3. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is the Father who is full of mercy. And he is the God of all comfort.
4. He comforts us every time we have trouble, so that we can comfort others when they have trouble. We can comfort them with the same comfort that God gives us.
5. We share in the many sufferings of Christ. In the same way, much comfort comes to us through Christ.
6. If we have troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we have comfort, then you also have comfort. This helps you to accept patiently the same sufferings that we have.
7. Our hope for you is strong. We know that you share in our sufferings. So we know that you also share in the comfort we receive.
8. Brothers, we want you to know about the trouble we suffered in the country of Asia. We had great burdens there that were greater than our own strength. We even gave up hope for life.
9. Truly, in our own hearts we believed that we would die. But this happened so that we would not trust in ourselves. It happened so that we would trust in God, who raises people from death.
10. God saved us from these great dangers of death. And he will continue to save us. We have put our hope in him, and he will save us again.