May God, who inspires our hope, grant you perfect happiness and peace in your faith, till you are filled with this hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
For all this is for your sakes, that the loving-kindness of God, spreading from heart to heart, may cause yet more hearts to overflow with thanksgiving, to his glory.
For you do not forget the loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ--how that for your sakes, although he was rich, he became poor, so that you also might become rich through his poverty.
Yes, to me, who am less than the least of all Christ's People, was this charge entrusted!--to tell the Gentiles the Good News of the boundless wealth to be found in the Christ,
And yet, even if, when your faith is offered as a sacrifice to God, my life-blood must be poured out in addition, still I shall rejoice and share the joy of you all;
Now at last I can rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and in my own person I supplement the afflictions endured by the Christ, for the sake of his Body, the Church;
Let the Message of the Christ dwell in your minds in all its wealth, bringing all wisdom with it. Teach and admonish one another with psalms, and hymns, and sacred songs, full of the loving- kindness of God, lifting your hearts in song to him.
And you yourselves began to follow, not only our example, but the Master's also; and, in spite of much suffering, you welcomed the Message with a joy inspired by the Holy Spirit,
for while the training of the body is of service in some respects, religion is of service in all, carrying with it, as it does, a promise of Life both here and hereafter.
For you not only sympathized with those who were in prison, but you even took the confiscation of your possessions joyfully, knowing, as you did, that you had in yourselves a greater possession and a lasting one.
Listen, my dear Brothers. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the things of this world to be rich through their faith, and to possess the Kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?
No, the more you share the sufferings of the Christ, the more may you rejoice, that, when the time comes for the manifestation of his Glory, you may rejoice and exult.
I know your persecution and your poverty--yet you are rich! I know, too, the slander that come from those who declare that they are Jews, though they are not, but are a Congregation of Satan.