Our exhortation - The word παρακλησιςhas a very extensive meaning; it signifies not only exhortation and teaching in general, but also encouragement, consolation, and the like. When the apostles exhorted or admonished men, it was that they should turn from evil to good, from misery to happiness, from Satan to God, and from hell to heaven. Their exhortations having this object, every word was consolatory; and as the truth which they delivered was unquestionable, therefore their ministry was a subject of the highest encouragement and joy.

Not of deceit - We did not endeavor to allure you with false pretences; we did not deceive you, nor were we deceived ourselves.

Nor of uncleanness - Such as the teachings of the Gentile philosophers were; their supreme gods were celebrated for their adulteries, fornications, uncleannesses, thefts, barbarities, and profligacies of the most odious kind. Our Gospel was pure; came from the pure and holy God; was accompanied with the influences of the Holy Spirit, and produced purity both in the hearts and lives of all that received it.

Nor in guile - We had no false pretences, and were influenced by no sinister motives.

1 Thessalonians 2:5,6,11 For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness...

1 Thessalonians 4:1,2 Furthermore then we beseech you, brothers, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus...

Numbers 16:15 And Moses was very wroth, and said to the LORD, Respect not you their offering: I have not taken one donkey from them...

1 Samuel 12:3 Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose donkey have I taken?...

Acts 20:33,34 I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel...

2 Corinthians 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:2,5 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully...

2 Corinthians 7:2 Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.

2 Corinthians 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:16-18 But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile...

2 Peter 1:16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ...

The Calling of the Regenerate:
"Whom He did predestinate, them He also called."--Rom. viii. 30. In order to hear, the sinner, deaf by nature, must receive hearing ears. "He that hath ears let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." (Rev. ii. 7, 11, 17, 29; iii. 6, 13, 22). But by nature the sinner does not belong to these favored ones. This is a daily experience. Of two clerks in the same office, one obeys the call and the other rejects it; not because he despises it, but because he does not hear God's call in it. Hence …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit