for the gospel has made so favourable a progress not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every other place, where the reputation of your divine faith has spread, that 'tis needless to mention any thing of it; since they all relate of us,

For they themselves report about us, telling what kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

And [they tell how you are] waiting for His Son [to come] from heaven, the One He raised up from the dead --- this Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath [of God].

For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, because you too suffered the same [kind of] persecution from your own countrymen, as they did from the Jews,

who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us; they displease God and are hostile to everyone,

forbidding us from speaking to the Gentiles (non-Jews) so that they may be saved. So, as always, they fill up [to the brim] the measure of their sins [allotted to them by God]. But [God’s] wrath has come upon them at last [completely and forever].

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

to make your hearts that they might be stable and unblamable in holiness before God our father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all his saints.

And I wish you not to be ignorant, brethren, of them having been asleep, that ye should not grieve, as also the rest, they hating no hope.

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.

for the Lord himself will descend from heaven, and by the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, resound the summons: they who died christians shall rise first:

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.

For, they that sleep, by night, do sleep, and, they that drink, by night, do drink: -

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to appreciate those who diligently work among you [recognize, acknowledge, and respect your leaders], who are in charge over you in the Lord and who give you instruction,

continue to hold them in the highest esteem for the sake of the work they do. Practice living at peace with one another.