I Thessalonians 1-3

I Thessalonians 1

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

²We give praise to God at all times for you, keeping you in memory in our prayers;

³Having ever in mind your work of faith and acts of love and the strength of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father;

⁴Being conscious, my brothers, dear to God, that you have been marked out by God's purpose;

⁵Because our good news came to you, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, so that you were completely certain of it; even as you saw what our behaviour to you was like from our love to you.

⁶And you took us and the Lord as your example, after the word had come to you in much trouble, with joy in the Holy Spirit;

⁷So that you became an example to all those who have faith in Christ in Macedonia and Achaia.

⁸For not only was the word of the Lord sounding out from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God is made clear; so that we have no need to say anything.

⁹For they themselves give the news of how we came among you; and how you were turned from images to God, to the worship of a true and living God,

¹⁰Waiting for his Son from heaven, who came back from the dead, even Jesus, our Saviour from the wrath to come.

I Thessalonians 2

¹For you yourselves, brothers, are conscious that our coming among you was not without effect:

²But after we had first undergone much pain and been cruelly attacked as you saw, at Philippi, by the help of God we gave you the good news without fear, though everything was against us.

³For our witness does not come from error or from an unclean heart or from deceit:

⁴But even as the good news was given to us by the approval of God, so we give it out; not as pleasing men, but God by whom our hearts are tested.

⁵For it is common knowledge among you that we never made use of smooth-sounding false words, and God is witness that at no time were we secretly desiring profit for ourselves,

⁶Or looking for glory from men, from you or from others, when we might have made ourselves a care to you as Apostles of Christ.

⁷But we were gentle among you, like a woman caring for her little ones:

⁸Even so, being full of loving desire for you, we took delight in giving you not only God's good news, but even our lives, because you were dear to us.

⁹For you have the memory, my brothers, of our trouble and care; how, working night and day, so that we might not be a trouble to any of you, we gave you the good news of God.

¹⁰You are witnesses, with God, how holy and upright and free from all evil was our way of life among you who have faith;

¹¹Even as you saw how, like a father with his children, we were teaching and comforting you all, and giving witness,

¹²So that your lives might be pleasing to God, who has given you a part in his kingdom and his glory.

¹³And for this cause we still give praise to God, that, when the word came to your ears through us, you took it, not as the word of man, but, as it truly is, the word of God, which has living power in you who have faith.

¹⁴For you, my brothers, took as your examples the churches of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus; because you underwent the same things from your countrymen as they did from the Jews;

¹⁵Who put to death the Lord Jesus and the prophets, violently driving us out; who are unpleasing to God and against all men;

¹⁶Who, to make the measure of their sins complete, kept us from giving the word of salvation to the Gentiles: but the wrath of God is about to come on them in the fullest degree.

¹⁷But we, my brothers, being away from you for a short time, in body but not in heart, had all the more desire to see your face;

¹⁸For which reason we made attempts to come to you, even I, Paul, once and again; but Satan kept us from coming.

¹⁹For what is our hope or joy or crown of glory? Are not even you, before our Lord Jesus, at his coming?

²⁰For you are our glory and our joy.

I Thessalonians 3

¹At last our desire to have news of you was so strong that, while we ourselves were waiting at Athens,

²We sent Timothy, our brother and God's servant in the good news of Christ, to give you strength and comfort in your faith;

³So that no man might be moved by these troubles; because you see that these things are part of God's purpose for us.

⁴And when we were with you, we said to you that trouble was before us; and so it came about, as you see.

⁵For this reason, when I was no longer able to keep quiet, I sent to get news of your faith, fearing that you might be tested by the Evil One and that our work might come to nothing.

⁶But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has given us good news of your faith and love, and that you have happy memories of us, desiring greatly to see us, even as we do to see you;

⁷For this cause, brothers, in all our trouble and grief we were comforted about you because of your faith;

⁸For it is life to us if you keep your faith in the Lord unchanged.

⁹For how great is the praise which we give to God for you, and how great the joy with which we are glad because of you before our God;

¹⁰Night and day requesting God again and again that we may see your face and make your faith complete.

¹¹Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus make a way for us to come to you;

¹²And the Lord give you increase of love in fullest measure to one another and to all men, even as our love to you;

¹³So that your hearts may be strong and free from all sin before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.