The phrase reaches back to the entire content of vv. 3–5, focusing on the eschatological hope of believers. They rejoice now because of the inheritance that most certainly awaits them. The NIV rightly understands the participle lypēthentes as concessive (“though … you may have had to suffer grief”).32 Selwyn mistakenly identifies it as causal,33 but this implies that suffering is intrinsically joyful, instead of seeing that suffering is valuable only for the benefits it brings. Suffering is
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