3 Thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort,4 who ever comforts me in all my troubles, so that I may be continually able to comfort those who are in any trouble by the comfort with which God is ever comforting me.5 For just as I have more than my share in the sufferings of the Christ, so also through the Christ I have more than my share of comfort.6 If I am afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if I am receiving comfort, it is for your comfort - a comfort produced within you by your patient fortitude, under the same sufferings which I also am enduring.7 My hope for you is firm; for I know that as you are comrades in my sufferings, so also are you comrades in my comfort.