1 For [you] yourselves know, brothers, our reception with you, that it was not in vain,
2 but [after we] had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, just as you know, we had the courage in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.
3 For our exhortation [is] not from error or from impurity or with deceit,
4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, thus we speak, not as pleasing people but God, who examines our hearts.
5 {For never} did we come with a word of flattery, just as you know, nor with a pretext of greediness (God [is] witness),
6 nor seeking glory from people, neither from you nor from others.
7 {Although we could have insisted on our own importance} as apostles of Christ, yet we became infants in your midst, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.
8 Longing for you in this way, we determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own souls, because you had become dear to us.
9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and hardship: working by night and day in order not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
10 You [are] witnesses, and [so is] God, how devoutly and righteously and blamelessly we became to you who believe,
11 just as you know how [we treated] each one of you, like a father his own children,
12 exhorting and consoling you and insisting that you live in a manner worthy of God, who calls you to his own kingdom and glory.
13 And because of this we also give thanks to God constantly, that [when you] received God's word {that you heard} from us, you accepted [it] not [as the] word of men, but as [it] truly is, [the] word of God, which also is at work in you who believe.
14 For you became imitators, brothers, of the churches of God [which] are in Judea in Christ Jesus, because you also suffered the same [things] at the hands of your own people, just as [they] themselves [did] also at the hands of the Jews,
15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and who persecuted us, and [who are] not pleasing to God and [are] opposed to all people,
16 hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles in order that they may be saved, so that [they] always fill up their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the end.
17 But [when] we were made orphans by separation from you, brothers, for {a short time} (in face, not in heart), [we were] even more eager with great desire to see your face,
18 because we wanted to come to you--I, Paul, {on more than one occasion}--and Satan hindered us.
19 For who [is] our hope or joy or crown of boasting? [Is it] not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming?
20 For you are our glory and joy.