⁵ For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.^(A)

Paul’s Interest in the Colossians

²⁴ I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.

¹⁰ I want to know Christ^[a] and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,

²⁰ It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way but that by my speaking with all boldness Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death.^(A)

¹⁶ Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, ¹⁷ comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.^(A)

¹⁰ always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.^{(A) 11} For we who are living are always being handed over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal flesh.

Imitating Christ’s Humility

2 If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy,^(A)

¹⁰ We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are sensible people in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.^{(A) 11} To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are naked and beaten and homeless,^{(B) 12} and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;^{(C) 13} when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

²³ Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman—I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death.^{(A) 24} Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.^{(B) 25} Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea;^{(C) 26} on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters;^{(D) 27} in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food,^[a] cold and naked.^{(E) 28} And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?^(F)

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.^(G)

⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”^(A)