Dual Panel1My brothers, you know from your own experience that our visit to you was no failure.
2We had, as you also know, suffered and been treated with insults at Philippi, and we came on to you only because God gave us courage. Whatever the strain we came to tell you the gospel of God.
3Our message to you is true, our motives are pure, our conduct is absolutely above board.
4We speak under the solemn sense of being entrusted by God with the gospel. We do not aim to please men, but to please God who knows us through and through.
5No one could say, as again you know, that we used flattery to conceal greed, and God himself is our witness.
6We made no attempt to win honour from men, either from you or from anybody ease, though I suppose as Christ's own messengers we might have used the weight of our authority.
7Our attitude among you was one of tenderness, rather like a nurse caring for her babies.
8Because we loved you, it was a joy to us to give you not only the gospel of God but our very heartsso dear had you become to us.
9Our struggles and hard work, my brothers, must be still fresh in your minds. Day and night we worked so that our preaching of the gospel to you might not be a burden to any of you.
10You are witnesses, as is God himself, that our life among you believers was devoted, straightforward and above criticism.
11You will remember how we dealt with each one of you personally, like a father with his own children, comforting and encouraging.
12We told you from our own experience how to live lives worthy of the God who is calling you to share the splendor of his own kingdom.
13And so we are continually thankful to God that when you heard the Word of God from us you accepted it, not as a mere human message, but as it really is, God's Word, a power in the lives of you who believe.
14For you, my brothers, followed the example of the churches of God which have come into being through Christ Jesus in Judaea. For when you suffered at the hands of your fellowcountrymen you were sharing the experience of the Judaean Christian churches, who suffered persecution by the Jews.
15It was the Jews who killed their own prophets, the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus, and the Jews who drove us out. They do not please God, and are in opposition to all mankind.
16They refused to let us speak to the gentiles to tell them the message by which they could be saved. All these years they have been adding to the full record of their sins and finally the wrath of God has fallen upon them.
17Since we have been physically separated from you, my brothers (though never for a moment separated in heart), we have longed all the more to see you face to face.
18Yes, I, Paul, have longed to come and see you more than oncebut somehow Satan prevented our coming.
19For who could take your place as our hope and joy and pride when our Lord Jesus comes? Who but you, as you will stand before him at his coming?
20Yes, you are indeed our pride and our joy!