he has distinctly to assert his own individuality. **So our consolation also aboundeth.**—Better, as before, *overflows.* The consolation which has come to him through Christ, as the channel through whom it flows down from the Father, has, like the suffering, an expansive power, and pours itself out on others.