Book of Common Prayer

1 Paul^[a] and Silvanus^[b] and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

We Give Thanks For Your Faith And Love And Endurance

² We are giving-thanks to God always for you all while making mention of you in our prayers, unceasingly^{[c] 3} remembering your work of ^[d] faith and labor of love and endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father; ⁴ knowing, brothers having been loved by God, your election^[e], ⁵ because our good-news did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with great fullness-of-conviction— just as you know what-kind-of men we proved-to-be among you for your sake.

For You Became Imitators of Us And Examples To All

⁶ And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, having accepted the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, ⁷ so that you became an example to all the ones believing in Macedonia and in Achaia. ⁸ For from you the word of the Lord has sounded-forth— not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone-out— so that we are having no need to speak anything! ⁹ For they themselves are reporting about us as to what-sort-of entrance^[f] we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to be serving the living and true God, ¹⁰ and to be awaiting His Son from the heavens Whom He raised from the dead— Jesus, the One delivering us from the coming wrath.

The Priests Ask By What Authority He Does This. From Where Was John’s Authority?

20 And it came about on one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and announcing-the-good-news, that the chief priests and the scribes with the elders stood-near. ² And they spoke, saying to Him, “Tell us, by what-kind-of ^[a] authority are You doing these things, or who is the one having given You this authority?” ³ And having responded, He said to them, “I also will ask you a thing, and you tell Me— ⁴ was the baptism of John from heaven, or from humans?” ⁵ And the ones reasoned with themselves, saying that “If we say, ‘From heaven’, He will say, ‘For what reason did you not believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From humans’, all the people will stone us to death. For they are convinced that John is a prophet”. ⁷ And they answered that they did not know from where it was. ⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Nor am I telling you by what-kind-of authority I am doing these things”.