6. If we have troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we have comfort, then you also have comfort. This helps you to accept patiently the same sufferings that we have.
7. Our hope for you is strong. We know that you share in our sufferings. So we know that you also share in the comfort we receive.
8. Brothers, we want you to know about the trouble we suffered in the country of Asia. We had great burdens there that were greater than our own strength. We even gave up hope for life.
9. Truly, in our own hearts we believed that we would die. But this happened so that we would not trust in ourselves. It happened so that we would trust in God, who raises people from death.
10. God saved us from these great dangers of death. And he will continue to save us. We have put our hope in him, and he will save us again.
11. And you can help us with your prayers. Then many people will give thanks for us—that God blessed us because of their many prayers.
12. This is what we are proud of, and I can say with all my heart that it is true: In all the things we have done in the world, we have done everything with an honest and pure heart from God. And this is even more true in what we have done with you. We did this by God’s grace, not by the kind of wisdom the world has.
13. For we write to you only what you can read and understand. And I hope that
14. as you have understood some things about us, you may come to know everything about us. Then you can be proud of us, as we will be proud of you on the day our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.
15. I was very sure of all this. That is why I made plans to visit you first. Then you could be blessed twice.