who now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf and fill up in my flesh the things lacking of the afflictions of Christ on behalf of His body, which is the Assembly,
But also suffering before and being insolently mistreated, even as you know in Phiippi, we were bold in our God to speak the gospel of God to you in much struggle.
who in the days of His flesh was offering both petitions and entreaties to the One being able to save Him from death, with strong crying and tears, and being heard from His godly fear;
saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last; also, What you see, write in a book, and send to the seven assemblies of Asia: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.