1 Thessalonians 2:9

For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.

World English Bible
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Other translations

WEBBE

For you remember, brothers, our labour and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.

BSB

Surely you recall, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to anyone while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

KJV

For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.

ASV

For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.

BBE

For you have the memory, my brothers, of our trouble and care; how, working night and day, so that we might not be a trouble to any of you, we gave you the good news of God.

Original Greek

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The early church

The teacher ought to do nothing with a feeling of being burdened, that tends to the salvation of his disciples. For if the blessed Jacob was buffeted night and day in keeping his flocks, much more ought he, to whom the care of souls is entrusted, to endure all toils, though the work be laborious and mean, looking only to one thing, the salvation of his disciples, and the glory thence arising to God. See then, Paul, a man that was a Preacher, an Apostle of the world, and raised to so great honor, worked with his hands that he might not be burdensome to his disciples. "For ye remember," he says, "my brethren, our labor and travail." He had said previously, "we might have been burdensome as the Apostles of Christ," as he also says in the Epistle to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that they which minister about sacred things eat of the things of the Temple? Even so also did Christ ordain that they which proclaim the Gospel should live of the Gospel." (1 Cor. ix. 13, 14) But I, he says, would not, but I labored; and he did not merely work, but with much diligence. Observe then what he says; "For ye remember," he has not said, the benefits received from me, but, "our labor and travail: for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God." And to the Corinthians he said a different thing, "I robbed other Churches, taking wages of them that I might minister unto you." (2 Cor. xi. 8) And yet even there he worked, but of this he made no mention, but urged what was more striking, as if he had said, I was maintained by others when ministering to you. But here it is not so. But what? "Working night and day." And there indeed he says, "And when I was present with you, and was in want, I was not a burden on any man," and, "I took wages that I might minister unto you." (2 Cor. xi. 8, 9) And here he shows that the men were in poverty, but there it was not so.
John Chrysostom · d. 407Homilies on 1 Thessalonians

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 7–12

Mildness and tenderness greatly recommend religion, and are most conformable to God's gracious dealing with sinners, in and by the gospel. This is the way to win people. We should not only be faithful to our calling as Christians, but in our particular callings and relations. Our great gospel privilege is, that God has called us to his kingdom and glory. The great gospel duty is, that we walk worthy of God. We should live as becomes those called with such a high and holy calling. Our great business is to honour, serve, and please God, and to seek to be worthy of him.

Read Matthew Henry on 1 Thessalonians 2 →

Cross-references

33

Topics

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.