FOR ye yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in to you, that it was
not in vain. (2)But though we had suffered before, and were infamously
treated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to preach
unto you the gospel of God amidst a great conflict. (3)And our
exhortation originated not from delusion, or impurity, or from guile;
(4)but as we have been approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel,
so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, who trieth our hearts.
(5)For neither at any time used we insinuating language, as ye know,
nor a pretext for covetousness; God is witness: (6)not seeking glory
from men, neither from you, nor from others, though we might have been
burdensome, as apostles of Christ. (7)But we were gentle in the midst
of you, as a nurse cherisheth her own infants. (8)So, tenderly affected
towards you, we could with pleasure have imparted to you not the gospel
of God only, but our own lives also, because ye were beloved by us.
(9)For ye remember, brethren, our labour and toil: for night and day
working hard, that we might be no burden to any of you, we preached
unto you the gospel of God. (10)Ye are witnesses, and God also, how
holily, and justly, and faultlessly we conducted ourselves among you
that believe: (11)as ye know how _we treated_ every one of you, as a
father doth his children, exhorting you, and admonishing, and conjuring
you, (12)that ye should walk worthy of God, as calling you into his
kingdom and glory.
(13)For this cause do we also give thanks to God unceasingly, because
when ye received the word reported by us from God, ye received it not
as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which
worketh also effectually in you that believe. (14)For ye, brethren,
became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea, in Christ
Jesus: for ye suffered the same things also yourselves from your own
countrymen, as they too have of the Jews; (15)who both murdered the
Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and please
not God, and are in opposition to all mankind; (16)forbidding us to
speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up the measure
of their iniquities always: but wrath is coming upon them to the
extremity.
(17)But we, brethren, bereaved of you for a short moment, in person,
not in heart, have more abundantly longed to see your face with great
desire. (18)Therefore we wished to have come unto you, even I Paul,
once and again; but Satan prevented us. (19)For what is our hope, or
joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord
Jesus Christ at his coming? (20)For ye are our glory and joy.