Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, send greetings to the church people in the city of Thessalonica. The people of this church belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the kindness of God bless you and give you peace. for all of you, and we always talk to him about you.

² You do good things because you believe. You work very hard because you have love in your hearts. You are patient because you have hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. We remember these things when we talk to God our Father about you.

³ My brothers, God loves you and we know that he has chosen you.

⁴ The good news we brought you was not just words. It had power. It had the Holy Spirit. It made people very sure it was true. And you also know how we lived when we were with you to help you.

⁵ You tried hard to be like us and like the Lord. You had much trouble because you believed our message. Yet the Holy Spirit made you very happy.

⁶ You have shown all the Christians in the countries of Macedonia and Greece how they should live.

⁷ People in Macedonia and Greece have heard from you the message about the Lord. And people everywhere have heard that you believe in God. So there is no need for us to write about your faith.

⁸ They tell us how glad you were to see us. They tell us about how you left your idols and turned to God. You worship the God who is the living and true God.

⁹ And you wait for his Son to come again from heaven. God raised his Son Jesus from death. It is Jesus who saves us from God's great anger which is to come.

2 My brothers, you yourselves know that our visit to you was not for nothing.

² The people at the city of Philippi treated us very badly. As you know, we had much trouble. But God helped us, and we did not fear to tell you God's good news. But many things were against us and tried to stop us.

³ Our message was not a lie. What we told you was not wrong. And we did not try to fool you.

⁴ But God chose us to tell people the good news. And so we do not speak to please men, but to please God. He is the one who knows what is in our hearts.

⁵ We never said nice things about people that were not true. You know this. We never talked to get something out of it for ourselves. God knows this.

⁶ And we did not ask you or anybody else to help us or to praise us. Of course, we are apostles of Christ, and we had the right to do so.

⁷ But we were kind when we were with you. We were like a woman taking care of her own children.

⁸ Because we loved you, we were glad to give you God's good news. We were also glad to give you our lives, because we loved you very much.

⁹ My brothers, you remember how hard we worked. We worked night and day so that we would not trouble any of you. And we told you God's good news.

¹⁰ We lived in a holy and right way among you Christians. We did nothing wrong to you. You know this yourselves and God knows it too.

¹¹ You know how we talked to each of you as a father talks to his children. We comforted, helped, and taught you.

¹² We told you to live to please God. He called you to his own kingdom and greatness.

¹³ And here is another reason why we always thank God all the time. When you heard God's word from us, you did not say, `That is men's word.' But you said, `That is God's word.' And it really is God's word. The word is working in you Christians.

¹⁴ My brothers, you were like the churches of God in Judea which belong to Christ Jesus. The people of your own country troubled you in the same way that the Jews troubled them.

¹⁵ The Jewish leaders killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets. And they drove us out of their country. They do not please God and they are against all other people.

¹⁶ They try to stop us from talking to those people who are not Jews. They do not want them to be saved. So they are always doing wrong things. And now at last, God has become very angry with them. have been away from you for a short time in body, but not in heart. We wanted very much to see you face to face, and we tried hard to come.

¹⁷ We wanted to come to you. Twice, I, Paul, wanted to come. But Satan stopped us.

¹⁸ What is our hope when our Lord Jesus comes? What will make us happy and proud then? It is you people!

¹⁹ You are ones of whom we are proud. You make us happy.

3 We felt we could not wait any longer. So we thought it best to stay at the city of Athens alone.

² And we sent our brother Timothy to you. He works for God by telling the good news about Christ. We sent him to help you be strong and to encourage you in what you believe.

³ We do not want anyone to give up because of the trouble. You yourselves know that we all will surely have trouble.

⁴ When we were with you, we told you that we would have trouble. Trouble came. And now you know what we said is true.

⁵ That is why I could not wait any longer. I sent Timothy to find out if you were still believing. I was afraid that Satan had tried you too much. Then our work would have been for nothing.

⁶ But now Timothy has come back to us from you. He has brought us the good news that you are still believing and have love in your hearts. He has told us that you always remember us. He also told us that you want to see us, just as we want to see you.

⁷ My brothers, the way you believe has comforted us in all our troubles.

⁸ It gives us new life now to know that you are standing strong in the Lord.

⁹ We cannot thank God enough for you. We are very happy about you as we talk to God.

¹⁰ Night and day we ask God that we may see you face to face. We want to help you know more about what you believe.

¹¹ Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, open the way for us to come to you.

¹² May the Lord make you stronger in your love for each other. Love others in the way we love you.

¹³ We want the Lord to help you to stand strong. And then, when the Lord Jesus comes with all God's people, you will be holy in the eyes of our God and Father. He will see no fault in you.