¹³ Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”^(A)

²⁴ But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.^(A)

¹⁷ But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with all of you;^(A)

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) 21} For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.

⁶ As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come.^(A)

³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.^(B)

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 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. ¹² So death is at work in us but life in you.

¹³ But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and therefore we also speak,^{(B) 14} because we know that the one who raised Jesus^[a] will also raise us with Jesus and will present us with you in his presence.^{(C) 15} Indeed, everything is for your sake, so that grace, when it has extended to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

Living by Faith

¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.^{(D) 17} For our slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure,^(E)

¹⁴ since I know that my death^[a] will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.^(A)