1 Thessalonians 2 (WEB)

1 Thessalonians 2

¹ For you yourselves know, brothers, our visit to you wasn’t in vain,

² but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as you know, at Philippi, we grew bold in our God to tell you the Good News of God in much conflict.

³ For our exhortation is not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in deception.

⁴ But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak—not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts.

⁵ For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),

⁶ nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ.

⁷ But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

⁸ Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us.

⁹ For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.

¹⁰ You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.

¹¹ As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children,

¹² to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.

¹³ For this cause we also thank God without ceasing that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, God’s word, which also works in you who believe.

¹⁴ For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews

¹⁵ who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men,

¹⁶ forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.

¹⁷ But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire,

¹⁸ because we wanted to come to you—indeed, I, Paul, once and again—but Satan hindered us.

¹⁹ For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?

²⁰ For you are our glory and our joy.

Around 1 Thessalonians 2

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

1 Thessalonians 2 · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this chapter says

Paul asks the Thessalonians to remember how he came to them. He had just been shamefully treated at Philippi, and still he and his companions grew bold to tell the Good News in much conflict. They did not flatter anyone. They did not ask for money or praise, though they might have claimed the weight of apostles. Instead they were gentle, “like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.” They worked night and day so that no one would be burdened, and they urged each person as a father does his own children.

Then the chapter turns hard. Paul thanks God that they received the message as God’s word, and he says they suffered from their own countrymen as the assemblies in Judea suffered. In that setting he speaks sharply of “the Jews” who killed Jesus and the prophets. The chapter ends in longing: he tried again and again to see them, and he calls them his hope, his joy and his glory.

Background

Paul writes to a young assembly he had to leave soon after he helped found it, and he reminds them of how he and his co-workers behaved among them. The letter is usually dated around AD 50 to 51, which would make it one of the earliest New Testament writings. See Acts 17 for the visit. The sharp words in verses 14 to 16 come out of a conflict inside the Jewish world, and Paul was a Jew himself. They have been badly misused against Jewish people as a whole, and many readers take them to describe particular opponents.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 18 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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