1 Thessalonians 2:11

as ye know how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging you, and testifying,

Each one of you ... As Lipscomb noted, "This shows that converts were not made in masses, but that the slow, toilsome application of the gospel to individuals, one by one,"[21] did the work.

Three verbs here outline the function of the type of father to which Paul compared himself in this, another strikingly beautiful metaphor. These are exhorted, comforted and testified. "Testified" would be more accurately rendered "charged" as in Nestle Greek translation.[22] See below.

Exhorting you ... This means persuading people to adopt a certain course of action and is applicable to the persuasive words by which Paul wooed and won them to Christ as well as to specific admonitions to godly living following conversion.

Encouraging you ... He is a poor preacher who neglects to encourage the Christians who hear him. Nothing is more soul-killing and church-diminishing than a preacher who never has any remarks of praise and encouragement for his hearers.

Testifying ... This is an unfortunate rendition because of its usual interpretation of "sounding off"' in public meetings. It is not that kind of "testifying" that Paul meant. The Nestle Greek rendition (see footnote) renders this, "As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you." That this is the proper word appears from the account of what was "witnessed" as recounted in 1 Thessalonians 2:12, immediately afterward.

[21] David Lipscomb, Commentary on 1Thessalonians (Nashville: The Gospel Advocate Company, 1976), p. 29.

[22] Alfred Marshall, The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Nestle Greek Text (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 804.