To the Thessalonian Church in union with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, from Paul, Silas, and Timothy. May God bless you and give you peace.

We always mention you in our prayers and thank God for you all;

Recalling continually before our God and Father the efforts that have resulted from your faith, the toil prompted by your love, and the patient endurance sustained by your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Brothers, whom God loves, we know that he has chosen you,

Because the Good News that we brought came home to you, not merely as so many words, but with a power and a fulness of conviction due to the Holy Spirit. For you know the life that we lived among you for your good.

For it was from you that the Lord's Message resounded throughout Macedonia and Greece; and, more than that, your faith in God has become known far and wide; so that there is no need for us to say another word.

Indeed, in speaking about us, the people themselves tell of the reception you gave us, and how, turning to God from your idols, you became servants of the true and living God,

For, although we had experienced suffering and ill-treatment, as you know, at Philippi, we had the courage, by the help of our God, to tell you God's Good News in spite of great opposition.

But, having been found worthy by God to be entrusted with the Good News, therefore we tell it; with a view to please, not men, but God who proves our hearts.

Never at any time, as you know, did we use the language of flattery, or make false professions in order to hide selfish aims. God will bear witness to that.

In our strong affection for you, that seemed to us the best way of sharing with you, not only God's Good news, but our very lives as well--so dear had you become to us.

You will not have forgotten, Brothers, our labor and toil. Night and day we used to work at our trades, so as not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you God's Good News.

You will bear witness, and God also, that our relations with you who believed in Christ were pure, and upright, and beyond reproach.

So that you should make your daily lives worthy of God who is calling you into the glory of his Kingdom.

This, too, is a reason why we, on our part, are continually thanking God--because, in receiving the teaching that you had from us, you accepted it, not as the teaching of man, but as what it really is--the teaching of God, which is even now doing its work within you who believe in Christ.

For you, Brothers, began to follow the example of the Churches of God in Judea which are in union with Jesus Christ; you, in your turn, suffering at the hands of your fellow-citizens, in the same way as those Churches did at the hands of the Jews--

The men who killed both the Lord Jesus and the Prophets, and persecuted us also. They do not try to please God, and they are enemies to all mankind,

For they would prevent us from speaking to the Gentiles with a view to their Salvation, and thus are always 'filling up the measure of their iniquity.' But the Wrath of God has come upon them to the full!

And sent Timothy, our Brother and God's minister of the Good News of the Christ, to strengthen you, and to encourage you in your faith,

But, when Timothy recently returned to us from you with good news of your faith and love, and told us how kindly you think of us--always longing, he said, to see us, just as we are longing to see you--

How can we thank God enough for all the happiness that you are giving us in the sight of our God?

Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face, and make good any deficiency in your faith.

May our God and Father himself, and Jesus, our Lord, make the way plain for us to come to you.

And so make your hearts strong, and your lives pure beyond reproach, in the sight of our God and Father, at the Coming of our Lord Jesus, with all his Holy Ones.

Further, Brothers, we beg and exhort you in the name of our Lord Jesus to carry out more fully than ever--as indeed you are already doing--all that you have heard from us as to what your daily life must be, if it is to please God.

For this is God's purpose--that you should be pure; abstaining from all immorality;

And not for the mere gratification of his passions, like the Gentiles who know nothing of God;

For God's Call to us does not permit of an impure life, but demands purity.

Therefore he who disregards this warning disregards, not man, but God who gives you his Holy Spirit.

As to love for the Brethren there is no need to write to you; for you have yourselves been taught by God to love one another;

For, as we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring, with Jesus, those who through him have passed to their rest.

For, with a loud summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the trumpet-call of God, the Lord himself will come down from Heaven.

When people are saying 'All is quiet and safe,' it is then that, like birth-pains upon a woman with child, Ruin comes suddenly upon them, and there will be no escape!

It is at night that men sleep, and at night that drunkards get drunk.

For God destined us, not for Wrath, but to win Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us,

Under all circumstances give thanks to God. For this is his will for you as made known in Christ Jesus.

Bring everything to the test; cling to what is good;

May God himself, the giver of peace, make you altogether holy; and may your spirits, souls, and bodies be kept altogether faultless until the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.