Thanksgiving for the Faith of the Thessalonians

² We always give thanks to God for all of you as we make mention of you in our prayers, ³ because we constantly remember before God our Father your work produced by faith, your labor produced by love, and your patient endurance produced by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ Dear brothers,^[a] loved by God, we know that God has chosen you, ⁵ because our gospel did not come to you with mere words, but with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction. You yourselves know very well what kind of people we proved to be for your sake, while we were with you. ⁶ You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, when you welcomed the word during a time of great affliction with the joy from the Holy Spirit, ⁷ so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.^{[b] 8} Indeed, the word of the Lord has resounded from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith in God has become known. As a result, we do not need to say anything, ⁹ because they themselves inform us about what kind of reception we received from you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. ¹⁰ They also report how you patiently wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, the one who is going to rescue us from the coming wrath.