So much is this the case that we ourselves speak with pride, before the Churches of God, of the patience and faith which you have shown, in spite of all the persecutions and troubles that you are enduring.

These persecutions will vindicate the justice of God's judgment, and will result in your being reckoned worthy of God's Kingdom, for the sake of which you are now afflicted;

Since God deems it just to inflict suffering upon those who are now inflicting suffering upon you,

And to give relief to you who are suffering, as well as to us, at the Appearing of the Lord Jesus from Heaven with his mighty angels, 'in flaming fire.'

to the ruin of those who are on the path to destruction, because they have never received and loved the Truth to their own Salvation.

Yes, and the confidence that our union with the Lord enables us to place in you leads us to believe that you are doing, and will do, what we direct you.

We hear that there are among you people who are living ill- ordered lives, and who, instead of attending to their own business, are mere busy-bodies.