I Thessalonians 1-3

I Thessalonians 1

¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

²We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers,

³remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

⁴We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen,

⁵and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake.

⁶You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,

⁷so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia.

⁸For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we need not say anything.

⁹For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God,

¹⁰and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

I Thessalonians 2

¹For you yourselves know, brothers, our visit to you wasn’t in vain,

²but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as you know, at Philippi, we grew bold in our God to tell you the Good News of God in much conflict.

³For our exhortation is not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in deception.

⁴But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak—not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts.

⁵For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),

⁶nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ.

⁷But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

⁸Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us.

⁹For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.

¹⁰You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.

¹¹As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children,

¹²to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.

¹³For this cause we also thank God without ceasing that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, God’s word, which also works in you who believe.

¹⁴For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews

¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men,

¹⁶forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.

¹⁷But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire,

¹⁸because we wanted to come to you—indeed, I, Paul, once and again—but Satan hindered us.

¹⁹For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?

²⁰For you are our glory and our joy.

I Thessalonians 3

¹Therefore when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone,

²and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the Good News of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith,

³that no one would be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task.

⁴For most certainly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know.

⁵For this cause I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain.

⁶But Timothy has just now come to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you.

⁷For this cause, brothers, we were comforted over you in all our distress and affliction through your faith.

⁸For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.

⁹For what thanksgiving can we give again to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God,

¹⁰night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith?

¹¹Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you.

¹²May the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all men, even as we also do toward you,

¹³to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.