1 Thessalonians 2:1-20 (NLT)
1 You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure.
2 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 So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.
4 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 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 As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.
7 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 We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.
9 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 yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers.
11 And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children.
12 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 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 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 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 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 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 We wanted very much to come to you, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us.
19 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 Yes, you are our pride and joy.
What a beautiful picture of a healthy relationship between the messenger of the Gospel and those who receive that message. From the very beginning, despite intense opposition and hardship, there was a sincere and passionate love expressed toward the church. Paul emphasizes the purity of their motives, likely because others were ministering with deceitful or selfish intentions for personal gain and exploitation of the church.
Because they lived openly and transparently among the believers, the authenticity of both their lives and their message was confirmed. Their conduct gave credibility to the truth they preached, establishing it as the very heart and voice of God to those who received it. This conviction was essential, because the relationship between spiritual leaders and the church is meant to be far more than merely platonic or social. The life and strength of the church depend upon this genuine expression of truth spoken in love from the Father’s heart, and upon its wholehearted reception in the lives of His people.
Many have experienced situations in which motives within church ministry were less than pure. As a result, there can be hesitation to receive the ministry of the Word as truly coming from God Himself. Certainly, discernment is necessary in these matters. Yet there is also a great need to recognize and receive those whose hearts are genuinely set upon God and His purposes.
This kind of authentic spiritual relationship remains essential for the unity and strengthening of the body of Christ and for the fulfillment of the Father’s purpose and plan. Experiencing this godly affection in lives that are being transformed and brought to maturity becomes the lifeblood of a union with Christ that is expressed through His body, the church.