Chronological
The Faith of the Thessalonians
1 From Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
To the church in Thessalonica, the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May God’s grace and peace be yours.
2 We always remember you when we pray and thank God for all of you. 3 When we pray to God our Father, we always thank him for the things you have done because of your faith. And we thank him for the work you have done because of your love. And we thank him that you continue to be strong because of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 Brothers, God loves you. And we know that he has chosen you to be his. 5 We brought the Good News to you. But we did not use only words. We brought the Good News with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with sure knowledge that it is true. Also you know how we lived when we were with you. We lived that way to help you. 6 And you became like us and like the Lord. You suffered much, but still you accepted the teaching with the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit. 7 So you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Southern Greece. 8 The Lord’s teaching spread from you in Macedonia and Southern Greece. And your faith in God has become known everywhere. So we do not need to say anything about your faith. 9 People everywhere are telling about the good way you accepted us when we were there with you. They tell about how you stopped worshiping idols and changed to serving the living and true God. 10 And you changed to wait for God’s Son to come from heaven. God raised that Son from death. He is Jesus, who saves us from God’s angry judgment that is sure to come.
Paul’s Work in Thessalonica
2 Brothers, you know that our visit to you was not a failure. 2 Before we came to you, we suffered in Philippi. People there insulted us. You know about that. And when we came to you, many people were against us. But our God helped us to be brave and to tell you his Good News. 3 Our message was a message to encourage you. We were not trying to lie. We had no evil plan. We were not trying to trick you. 4 But we speak the Good News because God tested us and trusted us to do it. When we speak, we are not trying to please men. But we are trying to please God, who tests our hearts. 5 You know that we never tried to influence you by saying nice things about you. We were not trying to get your money. We had no selfishness to hide from you. God knows that this is true. 6 We were not looking for praise from you or anyone else. We are apostles of Christ. When we were with you, we could have used our authority to make you do things.
7 But we were very gentle with you.[a] We were like a mother caring for her little children. 8 Because we loved you, we were happy to share God’s Good News with you. But not only that, we were also happy to share even our own lives with you. 9 Brothers, I know that you remember how hard we worked. We worked night and day so that we would not burden any of you while we preached God’s Good News to you.
10 When we were with you, we lived in a holy and right way, without fault. You know that this is true, and God knows that this is true. 11 You know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. 12 We strengthened you, we comforted you, and we told you to live good lives for God. It is God who calls you to his glorious kingdom.
13 Also, we always thank God because of the way you accepted his message. You heard his message from us, and you accepted it as the word of God, not the words of men. And it really is God’s message. And that message works in you who believe. 14 Brothers, you have been like God’s churches in Christ that are in Judea.[b] God’s people suffered bad things from the other Jews there. And you suffered the same bad things from the people of your own country. 15 Those Jews killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets. And they forced us to leave that country. They do not please God. They are against all people. 16 They try to stop us from teaching the non-Jews so that they may be saved. But those Jews are adding more and more sins to the sins they already have. The anger of God has come to them at last.
Paul Wants to Visit Them Again
17 Brothers, we were separated from you for a short time, but our thoughts were still with you. We wanted very much to see you, and tried very hard to do so. 18 I, Paul, tried to come many times, but Satan stopped us. 19 For you are our hope, our joy, and the crown we will be proud of when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. 20 Truly you are our glory and our joy.
3 We could not come to you, but it was very hard to wait any longer. So we decided to stay in Athens alone 2 and send Timothy to you. Timothy is our brother, who works with us for God. He helps us tell people the Good News about Christ. We sent Timothy to strengthen and comfort you in your faith. 3 We sent him so that none of you would be upset by these troubles we have now. You yourselves know that we must have these troubles. 4 Even when we were with you, we told you that we all would have to suffer. And you know that it has happened the way we said. 5 This is why I sent Timothy to you, so that I could know about your faith. I sent him when I could not wait any longer. I was afraid that the devil had tempted you, and perhaps our hard work would have been wasted.
6 But Timothy now has come back to us from you and has brought us good news about your faith and love. He told us that you always remember us in a good way. He told us that you want to see us just as much as we want to see you. 7 So, brothers, we are comforted about you, because of your faith. We have much trouble and suffering, but still we are comforted. 8 For our life is really full if you stand strong in the Lord. 9 We have so much joy before our God because of you, and we thank him for you. But we cannot thank him enough for all the joy we feel. 10 And we continue praying with all our heart for you night and day. We pray that we can see you again and give you all the things you need to make your faith strong.
11 We pray that our God and Father and our Lord Jesus will prepare the way for us to come to you. 12 We pray that the Lord will make your love grow more and more for each other and for all people. We pray that you will love others as we love you and 13 that your hearts will be made strong. Then you will be holy and without fault before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy people.
A Life That Pleases God
4 Brothers, now I have some other things to tell you. We taught you how to live in a way that will please God. And you are living that way. Now we ask you and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live that way more and more. 2 You know what we told you to do by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 God wants you to be holy and to stay away from sexual immorality. 4 He wants each one of you to learn how to take a wife[c] in a way that is holy and honorable. 5 Don’t give in to lust like people who do not know God. 6 So do not wrong your brother or cheat him in this way. The Lord will punish people who do those things. We have already told you and warned you about that. 7 God called us to be holy and does not want us to live in sin. 8 So the person who refuses to obey this teaching is refusing to obey God, not man. And God is the One who gives us his Holy Spirit.
9 We do not need to write to you about having love for your brothers and sisters in Christ. God has already taught you to love each other. 10 And truly you do love the brothers in all of Macedonia. Brothers, now we encourage you to love them more and more.
11 Do all you can to live a peaceful life. Take care of your own business. Do your own work. We have already told you to do these things. 12 If you do, then people who are not believers will respect you. And you will not have to depend on others for what you need.
The Lord’s Coming
13 Brothers, we want you to know about those who have died. We do not want you to be sad as others who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and that he rose again. So, because of Jesus, God will bring together with Jesus those who have died. 15 What we tell you now is the Lord’s own message. We who are living now may still be living when the Lord comes again. We who are living at that time will be with the Lord, but not before those who have already died. 16 The Lord himself will come down from heaven. There will be a loud command with the voice of the archangel[d] and with the trumpet call of God. And those who have died and were in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, those who are still alive at that time will be gathered up with them. We will be taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So comfort each other with these words.
Be Ready for the Lord’s Coming
5 Now, brothers, we do not need to write to you about times and dates. 2 You know very well that the day the Lord comes again will be a surprise like a thief that comes in the night. 3 People will say, “We have peace and we are safe.” At that time they will be destroyed quickly, as pains come quickly to a woman having a baby. And those people will not escape. 4 But you, brothers, are not living in darkness. And so that day will not surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all people who belong to the light. You belong to the day. We do not belong to the night or to darkness. 6 So we should not be like other people. We should not be sleeping, but we should be awake and have self-control. 7 Those who sleep, sleep at night. Those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But we belong to the day; so we should control ourselves. We should wear faith and love to protect us. And the hope of salvation should be our helmet. 9 God did not choose us to suffer his anger, but to have salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 Jesus died for us so that we can live together with him. It is not important if we are alive or dead when Jesus comes. 11 So comfort each other and give each other strength, just as you are doing now.
Final Instructions and Greetings
12 Now, brothers, we ask you to respect those people who work hard with you, who lead you in the Lord and teach you. 13 Respect them with a very special love because of the work they do with you.
Live in peace with each other. 14 We ask you, brothers, to warn those who do not work. Encourage the people who are afraid. Help those who are weak. Be patient with every person. 15 Be sure that no one pays back wrong for wrong. But always try to do what is good for each other and for all people.
16 Always be happy. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not stop the work of the Holy Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecy as if it were not important. 21 But test everything. Keep what is good. 22 And stay away from everything that is evil.
23 We pray that God himself, the God of peace, will make you pure, belonging only to him. We pray that your whole self—spirit, soul, and body—will be kept safe and be without wrong when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. 24 The One who calls you will do that for you. You can trust him.
25 Brothers, please pray for us.
26 Give all the brothers a holy kiss when you meet. 27 I tell you by the authority of the Lord to read this letter to all the brothers.
28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
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.