The statement we were infants among you
is the positive counterpart to the denial nor were we seeking honour from people.
So if Paul was claiming to be like an infant,
then that idea must in some way be opposed to the idea of seeking honour and emphasizing one’s own importance.
It is easy to see that an infant is a good metaphor for one who does not seek honour or insist on his own importance. Small children are dependent, weak, and vulnerable. They have no status to claim, no power to lord over others. Thus, when the disciples asked Jesus about greatness, he set a child in their midst and told them to humble themselves like children (Matthew 18:1–4; see also Luke 9:46–48). By comparing himself to a child, Paul shows that his behaviour and attitude among the Thessalonians were characterized by humility, rather than a sense of his own importance and status.
There is a dramatic contrast between being apostles of Christ, who bear something of his own power and authority, and coming to the Thessalonians as small children. By acting in this way, Paul demonstrated his desire to imitate Jesus, whom he celebrates in these words: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
(Philippians 2:6–8)
Thus Paul gives us a profound insight into his understanding and practice of ministry.
7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.