² May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, surround you.

³ All praise goes to God, Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. He is the Father of compassion, the God of all comfort. ⁴ He consoles us as we endure the pain and hardship of life so that we may draw from His comfort and share it with others in their own struggles. ⁵ For even as His suffering continues to flood over us, through the Anointed we experience the wealth of His comfort just the same. ⁶ If we are afflicted with such trouble and pain, then know it is so that you might ultimately experience comfort and salvation. If we experience comfort, it is to encourage you so that you can hold up while you endure the same sufferings we all share. ⁷ unshaken and unshakable. That’s because we know that as you share in our sufferings, so you will also share in our comfort.

⁸ My brothers and sisters, we have to tell you that when we were in Asia the troubles we faced were nearly more than we could handle. The burdens we bore nearly crushed us. Our strength dwindled to nothing. For a while, we weren’t sure we would make it through the whole ordeal. ⁹ We thought we would have to serve out our death sentences right then and there. As a result, we realized that we could no longer rely on ourselves and that we must trust solely in God, who possesses the power to raise the dead. ¹⁰ Miraculously God Himself delivered us from the cold hands of death. We again place our hope in Him alone, and we know He will deliver us. ¹¹ Join us in this work. Lend us a hand through prayer so that many will give thanks for the gift that comes to us when God answers the prayers of so many.

¹² We are proud of the fact that we have lived before the world and especially before you with clear consciences, living holy lives mixed with genuine sincerity before God. We have not relied on any human wisdom but on the grace and favor of God. ¹³ We are not writing to you in anything resembling codes or riddles; we only write those lessons you are ready to read and understand. I hope you will study them, value them, and truly understand them until the end. ¹⁴ You have already begun to grasp what we mean in part; but on the day when our Lord Jesus returns, we will be as proud of you as you are of us.