But he told me, “My grace is all you need, because my power is made perfect in weakness.” So I will gladly brag all the more about how weak I am, so that Christ’s power can rest on me.
It’s true that Christ was nailed to the cross in weakness, but now he’s alive by God’s power. In the same way, we share his weakness, but by God’s power we’ll be alive with Christ as we deal with you.
He’s the God who gives all comfort, comforting us in all our troubles. As a result, we can comfort others when they’re in trouble, using the comfort that we’ve received from God.
Blessed are you when people hate you, when they have nothing to do with you, when they say bad things about you, and when they treat your name as evil because of the Son of Man.
Our troubles are small and they last only for a short time, but they’re earning a glory for us that will last forever. That glory outweighs all our troubles.
You know that I’ve been treated badly and suffered greatly. You know what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra—how badly I was treated there. But the Lord saved me from all my troubles.