We had the sentence of death in ourselves,

.... so that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9). Paul had been telling the Corinthians of the troubles he encountered in Asia “we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life” (verse 8). It felt like a sentence of death, but the Lord was using it to take away any last vestige of Paul's self sufficiency.  Our society places great value on independence.  We tend to admire a self made man! But independence is not the highest virtue. Who is stronger, one who can surrender some of her independences, or one who cannot?  The progression of maturity moves from the dependence of childhood,  to the independence in adolescence, to interdependence in adulthood.  Interdependence is about surrendering an appropriate part of our independence for the greater good.

Who is more effective for the Kingdom, is it one who does everything independent of God?  Or is it one who surrenders all to God, and in fellowship with Him,  takes on God's strength, wisdom,  and grace and love?  We too need to die, but don't come to these deaths easily. They are, however some of the many deaths an effective Christian has to die. It is about taking up our cross. In the end is all about the death of the Kingdom of self, of I, me,  mine!  These deaths are individual deaths,  and we need to see, as with Paul,  that God wants to use the difficult things in our life,  to accomplish them. You see there can be no resurrection without a death!  Without the death of self, we will not be able to tap into His resurrection power in the here and now (Philippians 3:10).  But Paul was not independent of others either.  While it is certainly God who did deliver, does deliver and who will deliver, it is also the Corinthians “helping together in prayer”  (verses 10, 11).

The Corinthians were also suffering for the gospel. In verse 7 he writes “And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so also you will share in the comfort.” The comfort Paul is talking about here is discussed earlier. He talks about “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the very same comfort we ourselves receive from God” (verses 3, 4). The word for comfort and sharing is the same word in the Greek, it is translated fellowship elsewhere,  and is actually one of the Names of Holy Spirit (the comfort). The point is that interdependence, fellowship, intimacy and comfort are all bound up together. In a physical war two buddies thrown together form a life long bond. But this is nothing compared with the consolation we receive when fellowship together with the each other and with the God of all comfort. 

Father, we need to learn to look at suffering differently from the world. It is not that we seek it, but as this passage tells us, when we respond the way You want us to,  then as our sufferings abound, so also does our comfort and fellowship with You. Paul elsewhere links the fellowship of Your sufferings with the power of the resurrection (Philippians 3:10).  Indeed Paul suffered greatly,  but he also had great power. Help us Lord to receive Your perspective on this,  and the grace to live it, in Jesus Name Amen