1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 - Thanksgiving For The Thessalonian Believers

² We always thank God for all of you when we mention you in our prayers. ³ In the presence of our God and Father, we constantly remember how your faith is active, your love is hard at work, and your hope in our Lord Jesus the Messiah is enduring. ⁴ Brothers whom God loves, we know that he has chosen you, ⁵ for the gospel we brought did not come to you in words only, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction. Indeed, you know what kind of people we proved to be while we were with you, acting on your behalf. ⁶ You became imitators of us and of the Lord. In spite of a great deal of suffering, you welcomed the word with the joy that the Holy Spirit produces. ⁷ As a result, you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. ⁸ From you the word of the Lord has spread out not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place where your faith in God has become known. As a result, we do not need to say anything about it. ⁹ For people keep telling us what kind of welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve a living and true God ¹⁰ and to wait for his Son whom he raised from the dead to come back from heaven. This Jesus is the one who rescues us from the coming wrath.

³ Brothers, at all times we are obligated to thank God for you. It is right to do this because your faith is growing all the time and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. ⁴ As a result, we rejoice about you among God's churches about your endurance and faith through all the persecutions and afflictions you are experiencing. ⁵ This is evidence of God's righteous judgment and is intended to make you worthy of God's kingdom, for which you are suffering. ⁶ Certainly it is right for God to pay back those who afflict you with affliction, ⁷ and to give us who are afflicted relief when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels ⁸ in blazing fire. He will take revenge on those who do not know God and on those who refuse to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ Such people will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction by being separated from the Lord's presence and from his glorious power ¹⁰ when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be regarded with wonder on that day by all who have believed including you, because you believed our testimony. ¹¹ With this in mind, we always pray for you, asking that our God might make you worthy of his calling and that through his power he might help you accomplish every good desire and faithful action. ¹² That way the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus, the Messiah.