‘Even so being affectionately desirous of you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own inner selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labour and travail. Working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.'
We learn here the great love that Paul had for his converts. ‘Affectionately desirous' expresses the idea of a yearning love. It was used on a grave inscription describing the parents' sad yearning for their dead child. He gave them not only the Good News, but himself as well, because of how much they meant to him. Beware the preacher who lacks love, and does not impart his inner self to his hearers.
This was further demonstrated by the huge effort he put into bringing home to them the Gospel. ‘Labour and travail', represents wearisome toil and hard and painful toil. They had worn themselves out, working to support themselves (see Acts 18:3) so as not to be a financial burden, and preaching night and day whenever opportunity arose, until they were exhausted.
Note the stress in this chapter on ‘the Good News of God' (1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:8-9). He wants to stress that the Good News is from God, and reveals God, because He is its source.