For we remember before our God and Father how you put your faith into practice, how your love made you work so hard, and how your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ is firm.

and stayed and worked with them, because he earned his living by making tents, just as they did.

You yourselves know that I have worked with these hands of mine to provide everything that my companions and I have needed.

I have shown you in all things that by working hard in this way we must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, 'There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.' "

we wear ourselves out with hard work. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure;

Or are Barnabas and I the only ones who have to work for our living?

But I haven't made use of any of these rights, nor am I writing this now in order to claim such rights for myself. I would rather die first! Nobody is going to turn my rightful boast into empty words!

We have been beaten, jailed, and mobbed; we have been overworked and have gone without sleep or food.

You yourselves know very well that you should do just what we did. We were not lazy when we were with you.

We did this, not because we do not have the right to demand our support; we did it to be an example for you to follow.

We struggle and work hard, because we have placed our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all and especially of those who believe.

Day and night we ask him with all our heart to let us see you personally and supply what is needed in your faith.

Day and night you punished me, LORD; my strength was completely drained, as moisture is dried up by the summer heat.

LORD God, my savior, I cry out all day, and at night I come before you.

I wish my head were a well of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I could cry day and night for my people who have been killed.

(SEE 2:36)

Now, will God not judge in favor of his own people who cry to him day and night for help? Will he be slow to help them?

Watch, then, and remember that with many tears, day and night, I taught every one of you for three years.

A widow who is all alone, with no one to take care of her, has placed her hope in God and continues to pray and ask him for his help night and day.

I give thanks to God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did. I thank him as I remember you always in my prayers night and day.

We did not try to get praise from anyone, either from you or from others,

Every governor who had been in office before me had been a burden to the people and had demanded forty silver coins a day for food and wine. Even their servants had oppressed the people. But I acted differently, because I honored God.

Every day I served one beef, six of the best sheep, and many chickens, and every ten days I provided a fresh supply of wine. But I knew what heavy burdens the people had to bear, and so I did not claim the allowance that the governor is entitled to.

What soldiers ever have to pay their own expenses in the army? What farmers do not eat the grapes from their own vineyard? What shepherds do not use the milk from their own sheep?

What pay do I get, then? It is the privilege of preaching the Good News without charging for it, without claiming my rights in my work for the gospel.

And during the time I was with you I did not bother you for help when I needed money; the believers who came from Macedonia brought me everything I needed. As in the past, so in the future: I will never be a burden to you!

How were you treated any worse than the other churches, except that I did not bother you for financial help? Please forgive me for being so unfair!

This is now the third time that I am ready to come to visit you---and I will not make any demands on you. It is you I want, not your money. After all, children should not have to provide for their parents, but parents should provide for their children.

You know how we had already been mistreated and insulted in Philippi before we came to you in Thessalonica. And even though there was much opposition, our God gave us courage to tell you the Good News that comes from him.

But I reckon my own life to be worth nothing to me; I only want to complete my mission and finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do, which is to declare the Good News about the grace of God.

From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus and an apostle chosen and called by God to preach his Good News.

of being a servant of Christ Jesus to work for the Gentiles. I serve like a priest in preaching the Good News from God, in order that the Gentiles may be an offering acceptable to God, dedicated to him by the Holy Spirit.

by the power of miracles and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit of God. And so, in traveling all the way from Jerusalem to Illyricum, I have proclaimed fully the Good News about Christ.

That teaching is found in the gospel that was entrusted to me to announce, the Good News from the glorious and blessed God.