From: Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. To: The church of the Thessalonians in union with God the Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, be yours!

We always thank God for all of you when we mention you in our prayers.

In the presence of our God and Father, we constantly remember how your faith is active, your love is hard at work, and your hope in our Lord Jesus the Messiah is enduring.

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

From you the word of the Lord has spread out not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place where your faith in God has become known. As a result, we do not need to say anything about it.

For people keep telling us what kind of welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve a living and true God

As you know, we suffered persecution and were mistreated in Philippi. Yet we were encouraged by our God to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition.

Rather, because we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, we speak as we do, not trying to please people but God, who tests our motives.

As you know, we did not come with flattering words or with a scheme to make money. God is our witness!

We cared so deeply for you that we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but our very lives. That is how dear you were to us.

Brothers, you remember our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not become a burden to any of you while we proclaimed the gospel of God to you.

You and God are witnesses of how pure, honest, and blameless our conduct was among you who believe.

We comforted and encouraged you, urging you to live in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

Here is another reason why we constantly give thanks to God: When you received God's word, which you heard from us, you did not accept it as the word of humans but for what it really is the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Judea that are in union with the Messiah Jesus. You suffered the same persecutions from the people of your own country as they did from those Jews

who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, who have persecuted us, and who please neither God nor any group of people,

and send Timothy, our brother who works with us for God in the gospel of the Messiah, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith,

But Timothy has just now returned from visiting you and has told us the good news about your faith and love. He also told us that you always have fond memories of us and want to see us, just as we want to see you.

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we have in God's presence because of you?

Now may our God and Father and our Lord Jesus provide a way for us to visit you.

Then your hearts will be strong, blameless, and holy in the presence of God, who is our Father, when our Lord Jesus appears with all his saints.

Now then, brothers, you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, as in fact you are doing. We ask and encourage you in the Lord to do so even more.

For it is God's will that you be sanctified: You must abstain from sexual immorality.

not with passion and lust like the gentiles who do not know God.

For God did not call us to be impure, but to be holy.

Therefore, whoever rejects this instruction is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

Now you do not need anyone to write to you about brotherly love, since you have been taught by God to love each other.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus God will bring those who have died with him.

With a shout of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of God's trumpet, the Lord himself will come down from heaven, and the dead who belong to the Messiah will rise first.

For people who go to sleep, go to sleep at night; and people who get drunk, get drunk at night.

For God has not destined us to receive wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus, the Messiah,

Make sure that no one pays back evil for evil. Instead, always pursue what is good for each other and for everyone else.

In everything be thankful, because this is God's will for you in the Messiah Jesus.

Instead, test everything. Hold on to what is good.

May the God of peace himself make you holy in every way. And may your whole being spirit, soul, and body remain blameless when our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, appears.