1 Thessalonians 2:5-10

5Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money!

6As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.

7As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children.

8We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.

9Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you.

10You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers.