<p>2:9- see on Phil. 4:16.</p><p><em>For, brothers, you remember our labour and distress, working night and day, so that we would not burden any of you while we preached the gospel of God to you</em>- Paul was only there with them for three Sabbath days. But he didn't have the cash in hand to support himself and his team for that time; he had to somehow work, presumably doing manual work on a casual basis. He would have had no time to set up a tentmaking business in three weeks; at best he could have only worked for a tentmaker on a casual basis. So he worked nights too, so desperate was he for cash. This makes his love for the Thessalonians the more remarkable, for he twice mentions that there were lazy people amongst them who didn't work (5:14; 2 Thess.3:11). And he had only recently been thrown into prison and badly beaten in Philippi, so his health and ability to do manual work was limited. His example is even the more commendable because he knew that he would have been quite justified in asking for basic support. He reminds them again of this in 2 Thess. 3:8,9: &quot;Neither did we eat bread for nothing at anyone's hand; but we ate our bread as the result of our own labour and toil, working night and day, that we might not financially burden any of you. Not because we do not have the right to do so, but to make ourselves an example to you- that you should imitate us&quot;. All this also suggests that the number of contact hours he had with the Thessalonians was limited. He worked by night perhaps so he could teach folks by day; but they too had to work, and so they learned the Gospel in a very short time. The power of the most basic ideas of the Gospel, even if one has only a few hours to explain them, is enough to radically turn around the religiously curious into those on fire for Christ, willing to sacrifice all. And it was during the course of his daily work that he won many converts: &ldquo;You remember, brothers, our work and toil. <em>It was while</em> we were labouring night and day&hellip; that we proclaimed to you the gospel of God&rdquo; (1 Thess. 2:9 Gk.). People would have been stunned and deeply impressed by this man, as with lash marks on his back he carried water or shifted fruit or building material around the town to support himself... and it was whilst doing this that he preached and people believed. Celsus claimed that Christianity was attractive &ldquo;only to the foolish, dishonourable and stupid, and only slaves, women and little children&hellip; the Christian evangelists were wool-workers, cobblers, laundry-workers, and the most illiterate and bucolic yokels who enticed &hellip; children and stupid women to come along to &hellip; the wooldresser&rsquo;s shop, or to the cobbler&rsquo;s or the washerwoman&rsquo;s shop, that they may learn perfection&rdquo;. This could almost be a quotation from 1 Cor. 1, where Paul describes the converts as just such people. And yet from out of their ordinary life situations, the witness went forth. Not from specially built halls, but from the workplace. And so it has ever been. This is why Pliny could observe that Christianity &ldquo;penetrated not only the cities but even the villages and farms&rdquo;. It was individuals converting individuals. &nbsp;</p>