1 Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 We always give thanks to God for all of you, remembering you in our prayers,
3 remembering without ceasing before our God and Father the work of your faith, the work of your love and your perseverance in hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 For we know, brothers beloved of God, your choice;
5 For our gospel did not come to you in words only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit and in full assurance, as you know what we were among you for your sakes.
6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in the midst of great tribulation, with joy of the Holy Spirit,
7 so that you have been an example to all those in Macedonia and Achaia who have believed.
8 For the word of the Lord has been spread from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith in God has spread, so that we have no need to speak anything;
9 For they themselves tell of us how you received us, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God,
10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, to Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
1 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our visit to you was not in vain;
2 For having previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to announce to you the gospel of God in the midst of great opposition.
3 For our exhortation did not come from error or impurity, nor from deceit,
4 but as we were approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak; not as to please men, but God, who tests our hearts.
5 For we never use flattering words, as you know, nor do we cover up covetousness; God is witness;
6 nor do we seek glory from men; neither of you, nor of others, although we could be a burden to you as apostles of Christ.
7 Before, we were tender among you, like a nurse who tenderly cares for her own children.
8 So great is our affection for you, that we would have liked to give you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives; because you have become very dear to us.
9 For you remember, brothers, our work and toil; How, working night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.
10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless we believers behaved toward you;
11 Just as you also know how, like a father to his children, we exhorted and comforted each one of you,
12 and charged you to walk worthy of God, who called you to his kingdom and glory.
13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which works in you believers.
14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea; For you have suffered from your own nation the same things that they suffered from the Jews,
15 who killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and expelled us; and they do not please God, and are opposed to all men,
16 preventing us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; Thus they always fill the measure of their sins, since wrath came upon them to the extreme.
17 But we, brothers, separated from you for a little time, in sight but not in heart, all the more we seek with great desire to see your face;
18 therefore we wanted to come to you, I Paul certainly again and again; but Satan hindered us.
19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown that I may boast? Are you not so, before our Lord Jesus Christ, at his coming?
20 You are our glory and joy.
1 Therefore, not being able to endure it any longer, we agreed to remain alone in Athens,
2 and sent Timothy our brother, God’s servant and our fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to confirm and exhort you regarding your faith,
3 so that Let no one worry about these tribulations; because you yourselves know that this is what we are set for.
4 For while we were also with you, we predicted to you that we were going to experience tribulations, as has happened and you know.
5 Therefore I also, being unable to bear it any longer, sent to inform myself of your faith, lest the tempter should have tempted you, and our labor should prove in vain.
6 But when Timothy returned from you to us, and gave us good news of your faith and love, and that you always remembered us with affection, longing to see us, as we also wanted to see you,
7 therefore, brothers, in the midst of all our need and affliction we were comforted from you through your faith;
8 For now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord.
9 Therefore, what thanksgiving can we give to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice because of you before our God,
10 praying night and day with great insistence, that we may see your face? , and let us complete what is lacking in your faith?
11 But God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you.
12 And the Lord may cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we also do for you,
13 so that your hearts may be established, blameless in holiness before God our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
1 Finally, brothers, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that in the way that you learned from us how it is good for you to conduct yourselves and please God, so that you may abound more and more.
2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus;
3 for the will of God is your sanctification; that you depart from fornication;
4 that each of you know how to have his own wife in holiness and honor;
5 not in passion of concupiscence, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 let no one wrong or deceive his brother in anything; because the Lord is the avenger of all this, as we have already told you and testified to you.
7 For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to sanctification.
8 Therefore, whoever rejects this, he does not reject man, but God, who also gave us the Holy Spirit from him.
9 But about brotherly love you have no need for me to write to you, because you yourselves have learned from God to love one another;
10 And you also do this to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we beg you, brothers, to abound in it more and more;
11 and that you should try to be quiet, and go about your business, and work with your hands in the manner that we have commanded you,
12 so that you may conduct yourselves honorably toward outsiders, and have need of nothing.
13 Nor do we want you to be ignorant, brothers, about those who sleep, so that you may not grieve like others who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, God will also bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
15 Therefore we say this to you in the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 But about times and occasions, you have no need, brothers, for me to write to you.
2 For you know perfectly well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night;
3 that when they say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come upon them, as pain upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that that day should overtake you like a thief.
5 For you are all children of light and children of the day; We are not of the night or the darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep like others, but let us be awake and sober.
7 For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.
8 But we who are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and with the hope of salvation as a helmet.
9 For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep, we might live together with him.
11 Therefore encourage one another, and build one another up, just as you do.
12 We beseech you, brothers, recognize those who labor among you, and rule over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
13 and may you hold them in great esteem and love because of their work. Have peace among yourselves.
14 We also beseech you, brothers, to admonish the idle, to encourage the faint-hearted, to support the weak, to be patient toward all.
15 See to it that no one repays another evil for evil; but always pursue what is good towards each other, and towards everyone.
16 Rejoice always.
17 Pray without ceasing.
18 Give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
20 Do not despise prophecies.
21 Examine everything; retain the good.
22 Abstain from every kind of evil.
23 And may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole being, spirit, soul and body, be kept blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it.
25 Brothers, pray for us.
26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
27 I adjure you by the Lord, that this letter be read to all the holy brothers.
28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen