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

We thank God always for all of you as we mention you constantly in our prayers,

because we recall in the presence of our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

We know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you,

For from you the message of the Lord has echoed forth not just in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place reports of your faith in God have spread, so that we do not need to say anything.

For people everywhere report how you welcomed us and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God

But although we suffered earlier and were mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of much opposition.

but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we declare it, not to please people but God, who examines our hearts.

For we never appeared with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed -- God is our witness --

with such affection for you we were happy to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

For you recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery: By working night and day so as not to impose a burden on any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.

You are witnesses, and so is God, as to how holy and righteous and blameless our conduct was toward you who believe.

exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you live in a way worthy of God who calls you to his own kingdom and his glory.

And so we too constantly thank God that when you received God's message that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human message, but as it truly is, God's message, which is at work among you who believe.

For you became imitators, brothers and sisters, of God's churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, because you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they in fact did from the Jews,

who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us severely. They are displeasing to God and are opposed to all people,

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

But now Timothy has come to us from you and given us the good news of your faith and love and that you always think of us with affection and long to see us just as we also long to see you!

For how can we thank God enough for you, for all the joy we feel because of you before our God?

Now may God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.

so that your hearts are strengthened in holiness to be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Finally then, brothers and sisters, we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how you must live and please God (as you are in fact living) that you do so more and more.

For this is God's will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality,

not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God.

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

Consequently the one who rejects this is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Now on the topic of brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians.

For the Lord himself will come down 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.

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

For God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

See that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.

in everything give thanks. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

But examine all things; hold fast to what is good.

Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.