1   From Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the congregation of Thessalonians who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace to you and peace.

2   We always thank God for you all, and mention you in our prayers continually. 3   We call to mind, before our God and Father, how your faith has shown itself in action, your love in labour, and your hope of our Lord Jesus Christ in fortitude. 4   We are certain, brothers beloved by God, 5   that he has chosen you and that ^note when we brought you the Gospel, we brought it not in mere words but in the power of the Holy Spirit, and with strong conviction, as you know well. That is the kind of men we were at Thessalonica, and it was for your sake.

6   And you, in your turn, followed the example set by us and by the Lord; the welcome you gave the message meant grave suffering for you, yet you rejoiced in the Holy Spirit; 7   thus you have become a model for all believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8   From Thessalonica the word of the Lord rang out; and not in Macedonia and Achaia alone, but everywhere your faith in God has reached men's ears. 9   No words of ours are needed, for they themselves spread the news of our visit to you and its effect: how you turned from idols, to be servants of the living and true God, 10   and to wait expectantly for the appearance from heaven of his Son Jesus, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the terrors of judgement to come.

1   You know for yourselves, brothers, that our visit to you was not fruitless. 2   Far from it; after all the injury and outrage which to your knowledge we had suffered at Philippi, we declared the gospel of God to you frankly and fearlessly, by the help of our God. A hard struggle it was. 3   Indeed, the appeal we make never springs from

Hope and discipline error or base motive; 4   there is no attempt to deceive; but God has approved us as fit to be entrusted with the Gospel, and on those terms we speak. We do not curry favour with men; we seek only the favour of God, who is continually testing our hearts. 5   Our words have never been flattering words, as you have cause to know; nor, as God is our witness, have they ever been a cloak for greed. 6   We have never sought honour from men, from you or from anyone else, although as Christ's own envoys we might have made our weight felt; 7   but we were as gentle with you as a nurse caring fondly for her children. 8   With such yearning love we chose to impart to you not only the gospel of God but our very selves, so dear had you become to us. 9   Remember, brothers, how we toiled and drudged. We worked for a living night and day, rather than be a burden to anyone, while we proclaimed before you the good news of God.

10   We call you to witness, yes and God himself, how devout and just and blameless was our behaviour towards you who are believers. 11   As you well know, we dealt with you one by one, as a father deals with his children, appealing to you by encouragement, as well as by solemn injunctions, 12   to live lives worthy of the God who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

13   This is why we thank God continually, because when we handed on God's message, you received it, not as the word of men, but as what it truly is, the very word of God at ^note work in you who hold the faith. 14   You have fared like the congregations in Judaea, God's people in Christ Jesus. You have been treated by your countrymen as they are treated by the Jews, 15   who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets ^note and drove us out, the Jews who are heedless of God's will and enemies of their fellow-men, 16   hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles to lead them to salvation. All this time they have been making up the full measure of their guilt, and now retribution has overtaken them for good and all. ^note

17   My friends, when for a short spell you were lost to us—lost to sight, not to our hearts—we were exceedingly anxious to see you again. 18   So we did propose to come to Thessalonica—I, Paul, more than once—but Satan thwarted us. 19   For after all, what hope or joy or crown of pride is there for us, what indeed but you, when we stand

Hope and discipline before our Lord Jesus at his coming? 20   It is you who are indeed our glory and our joy.

1   So when we could bear it no longer, we decided to remain alone at Athens, 2   and sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow-worker ^note in the service of the gospel of Christ, to encourage you to stand firm for the faith and, under all these hardships, not to be shaken; ^note 3    for you know that this is our appointed lot. 4   When we were with you we warned you that we were bound to suffer hardship; and so it has turned out, as you know. 5   And thus it was that when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter might have tempted you and my labour might be lost.

6   But now Timothy has just arrived from Thessalonica, bringing good news of your faith and love. He tells us that you always think kindly of us, and are as anxious to see us as we are to see you. 7   And so in all our difficulties and hardships your faith reassures us about you. 8   It is the breath of life to us that you stand firm in the Lord. 9   What thanks can we return to God for you? What thanks for all the joy you have brought us, 10   making us rejoice before our God while we pray most earnestly night and day to be allowed to see you again and to mend your faith where it falls short?

11   May our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, bring us direct to you; 12   and may the Lord make your love mount and overflow towards one another and towards all, as our love does towards you. 13   May he make your hearts firm, so that you may stand before our God and Father holy and faultless when our Lord Jesus comes with all those who are his own.

1   And now, my friends, we have one thing to beg and pray of you, by our fellowship with the Lord Jesus. We passed on to you the tradition of the way we must live to please God; you are indeed already following it, but we beg you to do so yet more thoroughly.

2   For you know what orders we gave you, in the name of the Lord Jesus. 3   This is the will of God, that you should be holy: you must abstain from fornication; 4   each one of you must learn to gain mastery over his body, 5   to hallow and honour it, not giving way to lust like the pagans who are ignorant of God; 6   and no man must do his

Hope and discipline brother wrong in this matter, ^note or invade his rights, because, as we told you before with all emphasis, the Lord punishes all such offences. 7    8   For God called us to holiness, not to impurity. Anyone therefore who flouts these rules is flouting, not man, but God who bestows upon you his Holy Spirit.

9   About love for our brotherhood you need no words of mine, for you are yourselves taught by God to love one another, 10   and you are in fact practising this rule of love towards all your fellow-Christians throughout Macedonia. Yet we appeal to you, brothers, to do better still. 11   Let it be your ambition to keep calm and look after your own business, 12   and to work with your hands, as we ordered you, so that you may command the respect of those outside your own number, and at the same time may never be in want.

13   We wish you not to remain in ignorance, brothers, about those who sleep in death; you should not grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14   We believe that Jesus died and rose again; and so it will be for those who died as Christians; God will bring them to life with Jesus. ^note

15   For this we tell you as the Lord's word: we who are left alive until the Lord comes shall not forestall those who have died; 16   because at the word of command, at the sound of the archangel's voice and God's trumpet-call, the Lord himself will descend from heaven; first the Christian dead will rise, 17   then we who are left alive shall join them, caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18   Console one another, then, with these words.

1   About dates and times, my friends, we need not write to you, 2   for you know perfectly well that the Day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. 3   While they are talking of peace and security, all at once calamity is upon them, sudden as the pangs that come upon a woman with child; and there will be no escape. 4   But you, my friends, are not in the dark, that the day should overtake you like a thief. ^note 5   You are all children of light, children of day. We do not belong to night or darkness, 6   and we must not sleep like the rest, but keep awake and sober. 7   Sleepers sleep at night, and drunkards are drunk at night, 8   but we, who belong to daylight, must keep sober,

Hope and discipline armed with faith and love for coat of mail, and the hope of salvation for helmet. 9   For God has not destined us to the terrors of judgement, but to the full attainment of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10   He died for us so that we, awake or asleep, might live in company with him. 11   Therefore hearten one another, fortify one another—as indeed you do.

12   We beg you, brothers, to acknowledge those who are working so hard among you, and in the Lord's fellowship are your leaders and counsellors. 13   Hold them in the highest possible esteem and affection for the work they do.

14   You must live at peace among yourselves. And we would urge you, brothers, to admonish the careless, encourage the faint-hearted, support the weak, and to be very patient with them all.

15   See to it that no one pays back wrong for wrong, but always aim at doing the best you can for each other and for all men.

16    17    18   Be always joyful; pray continually; give thanks whatever happens; for this is what God in Christ wills for you.

19    20   Do not stifle inspiration, and do not despise prophetic utterances, 21   but bring them all to the test and then keep what is good in them 22   and avoid the bad of whatever kind. ^note

23   May God himself, the God of peace, make you holy in every part, and keep you sound in spirit, soul, and body, without fault when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. 24   He who calls you is to be trusted; he will do it.

25   Brothers, pray for us also.

26   Greet all our brothers with the kiss of peace.

27   I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to the whole brotherhood.

28   The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

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