For you know yourselves how you must imitate us, because we did not behave without discipline among you,

It was not because we do not have that right, but to give ourselves as an example for you to imitate.

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.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope,