Now whether we be in tribulation, it is for your exhortation and salvation: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation: or whether we be exhorted, it is for your exhortation and salvation, which worketh the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
2 Corinthians 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we also may be able to comfort them who are in all distress, by the exhortation wherewith we also are exhorted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us: so also by Christ doth our comfort abound.
2 Corinthians 1:6 Now whether we be in tribulation, it is for your exhortation and salvation: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation: or whether we be exhorted, it is for your exhortation and salvation, which worketh the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
2 Corinthians 1:7 That our hope for you may be steadfast: knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation.
2 Corinthians 1:8 For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, of our tribulation which came to us in Asia: that we were pressed out of measure above our strength, so that we were weary even of life.
The verse centers on "whether", "tribulation", "exhortation", "salvation", "comforted", and "consolation". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "whether" and "tribulation", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 5's "For as the sufferings of Christ abound..." into verse 7's "That our hope for you may be...", so "whether" and "tribulation" belong inside that flow. In 2 Corinthians context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "whether" and "tribulation" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.