What does 1 Thessalonians 2:12 mean?

This continues the father-children analogy Paul began in the prior verse, describing his ministry to the Thessalonians. Just as a father teaches and encourages his children, so Paul urged and encouraged the Thessalonian Christians to live in a way that would honor God, who had summoned them to partake of His kingdom and glory.

With his Jewish background Paul would have recalled the command God gave to the Israelite fathers before the nation entered the Promised Land. He charged them with the responsibility to teach His commandments, statutes, and rules "diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise" (Deuteronomy 6:7). Paul took his spiritual father status seriously and discharged his responsibility faithfully.

Proverbs 4 describes a wise father's instructions to his son and the son's responsibility to heed the instructions. The chapter begins with an exhortation: "Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight" (Proverbs 4:1). Like a wise father, Paul had instructed his spiritual children at Thessalonica.