For we know, brothers so beloved by God, that He has chosen you,

(1:7) For the message of the Lord has rung out from you, not only in Macedonia and Greece, but everywhere the report of your faith in God has been told, so that we need never mention it.

by trying to keep us from speaking to the heathen, so that they may be saved, so as always to fill to the brim the cup of their sins. But at last God's wrath has come upon them.

But now, since Timothy has just come back to me from you, and brought me good tidings of your faith and love, and told me how kindly you remembered me and that you are longing to see me as much as I am to see you,