1 Thessalonians 2

¹For you yourselves know, brothers, that our arrival among you was not a hollow event. ²Instead, as you know, even after we had already suffered and been publicly insulted in Philippi, we were given the courage by our God to speak the King’s Good News of God to you in the face of intense opposition.

³For our appeal does not arise from delusion, nor from impure motives, nor with a strategy of deceit. ⁴On the contrary, just as we have been tested and approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, this is how we speak: not as those trying to please people, but God, who tests our hearts. ⁵For we never came with a word of flattery, as you know, nor with a mask to hide greed—God is our witness— ⁶nor were we seeking public honor from humans, whether from you or from others.

⁷Although we could have thrown our weight around as apostles of Christ, we became gentle in your midst, like a nursing mother nurturing her own children. ⁸Having this kind of deep affection for you, we were delighted to share with you not only the King’s Good News of God but our very lives, because you had become so dear to us. ⁹For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil; we worked night and day so as not to be a financial burden to any of you while we proclaimed to you the King’s Good News of God.

¹⁰You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, justly, and blamelessly we behaved toward you who believe. ¹¹For you know how we treated each one of you like a father treats his own children— ¹²exhorting you, encouraging you, and urging you to walk in a way worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and honor.

¹³And for this reason, we also thank God constantly: because when you received the word of God’s message that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it truly is—the word of God, which is also at work in you who believe. ¹⁴For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God in Judea that are in Christ Jesus, because you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Judeans— ¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They do not please God and are hostile to all people, ¹⁶hindering us from speaking to the nations so that they might be saved. As a result, they are always filling up the measure of their sins. But at long last, the wrath has come upon them.

¹⁷But we, brothers, when we were orphaned by being torn away from you for a short time—in person, but not in heart—we were all the more eager, with intense longing, to see you face to face. ¹⁸For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, tried more than once—but Satan blocked our way. ¹⁹For who is our hope or joy or the victory wreath of our boasting? Is it not you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his royal arrival? ²⁰For you are our honor and our joy."[/SPEAKER]