Greeting

1 From Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy:

To the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God our Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

² Grace and peace to all of you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving and encouragement

³ Brothers and sisters, we must always thank God for you. This is only right because your faithfulness is growing by leaps and bounds, and the love that all of you have for each other is increasing. ⁴ That’s why we ourselves are bragging about you in God’s churches. We tell about your endurance and faithfulness in all the harassments and trouble that you have put up with. ⁵ This shows that God’s judgment is right, and that you will be considered worthy of God’s kingdom for which you are suffering. ⁶ After all, it’s right for God to pay back the ones making trouble for you with trouble ⁷ and to pay back you who are having trouble with relief along with us. This payback will come when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful angels. ⁸ He will give justice with blazing fire to those who don’t recognize God and don’t obey the good news of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the Lord’s presence and away from his mighty glory. ¹⁰ This will happen when he comes on that day to receive honor from his holy people and to be admired by everyone who has believed—and our testimony to you was believed.

¹¹ We are constantly praying for you for this: that our God will make you worthy of his calling and accomplish every good desire and faithful work by his power. ¹² Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored by you, and you will be honored by him, consistent with the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Day of the Lord

2 Brothers and sisters, we have a request for you concerning our Lord Jesus Christ’s coming and when we are gathered together to be with him. ² We don’t want you to be easily confused in your mind or upset if you hear that the day of the Lord is already here, whether you hear it through some spirit, a message, or a letter supposedly from us. ³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. That day won’t come unless the rebellion comes first and the person who is lawless is revealed, who is headed for destruction. ⁴ He is the opponent of every so-called god or object of worship and promotes himself over them. So he sits in God’s temple, displaying himself to show that he is God. ⁵ You remember that I used to tell you these things while I was with you, don’t you? ⁶ Now you know what holds him back so that he can be revealed when his time comes. ⁷ The hidden plan to live without any law is at work now, but it will be secret only until the one who is holding it back is out of the way. ⁸ Then the person who is lawless will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath from his mouth. When the Lord comes, his appearance will put an end to him. ⁹ When the person who is lawless comes, it will happen through Satan’s effort, with all kinds of fake power, signs, and wonders. ¹⁰ It will happen with every sort of wicked deception of those who are heading toward destruction because they have refused to love the truth that would allow them to be saved. ¹¹ This is why God will send them an influence that will mislead them so that they will believe the lie. ¹² The result will be that everyone will be judged who is not convinced by the truth but is happy with injustice.

Prayer of thanks and encouragement

¹³ But we always must thank God for you, brothers and sisters who are loved by God. This is because he chose you from the beginning to be the first crop of the harvest. This brought salvation, through your dedication to God by the Spirit and through your belief in the truth. ¹⁴ God called all of you through our good news so you could possess the honor of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵ So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions we taught you, whether we taught you in person or through our letter. ¹⁶ Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and a good hope. ¹⁷ May he encourage your hearts and give you strength in every good thing you do or say.

Prayer request

3 Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us so that the Lord’s message will spread quickly and be honored, just like it happened with you. ² Pray too that we will be rescued from inappropriate and evil people since everyone that we meet won’t respond with faith. ³ But the Lord is faithful and will give you strength and protect you from the evil one. ⁴ We are confident about you in the Lord—that you are doing and will keep doing what we tell you to do. ⁵ May the Lord lead your hearts to express God’s love and Christ’s endurance.

Discipline for the undisciplined

⁶ Brothers and sisters, we command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to stay away from every brother or sister who lives an undisciplined life that is not in line with the traditions that you received from us. ⁷ You yourselves know how you need to imitate us because we were not undisciplined when we were with you. ⁸ We didn’t eat anyone’s food without paying for it. Instead, we worked night and day with effort and hard work so that we would not impose on you. ⁹ We did this to give you an example to imitate, not because we didn’t have a right to insist on financial support. ¹⁰ Even when we were with you we were giving you this command: “If anyone doesn’t want to work, they shouldn’t eat.” ¹¹ We hear that some of you are living an undisciplined life. They aren’t working, but they are meddling in other people’s business. ¹² By the Lord Jesus Christ, we command and encourage such people to work quietly and put their own food on the table. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, don’t get discouraged in doing what is right. ¹⁴ Take note of anyone who doesn’t obey what we have said in this letter. Don’t associate with them so they will be ashamed of themselves. ¹⁵ Don’t treat them like enemies, but warn them like you would do for a brother or sister.

Final greeting

¹⁶ May the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with all of you. ¹⁷ I, Paul, am writing this greeting with my own hand. This verifies that the letter is from me, as in every letter of mine. This is how I write. ¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you.