1 Thessalonians

¹ From: Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. To: The Assembly of Thessalonians with Father God and Lord Jesus Christ. Good fortune and peace to you!

² We always give thanks to God about all of you while constantly making mention of you in our prayers. ³ We remember your faithful work, loving and troublesome labor, and endurance in hope sourced in our Lord Jesus Christ in view of our God and Father. ⁴ We recognized your selection, Family loved by God, ⁵ since our triumphant message did not exist for you in speech only but also with powerful action and with the Sacred Life-breath and with complete conviction (just like how we were toward you when we were among you). ⁶ And you became imitators of us and of the lord, taking up the message with the joy of the Life-breath during terrible hardship. ⁷ As a result, you have become a model for all the faithful in Macedonia and Achaia. ⁸ You see, the Lord’s message has resounded from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia but in every place where your faithfulness to God is spoken. As a result, we do not have any need to speak ⁹ since they bring news about us, what type of arrival we had with you and how you turned toward God from idols to serve the God who is alive and real ¹⁰ and to wait for God's Son who is from the heavens, whom God woke up from among the dead, Jesus who is rescuing us from the coming anger.

¹ For you have seen for yourselves, Family, that our arrival with you has not been pointless. ² Instead, after previously suffering and being treated abusively, as you know about, in Philippi we had courage in connection with our God to tell you God’s triumphant message amid considerable conflict. ³ Our calling is not a mistake, neither is it because of uncleanness nor through deceit; ⁴ rather, since we have been evaluated as appropriate by God to be entrusted with the triumphant message, we speak it, not as striving to please people but God, who evaluates our motivations.

⁵ You see, we have never appeared with a flattering message, as you have seen, nor with a pretense motivated by greed—God is our witness— ⁶ nor seeking fame from people—neither from you nor from others—having the power to be a burden as emissaries of Christ. ⁷ Instead, we made ourselves unassuming among you, as if we were a nursing mother nurturing her own children. ⁸ In the same way, as we were longing affectionately for you, it seemed good to us to share with you not only the triumphant message of God but also our own very beings because you have become beloved to us.

⁹ You remember, Family, our trouble and hard labor; we announced God’s triumphant message to you while working night and day so as not to place a burden on any of you. ¹⁰ You and God are our witnesses that we presented ourselves to you who are faithful in a manner that was in harmony with divine character, consistent with living justly, and without corrupted motives or behavior. ¹¹ As you have seen, we treated each one of you as a father treats his own children, ¹² encouraging and comforting you, and providing testimony to you, which has resulted in you walking appropriately for God who calls you toward God's own Reign and renown.

¹³ Because of this, we also give thanks to God constantly because after receiving the message you heard from us about God, you accepted it not as a message from people but, just as it truly is, a message from God, which also makes itself real in you who are faithful. ¹⁴ You became imitators, Family, of God’s Assemblies connected with Christ that are in Judea, since you suffered the same things from your own people as they did from the Judeans, ¹⁵ from those who also killed the lord Jesus and the prophets and terrorized us. They are not striving to please God and are hostile to all people. ¹⁶ They hinder us from speaking with other ethnicities so they can be liberated, resulting in bringing their deviations to a full reality every time. Now, the anger that ends it has already reached them.

¹⁷ Now, Family, being deprived of you for a little while (as far as your presence, not heart), we strived increasingly diligently with our great desire to see you. ¹⁸ That’s why we wanted to come to you (I, Paul, truly wanted to come time and again), but the Adversary blocked us. ¹⁹ You see, who is our hope or joy or laurel crown in which we take satisfaction in the presence of our lord Jesus at his arrival? Isn’t it you? ²⁰ You are our renown and joy.

¹ Therefore, when we could not hold on any longer, we decided to stay behind in Athens by ourselves ² and sent Timothy, our brother and coworker for God regarding Christ’s triumphant message, to support and encourage you concerning your commitment ³ so that no one will be upset concerning these troubles. You have seen for yourselves this is what we are here for ⁴ since even when we were with you, we were predicting to you that we were about to encounter trouble, and it happened that way, as you saw. ⁵ Because of this, I was not able to hold on any longer, and I sent him to learn about your commitment, for fear that somehow the Tester put you to the test, and our labor came up empty.

⁶ But now that Timothy has come to us from you and announced a triumphant message to us about your commitment and love and that you always have a pleasant memory of us, longing to see us just like we also long to see you. ⁷ Because of this, Family, we were encouraged because of you during all our distress and trouble because of your commitment; ⁸ we are alive for now if you are firmly committed regarding the Lord. ⁹ What gratitude can we repay to God about you for all the joy we experience because of you in the presence of our God ¹⁰ while we plead immeasurably much, night and day, to see your faces and to contribute the things that are missing from your commitment?

¹¹ Then: May our same God and Father, and our Lord Jesus, clear the way to you for us. ¹² May the Lord increase your love for each other and for everyone and cause it to overflow, just like the love we have for you, ¹³ toward firmly committing your hearts that are without any cause for blame with regard to sacredness in the presence of our God and Father at the arrival of our Lord Jesus with all his sacred ones.

¹ For the rest, therefore, Family, we ask and encourage you in connection with Lord Jesus, that just like you received from us the way you should walk and please God—the way you are in fact walking—that you would walk that way even more ² since you have come to understand the announcements we gave to you through Lord Jesus about what must be done. ³ You see, this is God’s desire, your being dedicated as sacred: you holding back from sexual exploitation— ⁴ seeing that each of you possess their own body with dignity and being designated as sacred, ⁵ not with desirous craving like other peoples, those who have not come to know God— ⁶ not taking things too far and taking advantage of a member of their Family with their behavior. Therefore, the Lord pursues justice about all these things, just like what we told you previously and warned you. ⁷ For God did not call you for uncleanness but rather for being dedicated to sacredness. ⁸ Consequently, the one who disregards it does not disregard a person but rather the God who gives their Sacred Life-Breath to you.

⁹ Regarding familial affection, you do not have any need for us to write to you since you already have been divinely taught to love each other ¹⁰ and since you do so toward all members of the Family throughout the whole region of Macedonia. So, we encourage you, Family, to increase it even more, ¹¹ aspiring to the honor of living simply and to do the work that is your own to accomplish with your own hands, just as we announced to you must be done, ¹² so that you can walk with a way of life that is beneficial for those outside the Family, and no one will be in need.

¹³ Family, we want you to know about those who have fallen asleep, so that you will not be caused grief like everyone else who has no hope. ¹⁴ You see, if we trust that Jesus died and woke up, God will also do the same through Jesus for those who have fallen asleep, leading them along with him. ¹⁵ We tell you this with reference to God’s message, that we who are alive, who survive until the arrival of the Lord, will absolutely not take precedence over those who have fallen asleep ¹⁶ because with a call to action, with the voice of a chief messenger and with a trumpet of God, the Lord himself will come down from the sky, and those with Christ who are dead will reawaken first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who have survived, will be snatched up at the same time along with them among the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and that is how we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ So, encourage each other with these words.

¹ Family, regarding durations and timing, you do not have any need for us to write to you, ² for you have already come to understand that the Lord’s Day will come in the same way as a thief in the night. ³ If people are saying, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction ambushes them, like a pregnant woman having contractions, and they certainly cannot escape it. ⁴ But you, Family, are not connected with the dark so that the Day would overtake you like a thief ⁵ because you all are heirs of light and heirs of the Day. We are not of the night or of the dark.

⁶ Therefore, because of that, we should not sleep like everyone else, but instead, we should be alert and self-disciplined. ⁷ You see, those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. ⁸ But, since we are of the Day, we should be self-disciplined, putting on a breastplate, faithfulness and love, and a helmet, hope for liberation, ⁹ since God did not appoint you for anger but for obtaining liberation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for our sake so that whether we are alert or asleep we could be alive along with him. ¹¹ Because of this, encourage each other and each person provide support for the other, as you are already doing.

¹² We ask you, Family, to notice those who are working hard among you, who are appointed to lead you regarding the Lord, who are instructing you in how to grow, and who are comforting you. ¹³ We ask you to regard them with great respect, with love, because of their effort. Live in peace among yourselves. ¹⁴ We urge you, Family: Instruct those who are impulsive in how to grow, comfort those experiencing despair, support those who are disempowered, and be patient toward everyone. ¹⁵ See that no one repays anyone harm for harm. Instead, always pursue benefit for each other and for everyone. ¹⁶ Always rejoice, ¹⁷ pray consistantly, ¹⁸ give thanks during everything; this is what God wants for you in connection with Christ Jesus. ¹⁹ Do not extinguish the Life-breath, ²⁰ do not have contempt for prophecies, ²¹ but assess everything, hold onto what is beneficial, ²² and stay away from everything that seems to be a form of harm.

²³ May the God of Peace completely include the whole group of you in what is sacred, and may the whole group of you—body, life-breath, and very being—be taken care of without any cause for blame at the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ The one who is faithful is who is calling you and is who will accomplish it.

²⁵ Family, pray for us too. ²⁶ Greet each member of the Family with a sacred kiss. ²⁷ I want you to promise to the Lord to read this letter to all the members of the Family.

²⁸ Good fortune from our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.