English Standard Version ESV
New Living Translation NLT
1 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain.
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You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure.
2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.
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You 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.
3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive,
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So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.
4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
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For 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.
5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed--God is witness.
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Never 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!
6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.
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As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.
7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
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As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children.
8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
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We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.
9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
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Don’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.
10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.
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You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers.
11 For you know how, like a father with his children,
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And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children.
12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
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We 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.
13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
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Therefore, 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.
14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,
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And 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.
15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind
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For 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
16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved--so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God's wrath has come upon them at last!
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as 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.
17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face,
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Dear 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.
18 because we wanted to come to you--I, Paul, again and again--but Satan hindered us.
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We wanted very much to come to you, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us.
19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?
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After 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!
20 For you are our glory and joy.
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Yes, you are our pride and joy.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.