“For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed – God is witness – nor did we seek glory from men, either from…
“For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel,…
“For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had…
“But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while – in person, not in spirit – were all the more eager with great desire to see…
“The Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking…
“For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own…
“For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men,…
“Just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a…
“You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers” (1 Thessalonians 2:10) “Devoutly, uprightly, and blamelessly we are to do the…