¹⁷Brothers and sisters, we were torn away from you for a short time. We were no longer with you in person, but we kept you in our thoughts. We really longed to see you. So we tried very hard to do so. ¹⁸We wanted to come to you. Again and again I, Paul, wanted to come. But Satan stopped us.

¹⁹What is our hope? What is our joy? When our Lord Jesus returns, what is the crown we will delight in? Isn’t it you? ²⁰Yes, you are our glory and our joy.

3We couldn’t wait any longer. So we thought it was best to be left by ourselves in Athens. ²We sent our brother Timothy to give you strength and hope in your faith. He works together with God in spreading the good news about Christ. ³We sent him so that no one would be upset by times of testing.

You know very well that we have to go through them. ⁴In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that our enemies would make us suffer. As you know very well, it has turned out that way.

⁵That’s the reason I sent someone to find out about your faith. I couldn’t wait any longer. I was afraid that Satan might have tempted you in some way. Then our efforts would have been useless.

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