Study Desk

but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.

but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.

For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness—

Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.

For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers;

so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.

For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews,

who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men,

For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account,

Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you;

so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.

Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;

not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.

So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.