10. When we were there with you believers, we were pure, honest, and without fault in the way we lived. You know, just as God does, that this is true.
11. You know that we treated each one of you the way a father treats his own children.
12. We encouraged you, we comforted you, and we told you to live good lives for God. He calls you to be part of his glorious kingdom.
13. Also, we always thank God because of the way you accepted his message. You heard it and accepted it as God’s message, not our own. And it really is God’s message. And it works in you who believe.
14. Brothers and sisters, you are just like God’s churches in Judea. I mean that you were treated badly by your own people, just as those believers in Christ Jesus were treated badly by other Jews—
15. the same Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets. And they forced us to leave their country. They are not pleasing to God, and they are against everyone else.
16. And they are trying to stop us from teaching those who are not Jews. They don’t want them to be saved. But they are just adding more and more sins to the ones they already have. Now the time has come for them to suffer God’s anger.
17. Brothers and sisters, we were separated from you for a short time. But even though we were not there, our thoughts were still with you. We wanted very much to see you, and we tried very hard to do this.
18. Yes, we wanted to come to you. I, Paul, tried more than once to come, but Satan stopped us.
19. You are our hope, our joy, and the crown we will be proud of when our Lord Jesus Christ comes.