because our gospel did not come to you with word only, but also with power and with the Holy Spirit and with much certainty, just as you know what sort of [people] we became among you for your sake.

for from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we have no need to say anything.

For [they] themselves report about us, what sort of welcome we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve [the] living and true God,

For [you] yourselves know, brothers, our reception with you, that it was not in vain,

For our exhortation [is] not from error or from impurity or with deceit,

{For never} did we come with a word of flattery, just as you know, nor with a pretext of greediness (God [is] witness),

Longing for you in this way, we determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own souls, because you had become dear to us.

For you remember, brothers, our labor and hardship: working by night and day in order not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

For you became imitators, brothers, of the churches of God [which] are in Judea in Christ Jesus, because you also suffered the same [things] at the hands of your own people, just as [they] themselves [did] also at the hands of the Jews,

But [when] we were made orphans by separation from you, brothers, for {a short time} (in face, not in heart), [we were] even more eager with great desire to see your face,

For who [is] our hope or joy or crown of boasting? [Is it] not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming?

For you are our glory and joy.

and we sent Timothy, our brother and fellow worker for God in the gospel of Christ, in order to strengthen and to encourage you about your faith,

[so that] no one would be shaken by these afflictions. For [you] yourselves know that we are appointed for this,

for indeed when we were with you we told you beforehand that we were about to be afflicted, just as indeed it happened, and you know.

For what thanks can we repay to God concerning you, because of all the joy [with] which we rejoice because of you before our God,

and [may] the Lord [cause] you to increase and to abound in love for one another and for all, just as also we [do] for you,

Finally therefore, brothers, we ask you and appeal to [you] in the Lord Jesus that, just as you have received from us how it is necessary for you to live and to please God, just as indeed you are living, that you progress even more.

For you know what commands we gave to you through the Lord Jesus.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: [that] you abstain from sexual immorality;

For God did not call us to impurity, but in holiness.

But concerning brotherly love, I do not have need to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another,

for indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to progress even more,

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose [again], thus also God will bring those who have fallen asleep through Jesus together with him.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain until the Lord's coming, will not possibly precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who remain, will be snatched away at the same time together with them in the clouds for a meeting with the Lord in the air, and thus we will be together with the Lord always.

for [you] yourselves well know that the day of the Lord is coming in the [same] way as a thief in the night.

for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.

because God did not appoint us for wrath, but for the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live at the same time with him.

See to it that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue good toward one another and toward all [people].

give thanks in everything; for this [is] the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

Brothers, pray for us.