For we never fail to remember your works of faith and labours of love and your persistent and unwavering hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father;

The Good News that we brought you did not come to you in words only, but also with power and with the Holy Spirit and with much certainty, for you know the sort of men we became among you, as examples for your sakes.

For it was not only from you that the Master's Message sounded forth throughout Macedonia and Greece; but everywhere your faith in God has become known, so that it is unnecessary for us to say anything about it.

For when others speak of us they report the reception we had from you, and how you turned from your idols to God, to be bondservants of the true and ever-living God,

For you yourselves, brethren, know that our visit to you did not fail of its purpose.

For our preaching was not grounded on a delusion, nor prompted by mingled motives, nor was there fraud in it.

For, as you are well aware, we have never used the language of flattery nor have we found pretexts for enriching ourselves--God is our witness;

For you remember, brethren, our labour and toil: how, working night and day so as not to become a burden to any one of you, we came and proclaimed among you God's Good News.

For you know that we acted towards every one of you as a father does towards his own children, encouraging and cheering you,

And for this further reason we render unceasing thanks to God, that when you received God's Message from our lips, it was as no mere message from men that you embraced it, but as--what it really is--God's Message, which also does its work in the hearts of you who believe.

For you, brethren, followed the example of the Churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judaea; seeing that you endured the same ill-treatment at the hands of your countrymen, as they did at the hands of the Jews.

for they still try to prevent our preaching to the Gentiles so that they may find salvation. They thus continually fill up the measure of their own sins, and God's anger in its severest form has overtaken them.

But we, brethren, having been for a short time separated from you in bodily presence, though not in heart, endeavoured all the more earnestly, with intense longing, to see you face to face.

For what is our hope or joy, or the crown of which we boast? Is it not you yourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His Coming?

that none of you might be unnerved by your present trials: for you yourselves know that they are our appointed lot.

For even when we were with you, we forewarned you, saying, "We are soon to suffer affliction;" and this actually happened, as you well know.

For this reason I also, when I could no longer endure the uncertainty, sent to know the condition of your faith, lest perchance the Tempter might have tempted you and our labour have been lost.

for this reason in our distress and trouble we have been comforted about you, brethren, by your faith.

For now life is for us life indeed, since you are standing fast in the Lord.

For what thanksgiving on your behalf can we possibly offer to God in return for all the joy which fills our souls before our God for you,

and as for you, may the Lord teach you to love one another and all men, with a growing and a glowing love, resembling our love for you.

For you know the commands which we laid upon you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

For this is God's will--your purity of life, that you abstain from fornication;

and that in this matter there be no encroaching on the rights of a brother Christian and no overreaching him. For the Lord is an avenger in all such cases, as we have already taught you and solemnly warned you.

But on the subject of love for the brotherhood it is unnecessary for me to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another;

and to vie with one another in eagerness for peace, every one minding his own business and working with his hands, as we ordered you to do:

For if we believe that Jesus has died and risen again, we also believe that, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who shall have passed away.

For this we declare to you on the Lord's own authority--that we who are alive and continue on earth until the Coming of the Lord, shall certainly not forestall those who shall have previously passed away.

For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven with a loud word of command, and with an archangel's voice and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

And so we shall be with the Lord for ever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

For you yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.

for all of you are sons of Light and sons of the day. We belong neither to the night nor to darkness.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who drink freely, drink at night.

But let us, belonging--as we do--to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

For God has not pre-destined us to meet His anger, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ;

Now we beg you, brethren, to show respect for those who labour among you and are your leaders in Christian work, and are your advisers;

and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves.

See to it that no one ever repays another with evil for evil; but always seek opportunities of doing good both to one another and to all the world.

In every circumstance of life be thankful; for this is God's will in Christ Jesus respecting you.

Brethren, pray for us.