1 But you remember yourselves, brothers, that our visit to you was no failure.
2 At Philippi, as you know, we had been ill-treated and insulted, but we took courage and confidence in our God to tell you the gospel of God in spite of all the strain.
3 For the appeal we make does not spring from any delusion or from impure motives ??it does not work by cunning;
4 no, God has attested our fitness to be entrusted with the gospel, and so we tell the gospel not to satisfy men but to satisfy the God who tests our hearts.
5 We never resorted to flattery (you know that), nor to any pretext for self-seeking (God is witness to that);
6 we never sought honour from men, from you or from anybody else, though as apostles of Christ we had the power of claiming to be men of weight;
7 no, we behaved gently when we were among you, like a nursing mother cherishing her own children,
8 fain, in our yearning affection for you, to impart not only the gospel of God to you but our very souls as well ??you had so won our love.
9 Brothers, you recollect our hard labour and toil, how we worked at our trade night and day, when we preached the gospel to you, so as not to be a burden to any of you.
10 You are witnesses, and so is God, to our behaviour among you believers, how pious and upright and blameless it was,
11 how (as you know) we treated each of you as a father treats his children, beseeching you, encouraging you, and charging you
12 to lead a life worthy of the God who called you to his own realm and glory.
13 We thank God constantly for this too, that when you received the word of the divine message from us, you took it not as a human word but for what it really is, the word of God. It proves effective in you believers,
14 for you have started, my brothers, to copy the churches of God in Christ Jesus throughout Judaea; you have suffered from your compatriots just as they have suffered from the Jews,
15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, who harassed ourselves, who offend God and oppose all men
16 by hindering us from speaking words of salvation to the Gentiles. So they would fill up the measure of their sins to the last drop! But the Wrath is on them to the bitter end!
17 Brothers, when we were bereft of you for a little while (out of sight, not out of mind), we were the more eager to see you. We had a keen longing for you.
18 (We did want to reach you ??I did, I Paul, more than once ??but Satan stopped us.)
19 For who is our hope, our joy, our crown of pride (who but you?) in the presence of our Lord Jesus on his arrival?
20 Why, you, you are our glory and joy!