Therefore, I beg you, brothers, through our Lord Jesus Christ and though the love of the Holy Spirit, that you assist me with your prayers to God on my behalf,
But, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace in me has not been empty, since I have labored more abundantly than all of them. Yet it is not I, but the grace of God within me.
They are the ministers of Christ (I speak as if I were less wise); more so am I: with many more labors, with numerous imprisonments, with wounds beyond measure, with frequent mortifications.
Of this Gospel, I have been made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God, which has been given to me by means of the operation of his virtue.
Only let your behavior be worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that, whether I return and see you, or whether, being absent, I hear about you, still you may stand firm with one spirit, with one mind, laboring together for the faith of the Gospel.
For I want you to know the kind of solicitude that I have for you, and for those who are at Laodicea, as well as for those who have not seen my face in the flesh.
Epaphras greets you, who is from among you, a servant of Christ Jesus, ever solicitous for you in prayer, so that you may stand, perfect and complete, in the entire will of God.
For you remember, brothers, our hardship and weariness. We preached the Gospel of God among you, working night and day, so that we would not be burdensome to any of you.
I endure all things for this reason: for the sake of the elect, so that they, too, may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with heavenly glory.
equip you with all goodness, so that you may do his will. May he accomplish in you whatever is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom is glory forever and ever. Amen.