Our Lives Demonstrate That We Are God’s Servants

³ We don’t give people any opportunity to find fault with how we serve. ⁴ Instead, our lives demonstrate that we are God’s servants. We have endured many things: suffering, distress, anxiety, ⁵ beatings, imprisonments, riots, hard work, sleepless nights, and lack of food. ⁶ ⌞People can see⌟ our purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit’s presence ⌞in our lives⌟, our sincere love, ⁷ truthfulness, and the presence of God’s power. We demonstrate that we are God’s servants ⁸ as we are praised and dishonored, as we are slandered and honored, and as we use what is right to attack what is wrong and to defend the truth.^[a] We are treated as dishonest although we are honest, ⁹ as unknown although we are well-known, as dying although, as you see, we go on living. We are punished, but we are not killed. ¹⁰ People think we are sad although we’re always glad, that we’re beggars although we make many people spiritually rich, that we have nothing although we possess everything.