But we were gentle among you - Instead of using authority, we used only the most kind and gentle methods to win you and to promote your peace and order. The word here rendered "nurse," may mean any one who nurses a child, whether a mother or another person. It seems here to refer to a mother (compare 1-Thessalonians 2:11), and the idea is, that the apostle felt for them the affectionate solicitude which a mother does for the child at her breast.

But we were gentle among you - Far from assuming the authority which we had, we acted towards you as a tender nurse or parent does to a delicate child. We fed, counselled, cherished, and bore with you; we taught you to walk, preserved you from stumbling, and led you in a right path.
Instead of ηπιοι, gentle, many MSS., and several versions and fathers, have νηπιοι, young children. But this never can be considered the original reading, the scope of the place being totally opposed to it. It is the Thessalonians whom the apostle considers as young children, and himself and fellow laborers as the nurse; he could with no propriety say that he was among them as a little child, while himself professed to be their nurse.

But we were (f) gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:
(f) We were rough, and yet easy and gentle as a nurse that is neither seeking glory, nor covetous, but who takes all pains as patiently as if she were a mother.

But we were gentle among you,.... Meek and humble, mild and moderate; not using severity, or carrying it in a haughty imperious manner; assuming power and dominion, lording it over God's heritage, and commanding persons to do homage and honour to them, and forcing themselves upon them, and obliging them to maintain them. The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions, instead of "gentle", read, "little children"; as the word signifies, by adding a letter to it, and expresses much the same as the other, that they were harmless and modest, and disinterested; and sought not themselves neither honour nor wealth, but the real good of others, and were kind and tender, and affectionate to them:
even as a nurse cherisheth her children: or "the children of her own self"; her own children, and so designs a nursing mother, one whose the children are, has bore them as well as nurses them, and therefore has the most tender concern for them; she lays them in her bosom, and hugs them in her arms, and so warms and cherishes them; gives them the breast, bears with their frowardness, condescends to do the meanest things for them; and that without any self-interest, from a pure parental affection for them: and such were the apostles to these Thessalonians; they were their spiritual parents, of whom they travailed in birth, till Christ was formed in them; they used them with the greatest kindness and tenderness; they fed them with the sincere milk of the word; they bore patiently all the slighting and ill treatment they met with; and condescended to men of low estates, and did them all the good offices they could, without any selfish views or sinister ends: a like simile is used by the Jews (e), who say,
"he that rises in the night to study in the law, the law makes known to him his offences; and not in a way of judgment, but as a mother makes known to her son, "with gentle words":''
but the ministration of the Gospel is much more gentle.
(e) Zohar in Leviticus. fol. 10. 2.

Mildness and tenderness greatly recommend religion, and are most conformable to God's gracious dealing with sinners, in and by the gospel. This is the way to win people. We should not only be faithful to our calling as Christians, but in our particular callings and relations. Our great gospel privilege is, that God has called us to his kingdom and glory. The great gospel duty is, that we walk worthy of God. We should live as becomes those called with such a high and holy calling. Our great business is to honour, serve, and please God, and to seek to be worthy of him.

we were--Greek, "we were made" by God's grace.
gentle--Greek, "mild in bearing with the faults of others" [TITTMANN]; one, too, who is gentle (though firm) in reproving the erroneous opinions of others (2-Timothy 2:24). Some of the oldest manuscripts read, "we became little children" (compare Matthew 18:3-4). Others support the English Version reading, which forms a better antithesis to 1-Thessalonians 2:6-7, and harmonizes better with what follows; for he would hardly, in the same sentence, compare himself both to the "infants" or "little children," and to "a nurse," or rather, "suckling mother." Gentleness is the fitting characteristic of a nurse.
among you--Greek, "in the midst of you," that is, in our intercourse with you being as one of yourselves.
nurse--a suckling mother.
her--Greek, "her own children" (compare 1-Thessalonians 2:11). So Galatians 4:19.

But we were gentle - Mild, tender. In the midst of you - Like a hen surrounded with her young. Even as a nurse cherisheth her own children - The offspring of her own womb.