Then a famine occurred throughout ¹  Egypt and Canaan, causing ²  great suffering, and our ³  ancestors ⁴  could not find food.

They strengthened ¹  the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue ²  in the faith, saying, “We must enter the kingdom ³  of God through many persecutions.” ⁴ 

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ¹ 

I have great confidence in you; I take great pride ¹  on your behalf. I am filled with encouragement; ²  I am overflowing with joy in the midst of ³  all our suffering.

that during a severe ordeal of suffering, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in the wealth ¹  of their generosity.

For I do not say this so there would be relief for others and suffering for you, but as a matter of equality.

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, when you received ¹  the message with joy that comes from the Holy Spirit, despite great affliction.

Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness, ¹  and those who commit adultery with her into terrible suffering, ²  unless they repent of her deeds.

“Immediately ¹  after the suffering ²  of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. ³ 

For in those days there will be suffering ¹  unlike anything that has happened ²  from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, or ever will happen.

When a woman gives birth, she has distress ¹  because her time ²  has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being ³  has been born into the world. ⁴ 

and rescued him from all his troubles, and granted him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made ¹  him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen ¹  went as far as ²  Phoenicia, ³  Cyprus, ⁴  and Antioch, ⁵  speaking the message ⁶  to no one but Jews.

But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face difficult circumstances, ¹  and I am trying to spare you such problems. ² 

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, ¹  regarding the affliction that happened to us in the province of Asia, ²  that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living.

For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you. ¹ 

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

As a result we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring.

Pure and undefiled religion before ¹  God the Father ²  is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

I, John, your brother and the one who shares ¹  with you in the persecution, kingdom, and endurance that ²  are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus. ³