Because it is God who said, “Out of darkness Light shall shine,” the One who shone in our hearts to give the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Isa. 42:6, 7, 16
Only conduct yourself worthily of the gospel of Christ, so that whether coming and seeing you or being absent, I hear the things concerning you, that you stand fast in one spirit and one soul, striving together in the faith of the gospel,
For the rest then, brothers, we beg you and we exhort in the Lord Jesus, even as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more.
when He comes to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among all the ones having believed in that Day, because our testimony to you was believed.
the One having saved us and having called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal times,
But you are “an elect race,” “a royal priesthood,” “a holy nation,” “a people for possession,” so that “you may proclaim the excellencies” of the One who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; LXX-Ex. 23:22; MT-Ex. 19:5, 6
not giving back evil for evil, or reviling against reviling; but, on the contrary, give blessing; knowing that you were called to this in order that you might inherit blessing.
Now the God of all grace, the One having called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, you having suffered a little, Himself will perfect, confirm, strengthen, establish you.
As His divine power having given as a gift to us all things pertaining to life and godliness through the full knowledge of the One calling us through glory and virtue,