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

We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers.

Incessantly remembering your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father:

knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God.

For the word of the Lord sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia; but also in every place your faith towards God is spread abroad, so that we have no need to say any thing of it.

For they themselves declare concerning us what kind of entrance we had among you, and how ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God;

But though we had suffered before and been injuriously treated, as ye know, at Philippi, we spake boldly in the name of our God to declare unto you the gospel of God with much conflict.

but as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, who trieth our hearts.

For neither at any time used we flattering speech, as ye know, nor covetous pretence, God is witness:

so we, being affectionately desirous of you, were willing to impart to you, not only the gospel of God, but even our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.

For ye remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for working night and day, that we might not be burthensome to any of you, we preached among you the gospel of God.

Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblameably we behaved towards you that believe:

and charged you, that ye should walk worthy of God, who hath called you to his kingdom and glory.

For this also we thank God continually, that when ye received the word of God, which ye heard from us, ye received it not as the word of men, but (as it is in truth) the word of God, which also worketh effectually in you that believe.

For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which are in Judea, in Christ Jesus, in that ye also have suffered the same things from your own countrymen, as they have from the Jews:

who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; who are displeasing to God, and contrary to all men:

and sent Timothy our brother, and a minister of God, and our fellow-labourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you concerning your faith;

But now Timothy being come back to us from you, and having brought us good tidings concerning your faith and love, and that ye have always a good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see us, as we indeed do to see you;

For what thanks can we render to God concerning you, for all the joy wherewith we rejoice on your account before our God,

And may God himself even our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you:

that your hearts may be established unblameable in holiness, before God even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all his saints.

As to what remains therefore, my brethren, we intreat and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received instructions from us, how ye ought to walk and to please God, ye would abound therein more and more.

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification: that ye should abstain from fornication,

not in the passion of lust, like the heathens who know not God.

For God hath not called us to impurity, but to holiness.

He therefore who rejecteth us, rejecteth not man, but God; who hath given us his holy Spirit.

But as to brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

and endeavour to be quiet, and mind your own affairs, and work with your own hands,

for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also those, that sleep in Jesus, will God bring with Him.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with acclamation, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first;

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

See that no one render evil for evil to any man; but always pursue that which is good, both to each other and to all men.

In every circumstance be thankful; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

yet try all things, and hold fast that which is good.

And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly: and grant that your whole frame, spirit, soul, and body may be kept blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.