knowing as we do, brethren, that you are beloved by God and that He has chosen you.

The Good News that we brought you did not come to you in words only, but also with power and with the Holy Spirit and with much certainty, for you know the sort of men we became among you, as examples for your sakes.

so that you became a pattern to all the believers throughout Macedonia and Greece.

For it was not only from you that the Master's Message sounded forth throughout Macedonia and Greece; but everywhere your faith in God has become known, so that it is unnecessary for us to say anything about it.

For you yourselves, brethren, know that our visit to you did not fail of its purpose.

Seeing that we were thus drawn affectionately towards you, it would have been a joy to us to have imparted to you not only God's Good News, but to have given our very lives also, because you had become very dear to us.

For you know that we acted towards every one of you as a father does towards his own children, encouraging and cheering you,

And for this further reason we render unceasing thanks to God, that when you received God's Message from our lips, it was as no mere message from men that you embraced it, but as--what it really is--God's Message, which also does its work in the hearts of you who believe.

For you, brethren, followed the example of the Churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judaea; seeing that you endured the same ill-treatment at the hands of your countrymen, as they did at the hands of the Jews.

for they still try to prevent our preaching to the Gentiles so that they may find salvation. They thus continually fill up the measure of their own sins, and God's anger in its severest form has overtaken them.

and sent Timothy our brother and God's minister in the service of Christ's Good News, that he might help you spiritually and encourage you in your faith;

that none of you might be unnerved by your present trials: for you yourselves know that they are our appointed lot.

But now that Timothy has recently come back to us from you, and has brought us the happy tidings of your faith and love, and has told us how you still cherish a constant and affectionate recollection of us, and are longing to see us as we also long to see you--

while night and day, with intense earnestness, we pray that we may see your faces, and may bring to perfection whatever may be still lacking in your faith?

Thus He will build up your characters, so that you will be faultlessly holy in the presence of our God and Father at the Coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones.

For this is God's will--your purity of life, that you abstain from fornication;

that each man among you shall know how to procure a wife who shall be his own in purity and honour;

that you be not overmastered by lustful cravings, like the Gentiles who have no knowledge of God;

and that in this matter there be no encroaching on the rights of a brother Christian and no overreaching him. For the Lord is an avenger in all such cases, as we have already taught you and solemnly warned you.

For if we believe that Jesus has died and risen again, we also believe that, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who shall have passed away.

For this we declare to you on the Lord's own authority--that we who are alive and continue on earth until the Coming of the Lord, shall certainly not forestall those who shall have previously passed away.

But as to times and dates it is unnecessary that anything be written to you.

For you yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that daylight should surprise you like a thief;

who died on our behalf, so that whether we are awake or are sleeping we may share His Life.

See to it that no one ever repays another with evil for evil; but always seek opportunities of doing good both to one another and to all the world.