Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us.

 (i) 1 Thessalonians 2:2 refers to the imprisonment and abuse that he had received at Philippi ( Acts 16:16-40). There were, no doubt, those in Thessalonica who said that this man Paul had a police record, that he was nothing less than a criminal on the run from justice and that obviously no one should listen to a man like that. A really malignant mind will twist anything into a slander. 