17 As for us, friends, when we were separated from you for a little while—not in our thoughts, of course, but only in body—how we missed you and how hard we tried to see you again!
18 We wanted to return to you. I myself tried to go back more than once, but Satan would not let us.
19 After all, it is you—you, no less than others!—who are our hope, our joy, and our reason for boasting of our victory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes.
20 Indeed, you are our pride and our joy!