sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.
Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,
It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
“Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings.
Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.
He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.
I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.
with which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.
Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.
For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com.