2 Corinthians 1:6 English Standard Version (ESV) If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Look carefully at the words “same sufferings”. There are things which comfort us which might not comfort others. They might ever make them uncomfortable. These comforts to be shared have to be from shared experiences. Each of our experiences can be different even though many are exactly the same.

We must be careful in sharing comforts if we do not recognize the same suffering. The Lord does not wish for us to distress others.

2 Corinthians 12:1-7 English Standard Version

Paul’s Visions and His Thorn

¹I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. ² I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. ³ And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— ⁴ and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. ⁵ On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— ⁶ though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. ⁷ So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Some truths do not comfort others. The purpose behind this section is to restrain us from harming others.

James 1:9 English Standard Version (ESV) Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,

James 1:9 King James Version (KJV) Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

James 1:9 New American Standard Bible (NASB) Now the brother or sister of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position;

I promised a dear brother in the Lord that I would visit the issue of exaltation, and here I have shown three different results for the same passage. The ESV uses the word only once. The KJV does not use it anywhere and while the NASB uses it twice it was not used in James 1:9.

Looking at the choices in wording around boast, rejoice and glory then the issue of our reactions to being exalted is more important than the fact that our circumstance have been changed. We were dead in our sins, we are now alive in Christ. Our witness to the lost isn’t visible in the exaltation it is visible in our expressions of our change.

Glory is a powerful expression of change because it is Christ shining forth from us. That is not who we are it is where we are in our present circumstance. Boast sounds like ego, which it should not. Rejoice is a celebration of this change but it does not always indicate why. Glory is the closest affirmation of condition because it is Christ Himself that is seen and we are not responsible for the ability of the lost to see Christ. He reveals Himself in us because we have been lifted up and our circumstances changed.

If we look at exaltation as an issue of a condition of the gifts, we mistakenly view popularity, charisma, and talent as goals to be achieved. We need to rely on Christ to change our circumstances according to His will in order to be used in ways of His choosing and not our own.