1 Thessalonians 2 - Easy To Read Version

¹ Brothers and sisters, you know that our visit to you was not a failure.

² Before we came to you, we suffered in Philippi. People there said bad things against us. You know all about that. And when we came to you, many people were against us. But our God helped us to be brave. He helped us to tell you his Good News. {\cf2\super [4]}

³ We encourage (teach) people. No person has fooled us. We are not evil. We are not trying to trick people. Those are not our reasons for doing what we do.

⁴ No. We speak the Good News because God tested us and trusted us to tell the Good News. So when we speak, we are not trying to please men. We are trying to please God. God is the One who tests (looks closely at) our hearts.

⁵ You know that we never tried to influence you by saying nice things about you. We were not trying to get your money. We had no greed to hide from you. God knows that this is true.

⁶ We were not looking for praise from people. We were not looking for praise from you or any other people.

⁷ We are apostles {\cf2\super [5]} of Christ. And so when we were with you, we could have used our authority to make you do things. But we were very gentle {\cf2\super [6]} with you. We were like a mother caring for her little children.

⁸ We loved you very much. So we were happy to share God’s Good News {\cf2\super [7]} with you; but not only that—we were also happy to share even our own lives with you.

⁹ Brothers and sisters, I know that you remember how hard we worked. We worked night and day. We did not want to burden you \{by making you pay us\} while we did the work of telling God’s Good News to you.

¹⁰ When we were with you believers, we lived in a holy and right way, without fault. You know that this is true, and God knows that this is true.

¹¹ You know that we treated each one of you like a father treats his own children.

¹² We encouraged you, we comforted you, and we told you to live good lives for God. God calls you to his kingdom and glory.

¹³ Also, we always thank God because of the way you accepted God’s message (teaching). You heard that message from us, and you accepted it like it was God’s words, not the words of men. And it really is God’s message (teaching). And that message works in you people who believe.

¹⁴ Brothers and sisters, you are like God’s churches (people) in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. {\cf2\super [8]} God’s people in Judea suffered bad things from the other Jews there. And you suffered the same bad things from the people of your own country.

¹⁵ Those Jews killed the Lord Jesus. And they killed the prophets. {\cf2\super [9]} And those Jews forced us to leave that country (Judea). God is not pleased with them. They are against all people.

¹⁶ Yes. They try to stop us from teaching the non-Jews. We teach the non-Jews so that the non-Jews can be saved. But those Jews are adding more and more sins to the sins they already have. The anger of God has fully come to them now.