< 1 Thessalonians 2 >
1 And ye yourselves, my brethren, know our entrance among you, that it was not in vain:
2 but we first suffered and were treated with indignity, as ye know, at Philippi; and then, in a great agony, with confidence in our God, we addressed to you the gospel of the Messiah.
3 For our exhortation proceeded not from deceit, nor from impurity, nor in guile:
4 but as we had been approved of God to be intrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who searcheth our hearts.
5 For at no time have we used flattering speech; as ye know; nor a cloak of cupidity, God is witness.
6 Neither have we sought glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have been chargeable as legates of the Messiah.
7 But we were lowly among you; and like a nurse, who fondleth her children,
8 so we also fondled you, and were desirous to impart to you, not the gospel of God merely, but also our own soul, because ye were dear to us.
9 For ye recollect, brethren, that we labored and toiled, working with our own hands, by night and by day, that we might not be chargeable to any one of you.
10 Ye are witnesses, and God also, how we preached to you the gospel of God, purely, and uprightly, and were blameless towards all them that believe:
11 as yourselves know, we entreated each one of you, as a father his children, and comforted your hearts:
12 and we charged you, to walk as it becometh God, who hath called you to his kingdom and his glory.
13 Therefore also we give thanks unceasingly to God, that the word of God which ye received from us, ye did not receive as the word of men, but as being truly the word of God, which worketh efficiently in you and in them that believe.
14 For ye, my brethren, became assimilated to the churches of God in Judaea, the persons who are in Jesus the Messiah; in that ye so suffered, even ye from your own countrymen, as also they from the Jews,
15 the persons who slew our Lord Jesus the Messiah, and persecuted their own prophets and us; and they please not God, and are made hostile to all men;
16 and they forbid us to speak to the Gentiles, that they may have life; to fill up their sins at all times. And wrath cometh on them to the uttermost.
17 But we, my brethren, have been bereaved of you for a short time, (in visible presence, not in our hearts, ) and have the more exerted ourselves, to behold your faces, with great affection.
18 And we purposed to come to you, I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered me.
19 For what is our hope, and our joy, and the crown of our glorying; unless it be ye, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?
20 For ye are our glory, and our joy.
