1 Thessalonians 2:11

as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a fatherdoth his children The R. V. recasts the verse, restoring the order and emphasis of the Apostle's words: how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging you, and testifying, &c. "Dealt with" is not in the Greek, but English idiom requires some such verb to sustain the participles that follow. The writer intended to complete the sentence with some governing verb, but the intervening words carried his thoughts away. See the observations on St Paul's style in the Introd.Chap. VI.

The Apostle compared himself to a nurse-mother(1 Thessalonians 2:7) in his tender, gentle affection; now he is a fatherin the fidelity and manly strength of his counsels. Comp. 1 Corinthians 4:14-21, where he gives a different turn to the figure.

"Exhorting" is the general term for animating address: comp. notes on 1 Thessalonians 2:3, and ch. 1 Thessalonians 3:2. "Encouraging" (as in ch. 1 Thessalonians 5:14; John 11:19; John 11:31; rendered uniformly in A.V., "comforting") is the calming and consoling side of exhortation, as addressed to the afflicted or the weak. "Testifying" (same word as in Galatians 5:3; Ephesians 4:17; Acts 26:22) supplies its solemn, warning element. The Thessalonian Church was both suffering and tempted, and the Apostle's ministry to them had been at once consolatory and admonitory. So are his two Epistles.

every one Lit., each single one, as in 2 Thessalonians 1:3, indicates St Paul's discrimination and care for individuals. Comp. the "publicly, and from house to house" of Acts 20:20.