Paul and his companions are examples of what all servants of Christ should be
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📚For, brethren, you yourselves know that our coming to you was not in vain 📖. 2 📚But even after we had suffered previously and been spitefully treated at Philippi 📖, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak the gospel of God to you, in the midst of much conflict 📖.Their integrity, faithfulness, motives
3 📚For our exhortation did not arise from error, or from impurity, or from deceitfulness,
2:3 It is probable that someone at Thessalonica had been speaking against Paul. Compare 2 Cor 1:12; 2:17; 4:2.⚜
4 📚but since we were approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel 📖, even so we speak, not to please men 📖, but God, who tests our hearts 📖. 5 📚For we did not at any time use flattering words, as you know, or a cloak to cover greed. God is our witness 📖.
2:5 Acts 20:33-35; 2 Cor 7:2. Some preachers are after money, and put on a mask of piety to trick people into giving it – 1 Tim 6:5. Paul was not like them. He well knew that the anger of God rests on the greedy and deceitful – Eph 5:5-6; Col 3:5-6; 1 Tim 6:9-11.⚜
6 📚And we did not seek glory from men 📖, either from you, or from others. As the apostles of Christ, we could rightly have been a burden 📖 to you,
Their loving hearts
7 📚but we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother lovingly takes care of her children.
2:7 Verse 11; Gal 4:19.⚜
8 📚We yearned over you with such affection that we were willing to give to you, not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you were dear to us.
Their constant labour
9 📚For you remember, brethren, our labour and toil. For labouring night and day because we would not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.
Their holy and righteous lives
10 📚You are witnesses, and God also, how holy, righteous and blameless our behaviour was among you who believe.
2:10 He is not speaking like this for his own sake, but for their sake and for the sake of the gospel he preached. Compare 2 Cor 1:12; 11:16-21; 12:19. He wanted them to have no doubts about the truth of the gospel.⚜
Their tender care of believers
11 📚Also you know how we encouraged and comforted and instructed every one of you, as a father does his children, 12 📚that you should behave 📖 in a way worthy of God 📖, who has called you 📖 to his kingdom and glory.
2:11-12 He was like both a mother and a father to them – v 7. Compare 1 Cor 4:15; Gal 4:19. He is an example of how evangelists and pastors should behave toward converts.⚜
More thanksgiving
13 📚For this reason also we constantly thank God: because when you heard the Word of God 📖 from us and received it, you embraced it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. Also it is effectively working in you 📖 who believe.
The opposition of the Jews
14 📚For, brethren, you became imitators 📖 of the churches of God in Judea which are in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen 📖 that they have from the Jews, 15 📚who killed 📖 both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets 📖, and have persecuted us 📖. And they are not pleasing to God, and are opposed to all men, 16 📚forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles 📖 that they might be saved, and so always filling up the measure of their sins. And wrath has come on them to the utmost 📖.
Paul’s love for believers
17 📚But we, brethren, for a short time, being removed 📖 from you in person (but not in heart), with great longing, made every effort to see your face. 18 📚Therefore we would have come to you, certainly I, Paul, more than once, but Satan hindered us 📖. 19 📚For what is our hope, or joy, or crown 📖 of rejoicing? Is it not you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? 20 📚For you are our glory and joy.
2:19-20 See Phil 4:1. How proud he was of these who believed in Christ! What joy they brought to his heart!⚜