The phrase because of our love for you must be rendered in some languages as a clause, “because we love you so much.” The term used for love should include all the activities which express friendship and fellowship.

To share … the Good News is often rendered as “to let you also know about the Good News.”

It is difficult in some languages to speak of “sharing our own lives with you.” Some interpret it as “willingness to die for you,” and others as “doing everything that we possibly could to help you.”

You were so dear to us may be equivalent to “we loved you very much indeed” or “we loved you so much.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .