1 Thessalonians 2

1 For you yourselves know, brothers, our entrance to you, that it has not been empty; 2 but though we had suffered beforehand and been treated shamefully at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak the good news of God to you in much struggle. [a] 3 For our urging is not out of going astray, nor out of uncleanness, nor in deceit, [b] 4 but just as we have been tested by God to be entrusted with the good news, so we speak — not as pleasing people, but God, who tests our hearts. [c]

5 For we never came to be in a word of flattery, as you know, nor in a pretense for greed — God is witness — [d] 6 nor seeking glory from people, neither from you nor from others, 7 though we could have been a weight as apostles of Christ. But we became mild among you, as when a nurse warms her own children; [e] 8 so, yearning for you, we were pleased to share with you not only the good news of God but also our own souls, because you had become beloved to us. [g]

9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and hardship: working night and day so as not to weigh on any of you, we proclaimed the good news of God to you. [h] 10 You are witnesses, and God, how devoutly and righteously and blamelessly we became toward you who trust, [i] 11 just as you know how, with each one of you, as a father with his own children — 12 urging you and consoling and testifying, so that you would walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. [j]

13 And because of this we also give thanks to God unceasingly: that when you received the word heard from us — God’s — you welcomed it not as a word of men but, as it truly is, a word of God, which also works in you who trust. [k] 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the gatherings of God that are in Judea in Christ Jesus, because you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15 who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out, and do not please God, and are against all people, 16 hindering us from speaking to the nations so that they may be saved — so as to fill up their sins always. But the wrath has come upon them to the end. [l]

17 But we, brothers, having been orphaned of you for a season of an hour — in face, not in heart — were all the more eager, with much desire, to see your face. [m] 18 Because we wanted to come to you — I, Paul, both once and twice — and Satan cut us off. [n] 19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting — is it not you as well? — before our Lord Jesus at his coming? [o] 20 For you are our glory and our joy.