Thematic Bible


Thematic Bible















In everything you yourself continue to set them a worthy example of doing good; be sincere and serious in your teaching, let your message be wholesome and unobjectionable, so that our opponent may be put to shame at having nothing evil to say about us.



And you followed the example set by us and by the Lord, because you welcomed our message with a joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, in spite of the painful persecutions it brought 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.

As an example of ill-treatment and patience, brothers, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord. See how we call those who thus endured happy! You have heard how patiently Job endured and have seen how the Lord finally blessed him, because the Lord is tenderhearted and merciful.

Dearly beloved, I beg you as aliens and exiles to keep on abstaining from the evil desires of your lower nature, because they are always at war with the soul. Keep on living upright lives among the heathen, so that, when they slander you as evildoers, by what they see of your good deeds they may come to praise God on the judgment day. For the Lord's sake submit to all human authority; to the emperor as supreme, read more.
and to governors as sent by Him to punish those who do evil and to reward those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing right you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live like free men, only do not make your freedom a pretext for doing evil, but live like slaves of God. Show honor to everyone. Practice love for the brotherhood; practice reverence to God and honor to the Emperor. You house-servants must be submissive to your masters and show them perfect respect, not only to those who are kind and fair but also to those who are cruel. For it is pleasing in the sight of God for one to bear his sorrows though suffering innocently. For what credit is it to bear it patiently, if you do wrong and are beaten for it? But if you do right and patiently suffer for it, it is pleasing in the sight of God. Indeed, it was to this kind of living that you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you might follow His footsteps. He never committed a sin, and deceit was never found on His lips. Although He was abused, He never retorted; although He continued to suffer, He never threatened, but committed His case to Him who judges justly. He bore our sins in His own body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to uprightness. By His wounds you have been healed, for once you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of Your souls.

For this is the way the pious women of olden times, who set their hope on God, used to adorn themselves. They were submissive to their husbands, as Sarah, for example, obeyed Abraham and called him master. You have become true daughters of hers, if you practice doing right and cease from every fear.


For it is pleasing in the sight of God for one to bear his sorrows though suffering innocently. For what credit is it to bear it patiently, if you do wrong and are beaten for it? But if you do right and patiently suffer for it, it is pleasing in the sight of God.