It is important to notice Paul’s individual emphasis in 1 Thessalonians 2:11–12: [we exhorted] each one of you. The Greek is emphatic here. It reads ὡς ἕνα ἕκαστον ὑμῶν/hōs hena hekaston humōn: how [we exhorted] each one of you
; not simply each of you.
The church of the Thessalonians was not dealt with only as a group; Paul and his coworkers gave attention to the pastoral needs of each person, as a father would care for his own children.1,2
This kind of individual pastoral care could have taken place in the context of the household (see Acts 20:20) or of the workshop (see 1 Thessalonians 2:9).
11 For you know how, like a father with his children,