1 Thessalonians 2 You yourselves know, brothers, that our visit to you was not in vain.

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ You yourselves know, brothers, that our visit to you was not in vain. ² Rather, in spite of having already suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, we made bold in our God to speak to you the Gospel of God, in the face of strong opposition. ³ For our appeal to you does not spring from deceit, impure motives, or trickery. ⁴ Instead, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, not in order to please men but God, who examines our hearts. ⁵ For, as you know, we never used flattery nor a pretext for greed God is witness ⁶ or to seek glory from men (whether from you or from others) —as apostles of Christ we could have been ‘heavy’, ⁷ But we were gentle among you, like a mother nursing her little children. ⁸ We cared so deeply that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives as well. That is how beloved you have become to us. ⁹ Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and exertion, because working night and day, so as not to burden any of you, we proclaimed the Gospel of God to you. ¹⁰ You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless our conduct was among you who believed. ¹¹ For you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. ¹² We comforted and encouraged you, urging you to live in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. ¹³ And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. ¹⁴ For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Judea that are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen the very things they suffered from the Jews, ¹⁵ who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men, ¹⁶ By hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved, thus always filling up their sins to the limit: but wrath has come upon them at last. ¹⁷ Brothers, although we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in heart), our desire to see you face to face was even more intense. ¹⁸ For we wanted to come to you—indeed I, Paul, tried again and again—but Satan obstructed us. ¹⁹ For what is our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? Is it not even you? ²⁰ Indeed, you are our glory and our joy.