7. Our hope for you is strong, knowing that you share in our sufferings and also in the comfort we receive.
8. Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the trouble we suffered in Asia. We had great burdens there that were beyond our own strength. We even gave up hope of living.
9. Truly, in our own hearts we believed we would die. But this happened so we would not trust in ourselves but in God, who raises people from the dead.
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.
11. And you can help us with your prayers. Then many people will give thanks for us—that God blessed us because of their many prayers.
12. This is what we are proud of, and I can say it with a clear conscience: In everything we have done in the world, and especially with you, we have had an honest and sincere heart from God. We did this by God’s grace, not by the kind of wisdom the world has.
13-14. We write to you only what you can read and understand. And I hope that as you have understood some things about us, you may come to know everything about us. Then you can be proud of us, as we will be proud of you on the day our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.
15. I was so sure of all this that I made plans to visit you first so you could be blessed twice.