1 Thessalonians 2:9–16

⁹For you recall, brethren, our ^alabor and hardship, how ^bworking night and day so as not to be a ^cburden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the ^dgospel of God.

¹⁰You are witnesses, and so is ^aGod, ^bhow devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we ¹behaved toward you ²believers;

¹¹just as you know how we were ^aexhorting and encouraging and ^1bimploring each one of you as ^ca father would his own children,

¹²so that you would ^awalk in a manner worthy of the God who ^bcalls you into His own kingdom and ^cglory.

¹³For this reason we also constantly ^athank God that when you received the ^bword of God which you heard from us, you accepted it ^cnot as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, ^dwhich also performs its work in you who believe.

¹⁴For you, brethren, became ^aimitators of ^bthe churches of God in Christ Jesus that are ^cin Judea, for ^dyou also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, ^eeven as they did from the Jews,

^15awho both killed the Lord Jesus and ^bthe prophets, and ¹drove us out. ²They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men,

^16ahindering us from speaking to the Gentiles ^bso that they may be saved; with the result that they always ^cfill up the measure of their sins. But ^dwrath has come upon them ¹to the utmost.