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

so that you became examples to all the believers in Macedonia and Greece.

(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.

But, although we had just suffered and been insulted, as you remember, at Philippi, we again summoned courage by the help of God, in spite of the terrific strain, to tell you God's good news.

for since we have been so approved by God as to be entrusted with the good news, we are now telling it, not to please men but God, who proves and finds approved our hearts.

Because we were yearning for you so tenderly, we were willing, not only to share with you God's good news, but to lay down our very lives too for you, all because you were so dearly loved by us.

For you, brothers, followed the example of God's churches in Judea that are in union with Christ Jesus, for you too have suffered the same sort of ill-treatment at the hands of your fellow-countrymen as they did at the hands of the Jews,

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.

Now we, brothers, on our part, when we were separated from you for a little while -- in person but not in heart -- were extremely eager and intensely longing to see you.

Because we did want to come to see you; I mean, that I myself, Paul, wanted again and again to come, but Satan prevented it.

So when I could not bear it any longer, I decided to be left behind in Athens alone,

and so I sent my brother Timothy, God's minister in the preaching of the good news of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith,

so that none of you might be deceived amid these difficulties. For you knew yourselves that this is our appointed lot,

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,

as night and day I continue to pray with deepest earnestness and keenest eagerness that I may see your faces and round out to completeness what is lacking in your faith?

so that He may strengthen your hearts to be faultless in purity in the sight of God, when our Lord Jesus comes back with all His consecrated ones.

Now, brothers, we ask and beg you, in the face of our union with the Lord Jesus, as you once received from us how you ought to live so as to please God -- as indeed you are living -- to continue to live this life better and better.

For it is God's will that you should keep pure in person, that you should practice abstinence from sexual immorality,

So whoever rejects this teaching is rejecting not man but God who continues to put His Spirit in you.

Now as to brotherly love, you have no need of anyone's writing you, for you have yourselves been taught by God to love one another,

so that you may live influentially with the outsiders, and not be dependent on anybody.

Also we do not want you to have any misunderstanding, brothers, about those who are falling asleep, so as to keep you from grieving over them as others do who have no hope.

For on the Lord's own authority we say that those of us who may be left behind and are still living when the Lord comes back, will have no advantage at all over those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord Himself, at the summons sounded by the archangel's call and by God's trumpet, will come down from heaven, and first of all the dead in union with Christ will rise,

then those of us who are still living will be caught up along with them on clouds in the air to meet the Lord, and so we shall be with the Lord forever.

So continue encouraging one another with this truth.

But as to times and dates, brothers, you have no need of anyone's writing you,

When people say, "Such peace and security!" then suddenly destruction falls upon them, like birth pains upon a woman who is about to become a mother, but they shall not escape, no, not at all.

But you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that that day, like a thief, should take you by surprise;

So let us stop sleeping as others do, but let us stay awake and keep sober.

who died for us, so that whether we still live or sleep we may live in fellowship with Him.

So continue encouraging one another and helping one another in character building.

We beg you, brothers, to practice showing respect to those who labor among you, who are your leaders in the Lord's work, and who advise you;

Make it a habit to give thanks for everything, for this is God's will for you through Christ Jesus.

May God Himself, who gave you peace, consecrate your whole being. May you be safely kept, spirit, soul, and body, so as to be blameless when our Lord Jesus Christ comes back.