Greetings

1 From:^[a] Paul, Silvanus,^[b] and Timothy.

To: The church of the Thessalonians in union with God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.^[c]

² May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah,^[d] be yours!

Endurance in Affliction

³ Brothers, at all times we are obligated to thank God for you. It is right to do this^[e] because your faith is growing all the time and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. ⁴ As a result, we rejoice about you among God’s churches—about your endurance and faith through all the persecutions and afflictions you are experiencing. ⁵ This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment and is intended to make you worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you are suffering. ⁶ Certainly it is right for God to pay back those who afflict you with affliction, ⁷ and to give us who are afflicted relief when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels ⁸ in blazing fire. He will take revenge on those who do not know God and on those who refuse to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ Such people will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction by being separated from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious power ¹⁰ when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be regarded with wonder on that day by all who have believed—including you, because you believed our testimony.

¹¹ With this in mind, we always pray for you, asking^[f] that our God might make you worthy of his calling and that through his power he might help you accomplish every good desire and faithful action. ¹² That way the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus, the Messiah.^[g]