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

² We always thank God for you all as we continually mention you in our prayers, ³ for we can never for a moment before our God forget your energizing faith, your toiling love, and your enduring hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ For we know, brothers so beloved by God, that He has chosen you, ⁵ for our preaching of the good news came to you not entirely in words but with power and with the Holy Spirit and with absolute certainty (for you know the kind of men we were among you for your own sakes). ⁶ And you followed the example set by us and by the Lord, because you welcomed our message with a joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, in spite of the painful persecutions it brought you, ⁷ so that you became examples to all the believers in Macedonia and Greece. ⁸ (1:7) For the message of the Lord has rung out from you, not only in Macedonia and Greece, but everywhere the report of your faith in God has been told, so that we need never mention it. ⁹ For the people themselves tell us what a welcome you gave us, and how you turned from idols to the true God, to serve the God who lives on and is real, ¹⁰ and to wait for the coming from heaven of His Son, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

³ We always ought to be thanking God for you, brothers, as it is right to do so, because your faith is growing so much and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing ⁴ so that we are always boasting of you among the churches of God for your patient endurance and faith, in spite of your persecutions and crushing sorrows which you are enduring. ⁵ This is a proof of God's righteous judgment, His aim being to let you show yourselves worthy of His kingdom, for which you are suffering; since, ⁶ indeed, it is right for God to repay with crushing sorrows those who cause you these crushing sorrows, ⁷ and to give rest to you who are being crushed with sorrows, along with us, at the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, with His mighty angels ⁸ in a flame of fire, who will take vengeance on those who do not know God, that is, those who will not listen to the good news of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ These will receive the punishment of eternal destruction as exiles from the presence of the Lord and His glorious might, ¹⁰ when on that day He comes to be glorified in His consecrated ones and to be admired by all who believe in Him because our testimony has been confidently accepted among you. ¹¹ With this in view we are always praying for you too, that our God may make you worthy of His call, and by His power fully satisfy your every desire for goodness, and complete every activity of your faith, ¹² so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you through union with Him, in accordance with the favor of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.