5 For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness— 6 nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority. 7 But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.
I'm reminded of a line from Smokey and the Bandit-"...for the glory, for the money, and for the fun . . . mostly for the money." Paul and the Bandit aren't exactly on the same page.
Paul wasn't looking for glory (although he got it by being well-read by millions two millennia on), nor was he looking for money (he made tents for a living so he wasn't hitting up new converts for money) and getting beat up and run out of town wasn't exactly fun.
What made Paul do it? Well, Jesus hitting you over the head with a 2-by-4 on the road to Damascus is a decent motivator. A face-to-face encounter with God incarnate (along with the guidance of the Holy Spirit) gave him the strength to face goon squads from both Jews and pagans on a regular basis.
Paul was far from a shrinking violet, but he didn't pull rank or brow-beat the folks in Thessalonica into following him. Instead, he used the metaphor of gently treating them as a mom would a baby; try running that by an alt-right denizen.
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