1 Thessalonians 2:5

1 Thessalonians 2:5. Nor introduces proof that he had not striven to please men; for he who seeks to please men, flatters them, which Paul had not done.

Nor a cloak of covetousness. In Greece some men made handsome incomes by teaching new systems of philosophy; but Paul's preaching was in no sense a means of making money. Timothy must have smiled or laughed aloud when he reported to Paul: They say you are a strolling sophist, living on the earnings of harder-worked men, and greedy of money.

God is witness. ‘The Greek commentators pertinently remark, that, in what men could judge of, he appeals to his readers; but, in what they could not so distinctly recognise, he appeals to God' (Ellicott). Somewhat similarly Cromwell declares to his first Parliament: ‘That I lie not in matter of fact, is known to very many; but whether I tell a lie in my heart, as labouring to represent to you what was not upon my hearty I say, the Lord be judge.'