1 Thessalonians 2
2
Paul Remembers His Visit
1You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters,#2:1 Greek brothers; also in 2:9, 14, 17. that our visit to you was not a failure. 2You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition. 3So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.
4For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. 5Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! 6As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.
7As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children#2:7 Some manuscripts read we were gentle. among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. 8We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.
9Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. 10You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. 11And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. 12We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.
13Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.
14And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffered persecution from your own countrymen. In this way, you imitated the believers in God’s churches in Judea who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered from their own people, the Jews. 15For some of the Jews killed the prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus. Now they have persecuted us, too. They fail to please God and work against all humanity 16as they try to keep us from preaching the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles. By doing this, they continue to pile up their sins. But the anger of God has caught up with them at last.
Timothy’s Good Report about the Church
17Dear brothers and sisters, after we were separated from you for a little while (though our hearts never left you), we tried very hard to come back because of our intense longing to see you again. 18We wanted very much to come to you, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us. 19After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when he returns? It is you! 20Yes, you are our pride and joy.
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1 Thessalonians 2: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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1 Thessalonians 2
2
Paul’s Work in Thessalonica
1Brothers and sisters, you know that our visit to you was not a failure. 2Before we came to you, people in Philippi abused us with insults and made us suffer. You know all about that. And then, when we came to you, many people there caused trouble for us. But our God gave us the courage we needed to tell you his Good News. 3When we encourage people to believe the Good News, it’s not out of wrong motives. We are not trying to trick or fool anyone. 4No, we did it because God is the one who gave us this work. And this was only after he tested us and saw that we could be trusted to do it. So when we speak, we are only trying to please God, not anyone else. He is the one who can see what is in our hearts.
5You know that we never tried to influence you by saying nice things about you. We were not trying to get your money. We had no greed to hide from you. God knows that this is true. 6We were not looking for praise from people—not from you or anyone else.
7When we were with you, as apostles of Christ we could have used our authority to make you help us. But we were very gentle#2:7 But … gentle Several Greek copies have “But we became babies.” with you. We were like a mother caring for her little children. 8We loved you very much, so we were happy to share God’s Good News with you. But not only that—we were also happy to share even our own lives with you. 9Brothers and sisters, I know that you remember how hard we worked. We worked night and day to support ourselves, so that we would not be a burden to anyone while we did the work of telling you God’s Good News.
10When we were there with you believers, we were pure, honest, and without fault in the way we lived. You know, just as God does, that this is true. 11You know that we treated each one of you the way a father treats his own children. 12We encouraged you, we comforted you, and we told you to live good lives for God. He calls you to be part of his glorious kingdom.
13Also, we always thank God because of the way you accepted his message. You heard it and accepted it as God’s message, not our own. And it really is God’s message. And it works in you who believe. 14Brothers and sisters, you are just like God’s churches in Judea.#2:14 Judea The Jewish land where Jesus lived and taught and where the church first began. I mean that you were treated badly by your own people, just as those believers in Christ Jesus were treated badly by other Jews— 15the same Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets. And they forced us to leave their country. They are not pleasing to God, and they are against everyone else. 16And they are trying to stop us from teaching those who are not Jews. They don’t want them to be saved. But they are just adding more and more sins to the ones they already have. Now the time has come for them to suffer God’s anger.
Paul’s Desire to Visit Them Again
17Brothers and sisters, we were separated from you for a short time. But even though we were not there, our thoughts were still with you. We wanted very much to see you, and we tried very hard to do this. 18Yes, we wanted to come to you. I, Paul, tried more than once to come, but Satan stopped us. 19You are our hope, our joy, and the crown we will be proud of when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. 20You bring us honor and joy.
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