Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

You became imitators of us and [through us] of the Lord, after you welcomed our message in [a time of] great trouble with the joy supplied by the Holy Spirit;

so that you set an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Greece.

who both killed the Lord Jesus, and the prophets, and drove us out, and please not God, and set themselves against all men,

Brothers, when we were bereft of you for a little while (out of sight, not out of mind), we were the more eager to see you. We had a keen longing for you.

So when we could bear it no longer, we decided to stay on in Athens alone.

that no one might be moved by these afflictions. (For yourselves know that we are set for this;

for even when we were with you, we said to you beforehand, that we are about to suffer tribulation, as also it did come to pass, and ye have known it;

But, when Timothy recently returned to us from you with good news of your faith and love, and told us how kindly you think of us--always longing, he said, to see us, just as we are longing to see you--

How can we thank God enough for all the happiness that you are giving us in the sight of our God?

so that He may strengthen and establish your hearts without blame in holiness in the sight of our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints (God’s people).

For this is the will of God, that you be sanctified [separated and set apart from sin]: that you abstain and back away from sexual immorality;

And that no man may make attempts to get the better of his brother in business: for the Lord is the judge in all these things, as we said to you before and gave witness.

For we say this to you by [the authority of] the word of the Lord [Note: Paul was either quoting what Jesus had previously said, or was giving a revelation he had received from the Lord. See I Cor. 14:37], that we [Christians] who are [still] alive, who are left [on earth] when the Lord returns, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. [Note: The point Paul is making is that the living will not be "changed" (I Cor. 15:51-52) and taken to heaven before the dead are raised].

So then, we must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be serious.

But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation.

because God has not set us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Brothers, we ask you to show your appreciation for those who work among you, set an example for you in the Lord, and instruct you.

Set not prophecies at nought.

Stay away from every kind of evil.