Beginning
The Problems of New Christians
1 From Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
To the church in Thessalonica in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul Talks About God’s Judgment
3 We must always thank God for you. And we should do this because it is right. It is right because your faith is growing more and more. And the love that every one of you has for each other is also growing. 4 So we brag about you to the other churches of God. We tell them about the way you continue to be strong and have faith. You are being treated badly and are suffering many troubles, but you continue with strength and faith.
5 This is proof that God is right in his judgment. God wants you to be worthy of his kingdom. Your suffering is for that kingdom. 6 And God will do what is right. He will give trouble to those who trouble you. 7 And he will give peace to you people who are troubled and to us also. God will give us this help when the Lord Jesus is shown to us from heaven with his powerful angels. 8 He will come from heaven with burning fire to punish those who do not know God. He will punish those who do not obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 Those people will be punished with a destruction that continues forever. They will not be allowed to be with the Lord, and they will be kept away from his great power. 10 This will happen on the day when the Lord Jesus comes to receive glory with his holy people. And all the people who have believed will be amazed at Jesus. You will be in that group of believers because you believed what we told you.
11 That is why we always pray for you. We ask our God to help you live the good way that he called you to live. The goodness you have makes you want to do good, and the faith you have makes you work. We pray that with his power God will help you do these things more and more. 12 We pray all this so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ can have glory in you. And you can have glory in him. That glory comes from the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Evil Things Will Happen
2 Brothers, we have something to say about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to talk to you about that time when we will meet together with him. 2 Do not become easily upset in your thinking or afraid if you hear that the day of the Lord has already come. Someone may have said this in a prophecy or in a message. Or you may read it in a letter that someone tells you came from us. 3 Do not let any person fool you in any way. That day of the Lord will not come until the turning away from God happens. And that day will not come until the Man of Evil[a] appears. He belongs to hell. 4 He is against any so-called god or anything that people worship. And the Man of Evil puts himself above anything called God or anything that people worship. And that Man of Evil even goes into God’s Temple and sits there. Then he says that he is God.
5 I told you when I was with you that all this would happen. Do you not remember? 6 And you know what is stopping that Man of Evil now. He is being stopped now so that he will appear at the right time. 7 The secret power of evil is already working in the world now. But there is one who is stopping that power. And he will continue to stop it until he is taken out of the way. 8 Then that Man of Evil will appear. And the Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath that comes from his mouth and will destroy him with the glory of his coming. 9 The Man of Evil will come by the power of Satan. He will have great power, and he will do many different false miracles, signs, and wonders. 10 He will use every kind of evil to trick those who are lost. They are lost because they refused to love the truth. (If they loved the truth, they would be saved.) 11 But they refused to love the truth; so God sends them something powerful that leads them away from the truth. He sends them that power so they will believe something that is not true. 12 So all those who do not believe the truth will be judged guilty. They did not believe the truth, and they enjoyed doing evil.
You Are Chosen for Salvation
13 Brothers, the Lord loves you. God chose you from the beginning[b] to be saved. So we must always thank God for you. You are saved by the Spirit that makes you holy and by your faith in the truth. 14 God used the Good News that we preached to call you to be saved. He called you so that you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So, brothers, stand strong and continue to believe the teachings we gave you. We taught you those things in our speaking and in our letter to you.
16-17 We pray that the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father will comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say. God loved us. Through his grace he gave us a good hope and comfort that continues forever.
Pray for Us
3 And now, brothers, pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s teaching will continue to spread quickly. And pray that people will give honor to that teaching, just as happened with you. 2 And pray that we will be protected from bad and evil people. (Not all people believe in the Lord.)
3 But the Lord is faithful. He will give you strength and protect you from the Evil One. 4 The Lord makes us feel sure that you are doing the things we told you. And we know that you will continue to do those things. 5 We pray that the Lord will lead your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s patience.
The Duty to Work
6 Brothers, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ we command you to stay away from any believer who refuses to work. People who refuse to work are not following the teaching that we gave them. 7 You yourselves know that you should live as we live. We were not lazy when we were with you. 8 And when we ate another person’s food, we always paid for it. We worked and worked so that we would not be a trouble to any of you. We worked night and day. 9 We had the right to ask you to help us. But we worked to take care of ourselves so that we would be an example for you to follow. 10 When we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If anyone will not work, he will not eat.”
11 We hear that some people in your group refuse to work. They do nothing. And they busy themselves in other people’s lives. 12 We command those people to work quietly and earn their own food. In the Lord Jesus Christ we beg them to do this. 13 Brothers, never become tired of doing good.
14 If anyone does not obey what we tell you in this letter, then remember who he is. Do not associate with him. Then maybe he will feel ashamed. 15 But do not treat him as an enemy. Warn him as a brother.
Final Words
16 We pray that the Lord of peace will give you peace at all times and in every way. May the Lord be with all of you.
17 I am Paul, and I end this letter now in my own handwriting. All my letters have this to show they are from me. This is the way I write.
18 May our Lord Jesus Christ show all of you his grace.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.