because our gospel did not come to you with word only, but also with power and with the Holy Spirit and with much certainty, just as you know what sort of [people] we became among you for your sake.

for from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we have no need to say anything.

For [you] yourselves know, brothers, our reception with you, that it was not in vain,

For our exhortation [is] not from error or from impurity or with deceit,

but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, thus we speak, not as pleasing people but God, who examines our hearts.

Longing for you in this way, we determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own souls, because you had become dear to us.

For you remember, brothers, our labor and hardship: working by night and day in order not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

And because of this we also give thanks to God constantly, that [when you] received God's word {that you heard} from us, you accepted [it] not [as the] word of men, but as [it] truly is, [the] word of God, which also is at work in you who believe.

who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and who persecuted us, and [who are] not pleasing to God and [are] opposed to all people,

But [when] we were made orphans by separation from you, brothers, for {a short time} (in face, not in heart), [we were] even more eager with great desire to see your face,

For who [is] our hope or joy or crown of boasting? [Is it] not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming?

night and day praying beyond all measure that [we] may see your face and complete what is lacking in your faith?

not in lustful passion, just as also the Gentiles who do not know God;

not to transgress and to exploit his brother in the matter, because the Lord [is] the one who avenges concerning all these [things], just as also we told you beforehand and testified solemnly.

For God did not call us to impurity, but in holiness.

Therefore the one who rejects [this] [is] not rejecting man, but God, [who] also gives his Holy Spirit to you.

But concerning brotherly love, I do not have need to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another,

so that you may live decently toward those outside, and may have need of nothing.

Now we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you will not grieve as also the rest, who have no hope.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain until the Lord's coming, will not possibly precede those who have fallen asleep.

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need [of anything] to be written to you,

for [you] yourselves well know that the day of the Lord is coming in the [same] way as a thief in the night.

Whenever they say "Peace and security," then sudden destruction will overtake them like the birth pains of {a pregnant woman}, and they will not possibly escape.

But you, brothers, are not in the darkness, so that the day should catch you like a thief,

for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

So then, we must not sleep like the rest, but must be on the alert and be self-controlled.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.

because God did not appoint us for wrath, but for the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Do not quench the Spirit.

Do not despise prophecies,