Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
To look up a word in a dictionary, select the word with your mouse and press 'd' on your keyboard.
Paul's Work in Thessalonica
1 Our brothers, you yourselves
know that our visit to you was
not a failure.
2 You know how we
had already been mistreated and insulted
in Philippi before we came to
you in Thessalonica. And even
though there was much opposition,
our God gave us courage to tell you
the Good News that comes from
him. note
3 Our appeal to you is not based
on error or impure motives, nor do
we try to trick anyone.
4 Instead, we
always speak as God wants us to,
because he has judged us worthy to
be entrusted with the Good News.
We do not try to please men, but to
please God, who tests our motives.
5 You know very well that we did not
come to you with flattering talk, nor
did we use words to cover up
greed—God is our witness!
6 We did
not try to get praise from anyone, either
from you or from others,
7 even
though as apostles of Christ we
could have made demands on you.
But we were gentle when we were
with you, like a mother note taking care
of her children.
8 Because of our love
for you we were ready to share with
you not only the Good News from
God but even our own lives. You
were so dear to us!
9 Surely you remember,
our brothers, how we
worked and toiled! We worked day
and night so that we would not be
any trouble to you as we preached to
you the Good News from God.
10 You are our witnesses, and so is
God, that our conduct toward you
who believe was pure, right, and
without fault.
11 You know that we
treated each one of you just as a father
treats his own children.
12 We
encouraged you, we comforted you,
and we kept urging you to live the
kind of life that pleases God, who
calls you to share in his own Kingdom
and glory.
13 And there is another reason why
we always give thanks to God.
When we brought you God's message,
you heard it and accepted it,
not as man's message but as God's
message, which indeed it is. For God
is at work in you who believe.
14 Our
brothers, the same things happened
to you that happened to the
churches of God in Judea, to the
people there who belong to Christ
Jesus. You suffered the same persecutions
from your own countrymen
that they suffered from the Jews, note
15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the
prophets, and persecuted us. How
displeasing they are to God! How
hostile they are to everyone! note
16 They
even tried to stop us from preaching
to the Gentiles the message that
would bring them salvation. In this
way they have brought to completion
all the sins they have always
committed. And now God's anger
has at last come down on them!
Paul's Desire to Visit Them Again
17 As for us, brothers, when we
were separated from you for a little
while—not in our thoughts, of
course, but only in body—how we
missed you and how hard we tried to
see you again!
18 We wanted to return
to you. I myself tried to go back
more than once, but Satan would
not let us.
19 After all, it is you—you,
no less than others!—who are our
hope, our joy, and our reason for
boasting of our victory in the presence
of our Lord Jesus when he
comes.
20 Indeed, you are our pride
and our joy!
-- --
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
|