For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

And you took us and the Lord as your example, after the word had come to you in much trouble, with joy in the Holy Spirit;

For they themselves give the news of how we came among you; and how you were turned from images to God, to the worship of a true and living God,

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

For our exhortation didn’t come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive.

for at no time did we come with speech of flattery, (as ye have known,) nor in a pretext for covetousness, (God is 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.

And for this cause we still give praise to God, that, when the word came to your ears through us, you took it, not as the word of man, but, as it truly is, the word of God, which has living power in you who have faith.

Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

But brothers, after we were separated from you for a short time --- in person but not in spirit --- we became all the more eager [to come to you] and strongly desired to see you in person. [Note: The word "separated" here denotes the traumatic experience of a child being forcibly removed from its parents. It had been about six months since Paul left Thessalonica under adverse circumstances].

Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.

For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.

For this reason I also, no longer able to refrain myself, sent to know your faith, lest perhaps the tempter had tempted you and our labour should be come to nothing.

But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus make a way for us to come to you;

that by the sanctity of your affections, you may stand unreprov'd in the presence of God our father, when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come with all his holy angels.

For if we have faith that Jesus underwent death and came back again, even so those who are sleeping will come again with him by God's power.

And this say we unto you in the word of the Lord, that we which live and are remaining in the coming of the Lord, shall not come before they which sleep.

because the Lord himself, in a shout, in the voice of a chief-messenger, and in the trump of God, shall come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first,

for yourselves have known thoroughly that the day of the Lord as a thief in the night doth so come,

While they are saying, “Peace and safety [all is well and secure!]” then [in a moment unforeseen] destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains on a woman with child, and they will absolutely not escape [for there will be no way to escape the judgment of the Lord].

But ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day should come on you as it were a thief.

He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep we will come to life together with him.