1 Thessalonians 2:8

so being affectionately desirous of you R. V., even so.

The rare and peculiar Greek verb (one word) rendered "being affectionately desirous" implies the fondnessof a mother's love yearning over you.

With this mother-like affection, he continues, we were well pleased to impart unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls (R. V.). The apostles were not merely willing(A.V.) to bestow themselves on the Thessalonians, they actually did so, and with the glad consent of a mother nourishing the babe from her own life. The same verb is rendered "thought-good" in ch. 1 Thessalonians 3:1; and the corresponding noun is "good-pleasure" in 2 Thessalonians 1:2 (see note).

For "souls" we might read "lives" (psychéis never the soul in general, but the individual soul, the personality) our lives, our very selves. The Apostle sacrificed all personal aims and private interests "what things were gains to me" (Philippians 3:7) to the cause of the Gospel; his life was put in continual hazard in behalf of the Church; and for such people as the Macedonian Christians he did this with cordial satisfaction. "If I am made a libation over the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all" (Philippians 2:17). Even to the thankless Corinthians he says, "I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls" (2 Corinthians 12:15). This is the true way to "impart the gospel of God," to give our own heart and soul with it. For it is to impart the Gospel in the spirit in which it came from God, "Who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all" (Romans 8:32); and in the spirit of Christ, "Who gave Himself up for us" (Galatians 1:4; Galatians 2:20), Who "poured out His soul unto death" (Isaiah 53:12).

because ye were dear unto us More adequately, ye became very dear (R. V.); lit., beloved, the word so often applied to Christ (in the Gospels) by the Father: "My Beloved," "My Son, the Beloved" (comp. Ephesians 1:6, "accepted in the Beloved"). This Church had won upon St Paul's affections in an especial degree. They were lovable people, dear to God and to the servants of God. Comp. ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:3-4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:16; see also Introd.pp. 34, 35, and notes on 1 Thessalonians 2:19.