1 Thessalonians 2:8–9

¹⁶Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

¹⁵And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

¹⁷Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.

¹¹For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

¹²That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

¹WE then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

¹⁹My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

¹⁷Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

¹THEREFORE, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

¹¹O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.

¹²Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.

¹³Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

²⁸Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

⁷As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;

¹²Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

¹⁵¶ Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken.

¹⁶Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

¹⁷But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.

²⁰For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.

²⁵Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.

²⁶For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.

¹PAUL, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer,

¹BRETHREN, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

²⁹And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

¹I SAY the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

²That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

³For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

²³Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.

²⁴But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

²And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.

⁸For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.

⁷For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;

⁸Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:

⁹Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.

⁹And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.

³And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers.

¹³For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.

¹⁴Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

¹⁵But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.

¹⁸What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.

⁶Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?

⁷Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

⁶Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.

¹⁰For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

⁵Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

³I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;

³¹Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

¹⁵But the former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.

¹⁸Now that which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine: yet for all this required not I the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.

¹²And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:

³Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

²But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.

¹⁰Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?

¹¹According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

⁵In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;

³⁴Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.

³⁵I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

¹OH that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

⁷And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

³⁷And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

¹⁶For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.

⁴For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

¹O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:

¹PAUL, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

¹⁶That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

¹⁹Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

²⁴But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.