Timothy has brought news to Paul

3 ^1-2 After a long time, we could not be patient any longer. So we decided to send our friend Timothy to come to visit you. We ourselves would stay here in Athens. Timothy serves God with us here. He tells people the good news about Christ. We sent him to you so that he could help you to trust Christ more and more. ³ You are receiving many troubles. We did not want anyone among you to turn away from Christ because of that. You already know that we who are believers must receive troubles like that.

⁴ Even when we were there with you, we told you that troubles would come. We told you before the troubles came and now it has really happened. You know that it is true. ⁵ That is why I had to send Timothy to come to you. I could not wait to hear news about you any longer. I wanted to know whether you still trusted Christ. I was afraid that Satan had deceived you. If he had made you turn away from Christ, our work among you would have had no results.

⁶ But now Timothy has come back to us. And he has told us good news about you. He has told us that you continue to trust Christ and you love one another. He says that you always think about us in a good way. You want very much to meet us again, as we also want to meet you. ⁷ So we have become happy again because of you, our Christian friends. We continue to suffer and we have much trouble. But we are happy because you continue to trust Christ. ⁸ Yes, we are like people who have become alive again. We know that you are strong as you trust the Lord.

⁹ We thank God very much for you! You make us very happy when we talk to God about you. ¹⁰ We pray very much for you, during the day and during the night. We ask God to give us the chance to visit you again. We want to help you to understand the things that you still need to know. Then you will be able to trust Christ even more.

¹¹ We pray that our Father God himself and our Lord Jesus will prepare the way for us. Then we will come to visit you. ¹² We pray that the Lord will cause you to love people more and more. We love you very much. We pray that you will love each other and all people, as we love you. ¹³ Then God will cause you to become strong inside yourselves. You will live in a completely good way. One day our Lord Jesus will come back with all the people who belong to him. Then you will stand in front of God, our Father. He will say that you are not guilty of anything that is wrong.