2:1 For you yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our ①reception among you was not in vain,
▷ ①Or coming to you
2:2 but after we had already suffered and been treated abusively in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God ①amid much ②opposition.
▷ ①Or during ②Or struggle; or conflict
2:3 For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or ①by way of deceit;
▷ ①Lit in deceit
2:4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not intending to please people, but to please God, who ①examines our hearts.
▷ ①Or approves
2:5 For we never came ①with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext ②for greed—God is our witness—
▷ ①Lit in a word of flattery ②I.e., to conceal greed
2:6 nor did we seek honor from people, either from you or from others, though ①we could have ②asserted our authority as apostles of Christ.
▷ ①Lit being able to ②Or been burdensome as
2:7 But we ①proved to be ②gentle ③among you. As a nursing mother ④tenderly cares for her own children,
▷ ①Or became gentle ②Three early mss infants ③Lit in the midst of you ④Or cherishes
2:8 in the same way we had a fond affection for you and were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own ①lives, because you had become ②very dear to us.
▷ ①Or souls ②Lit beloved
2:9 For you recall, brothers and sisters, our labor and hardship: it was by working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, that we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
2:10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly and rightly and blamelessly we ①behaved toward you ②believers;
▷ ①Lit became ②Or who believe
2:11 just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children,
2:12 so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
2:13 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 mere men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe.
2:14 For you, brothers and sisters, 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 countrymen, even as they did from the Jews,
2:15 who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and ①drove us out. ②They are not pleasing to God, ③but hostile to all people,
▷ ①Or persecuted us ②Lit and ③Lit and
2:16 hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always ①reach the limit of their sins. But wrath has come upon them ②fully.
▷ ①Lit complete their ②Or forever; lit to the end
2:17 But we, brothers and sisters, having been orphaned from you by absence for a ①short while—in ②person, not in ③spirit—were all the more eager with great desire to see your face.
▷ ①Lit occasion of an hour ②Lit face ③Lit heart
2:18 ①For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, ②more than once—and Satan hindered us.
▷ ①Or Because ②Lit both once and twice
2:19 For who is our hope, or joy or crown of pride, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His ①coming? Or is it not indeed you?
▷ ①Or presence
2:20 For you are our glory and joy.