| Berean Study Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1You yourselves know, brothers, that our visit to you was not in vain. | 1You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. |
| 2As you are aware, we had already endured suffering and shameful treatment in Philippi. But in the face of strong opposition, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God. | 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. |
| 3For our appeal does not arise from deceit or ulterior motives or trickery. | 3So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery. |
| 4Instead, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, not in order to please men but God, who examines our hearts. | 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. |
| 5As you know, we never used words of flattery or any pretext for greed. God is our witness! | 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! |
| 6Nor did we seek praise from you or from anyone else, although as apostles of Christ we had authority to demand it. | 6As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else. |
| 7On the contrary, we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother caring for her children. | 7As 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. |
| 8We cared so deeply that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives as well. That is how beloved you have become to us. | 8We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too. |
| 9Surely you recall, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to anyone while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. | 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. |
| 10You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless our conduct was among you who believed. | 10You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. |
| 11For you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children— | 11And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. |
| 12encouraging you, comforting you, and urging you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. | 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. |
| 13And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as the true word of God—the word which is now at work in you who believe. | 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. |
| 14For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Judea that are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen the very things they suffered from the Jews, | 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. |
| 15who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men, | 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 |
| 16hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them. | 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 |
| 17Brothers, although we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in heart), our desire to see you face to face was even more intense. | 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. |
| 18For we wanted to come to you—indeed I, Paul, tried again and again—but Satan obstructed us. | 18We wanted very much to come to you, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us. |
| 19After all, who is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting, if it is not you yourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? | 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! |
| 20You are indeed our glory and our joy. | 20Yes, you are our pride and joy. |
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