1 Thessalonians 2
2
Paul's Work in Thessalonica
1My friends, you know our time with you wasn't wasted. 2#Ac 16.19-24; Ac 17.1-9. As you remember, we had been mistreated and insulted at Philippi. But God gave us the courage to tell you the good news about him, even though many people caused us trouble. 3We didn't have any hidden motives when we won you over, and we didn't try to fool or trick anyone. 4God was pleased to trust us with his message. We didn't speak to please people, but to please God who knows our motives.
5You also know we didn't try to flatter anyone. God himself knows what we did wasn't a cover-up for greed. 6We were not trying to get you or anyone else to praise us. 7But as apostles, we could have demanded help from you. After all, Christ is the one who sent us. We chose to be like children or like a mother#2.7 like children or like a mother: Some manuscripts have “as gentle as a mother.” nursing her baby. 8We cared so much for you, and you became so dear to us, that we were willing to give our lives for you when we gave you God's message.
9My dear friends, you surely haven't forgotten our hard work and hardships. You remember how night and day we struggled to make a living, so we could tell you God's message without being a burden to anyone. 10Both you and God are witnesses that we were pure and honest and innocent in our dealings with you followers of the Lord. 11You also know we did everything for you that parents would do for their own children. 12We begged, encouraged, and urged each of you to live in a way that would honor God. He is the one who chose you to share in his own kingdom and glory.
13We always thank God that you believed the message we preached. It came from him, and it isn't something made up by humans. You accepted it as God's message, and now he is working in you. 14#Ac 17.5. My friends, you did just like God's churches in Judea and like the other followers of Christ Jesus there. And so, you were mistreated by your own people, in the same way they were mistreated by their people.
15 #
Ac 9.23,29; 13.45,50; 14.2,5,19; 17.5,13; 18.12. Those evil people killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and they even chased us away. God doesn't like what they do and neither does anyone else. 16They keep us from speaking his message to the Gentiles and from leading them to be saved. They have always gone too far with their sins. Now God has finally become angry and will punish them.
Paul Wants To Visit the Church Again
17My friends, we were kept from coming to you for a while, but we never stopped thinking about you. We were eager to see you and tried our best to visit you in person. 18We really wanted to come. I myself tried several times, but Satan always stopped us. 19After all, when the Lord Jesus appears, who else but you will give us hope and joy and be like a glorious crown for us? 20You alone are our glory and joy!
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1 Thessalonians 2: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
1 Thessalonians (1 Th) 2
2
1You yourselves know, brothers, that our visit to you was not fruitless. 2On the contrary, although we had already suffered and been outraged in Philippi, as you know, we had the courage, united with our God, to tell you the Good News even under great pressure. 3For the appeal we make does not flow from error or from impure motives, neither do we try to trick people. 4Instead, since God has tested us and found us fit to be entrusted with Good News, this is how we speak: not to win favor with people but with God, who tests our hearts. 5For, as you know, never did we employ flattering talk, nor did we put on a false front to mask greed — God is witness. 6Nor did we seek human praise — either from you or from others. 7As emissaries of the Messiah, we could have made our weight felt; but instead, we were gentle when we were with you, like a mother feeding and caring for her children. 8We were so devoted to you that we were glad to share with you not only God’s Good News but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. 9For you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship, how we worked night and day not to put a burden on any of you while we were proclaiming God’s Good News to you. 10You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless our behavior was in the sight of you believers; 11for you know that we treated each one of you the way a father treats his children — 12we encouraged you and comforted you and appealed to you to lead lives worthy of God, who calls you into his Kingdom and glory.
13Another reason we regularly thank God is that when you heard the Word of God from us, you received it not merely as a human word, but as it truly is, God’s Word, which is at work in you believers. 14For, brothers, you came to be imitators of God’s congregations in Y’hudah that are united with the Messiah Yeshua — you suffered the same things from your countrymen as they did from the Judeans who 15both killed the Lord Yeshua and the prophets, and chased us out too. They are displeasing God and opposing all mankind 16by trying to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles, so that they may be delivered. Their object seems to be always to make their sins as bad as possible! But God’s fury will catch up with them in the end.
17And as for us, brothers, when we were deprived of your company for a short time — in person, but not in thought — we missed you and tried hard to come and see you. 18We wanted so much to come to you — I, Sha’ul, tried more than once — but the Adversary stopped us. 19For when our Lord Yeshua returns, what will be our hope, our joy, our crown to boast about? Won’t it be you? 20Yes, you are our glory and our joy!
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