1 For you yourselves know, brethren, that our visit to you was not in vain;

2 but after we had already suffered and been shamefully treated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in the face of great opposition.

3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity, nor is it made with deceit;

4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts.

5 For, as you know, we never used flattery nor a pretext for greed—God is witness—

6 nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.

7 But we were gentle among you, like a mother nursing her little children.

8 Having so fond an affection for you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.

9 For you remember our labor and toil, brethren; we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we preached to you the gospel of God.

10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless we behaved toward you believers;

11 for you know how, as a father with his own children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you

12 to live a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own 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, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea, for you 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 also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men,

16 hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last.

17 But since we were taken away from you, brethren, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face.

18 For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.

19 For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming?

20 For you are our glory and joy.