| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1For you yourselves know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a waste of time. | 1You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. |
| 2As you know, we suffered persecution and were mistreated in Philippi. Yet we were encouraged by our God to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. | 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 to you does not spring from deceit, impure motives, or trickery. | 3So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery. |
| 4Rather, because we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, we speak as we do, not trying to please people but God, who tests our motives. | 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 did not come with flattering words or with a scheme to make money. 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! |
| 6We did not seek praise from people—from you or from anyone else— | 6As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else. |
| 7even though as apostles of the Messiah we might have made such demands. Instead, we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother tenderly caring for her own 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 for you that we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but our very lives. That is how dear you were to us. | 8We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too. |
| 9Brothers, you remember our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not become a burden to any of you while we proclaimed the gospel of God to you. | 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 and God are witnesses of how pure, honest, and blameless our conduct was among you who believe. | 10You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. |
| 11You know very well that we treated each of you the way a father treats his children. | 11And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. |
| 12We comforted and encouraged you, urging you to live in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his 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. |
| 13Here is another reason why we constantly give thanks to God: When you received God's word, which you heard from us, you did not accept it as the word of humans but for what it really is—the word of God, which is 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 union with the Messiah Jesus. You suffered the same persecutions from the people of your own country as they did from those 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 the Lord Jesus and the prophets, who have persecuted us, and who please neither God nor any group of people, | 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 |
| 16as they try to keep us from telling the gentiles how they can be saved. As a result, they are constantly adding to the number of sins they have committed. However, wrath has overtaken them at last! | 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 have been separated from you for a little while—in person but not in heart—we eagerly desire to see you again face to face. | 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. |
| 18That is why we wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul, wanted to come time and again, but Satan blocked our way. | 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, joy, or reason for rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? It is you, isn't it? | 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! |
| 20Yes, you are our glory and joy! | 20Yes, you are our pride and joy. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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