1 Thessalonians 2 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

Paul Remembers His Visit

(cf. Act 17:1–9 )

1Th 2:1You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters,[fn] that our visit to you was not a failure.

1Th 2:2You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition.

1Th 2:3

1Th 2:3So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.

1Th 2:4

1Th 2:4For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.

1Th 2:5

1Th 2:5Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money!

1Th 2:6

1Th 2:6As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.

1Th 2:7

1Th 2:7As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children[fn] among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children.

1Th 2:8

1Th 2:8We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.

1Th 2:9

1Th 2:9Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you.

1Th 2:10

1Th 2:10You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers.

1Th 2:11

1Th 2:11And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children.

1Th 2:12

1Th 2:12We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.

1Th 2:13

1Th 2:13Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.

1Th 2:14

1Th 2:14And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffered persecution from your own countrymen. In this way, you imitated the believers in God’s churches in Judea who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered from their own people, the Jews.

1Th 2:15

1Th 2:15For some of the Jews killed the prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus. Now they have persecuted us, too. They fail to please God and work against all humanity

1Th 2:16

1Th 2:16as they try to keep us from preaching the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles. By doing this, they continue to pile up their sins. But the anger of God has caught up with them at last.

Timothy’s Good Report about the Church

1Th 2:17

1Th 2:17Dear brothers and sisters, after we were separated from you for a little while (though our hearts never left you), we tried very hard to come back because of our intense longing to see you again.

1Th 2:18

1Th 2:18We wanted very much to come to you, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us.

1Th 2:19

1Th 2:19After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when he returns? It is you!

1Th 2:20

1Th 2:20Yes, you are our pride and joy.

See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NLT Footnotes

(2:1)

Greek brothers; also in 2:9, 14, 17.

(2:7)

Some manuscripts read we were gentle.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

1 Thessalonians Chapter 2 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Morphological Greek New Testament Textus Receptus Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

1 Thessalonians 2 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

NLT Footnotes

1 Thessalonians Chapter 2 — Additional Translations:

Did You Know BLB Is User Supported?