Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

The Gospel comes to Thessalonica

1 Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the assembly of Thessalonians in God the father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Grace to you and peace.

² We always give thanks to God for all of you, as we make mention of you in our prayers. ³ We constantly remember the accomplishment of your faith, the hard work of your love, and the patience of your hope in our Lord Jesus the Messiah, in the presence of God our father.

⁴ Dear family, beloved by God, we know that God has chosen you, ⁵ because our gospel didn’t come to you in word only, but in power, and in the holy spirit, and in great assurance. You know what sort of people we became for your sake, when we were among you.

The Thessalonians’ faith

⁶ And you learned how to copy us—and the Lord! When you received the word, you had a lot to suffer, but you also had the holy spirit’s joy. ⁷ As a result, you became a model for all the believers in both Macedonia and Achaea. ⁸ For the word of the Lord has resonated out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaea; your faith in God has gone out to people everywhere. This means that we haven’t had to say anything. ⁹ They themselves tell the story of the kind of welcome we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, ¹⁰ and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the coming fury.

Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica

2 For you yourselves know, my dear family, that our visit to you didn’t turn out to be empty. ² On the contrary. We had already undergone awful things and been shamefully treated in Philippi, as you know; but we were open and exuberant in our God in declaring to you the gospel of God, despite a good deal of opposition.

³ When we make our appeal, you see, we are not deceiving people. We don’t have any impure motives; we aren’t playing some kind of trick. ⁴ Rather, we speak as people whom God has validated to be entrusted with the gospel; not with a view to pleasing people, but in order to please God, who validates our hearts.

⁵ For we never used flattering words, as you know. Nor were we saying things insincerely, as a cover-up for greed, as God is our witness. ⁶ We weren’t looking for recognition from anybody, either you or anyone else— ⁷ though we could have imposed on you, as the Messiah’s emissaries. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her own children. ⁸ We were so devoted to you that we gladly intended to share with you not only the gospel of God but our own lives, because you became so dear to us.

Paul’s fatherly concern

⁹ My dear family, you will recall our hard toil, our labor. We worked night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you while we announced to you the gospel of God. ¹⁰ You are witnesses, and so is God, of our holy, upright and blameless behavior towards you believers. ¹¹ You know how, like a father to his own children, ¹² we encouraged each of you, and strengthened you, and made it clear to you that you should behave in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

The persecuted church

¹³ So, therefore, we thank God constantly that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of a mere human being but—as it really is!—the word of God which is at work in you believers. ¹⁴ For, my dear family, you came to copy God’s assemblies in Judaea in the Messiah, Jesus. You suffered the same things from your own people as they did from those of the Judaeans ¹⁵ who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and who expelled us. They displease God; they oppose all people; ¹⁶ they forbid us to speak to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. This has had the effect, all along, of completing the full total of their sins. But the fury has come upon them for good.

Paul’s joy and crown

¹⁷ As for us, my dear family, we were snatched away from you for a short time, in person though not in heart. We longed eagerly, with a great desire, to see you face to face. ¹⁸ That’s why we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but the satan got in our way.

¹⁹ Don’t you see? When our Lord Jesus is present once more, what is our hope, our joy, the crown of our boasting before him? It’s you! ²⁰ Yes: you are our glory and our joy.

The sending of Timothy

3 So, when it got to the point that we couldn’t bear it any longer, Silvanus and I decided to remain in Athens by ourselves, ² and we sent Timothy—our brother, and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of the Messiah—so that he could strengthen you and bring comfort to your faith, ³ so that you wouldn’t be pulled off course by these sufferings. You yourselves know, don’t you, that this is what we are bound to face. ⁴ For when we were with you, we told you ahead of time that we would undergo suffering; that’s how it has turned out, and you know about it. ⁵ That’s why, when I too couldn’t bear it any longer, I sent Timothy, so that I could find out about your faithfulness, in case somehow the tempter had put you to the test and our work would be in ruins.

Timothy’s report

⁶ But now Timothy has returned to us from you. He has brought us the good news of your faith—and your love; he has told us that you always have good memories of us, and that you are longing to see us, just as we are to see you. ⁷ So, my dear family, we are comforted about you, in all our difficulties and troubles, because of your faithfulness. ⁸ Now, you see, we are really alive, if you are standing firm in the Lord. ⁹ For what thanks can we give back to God about you, for all the joy which we celebrate because of you in the presence of our God, ¹⁰ praying with more fervor than you can imagine, night and day, that we may see you face to face and may put into proper order anything that is lacking in your faith?

Paul’s words of blessing

¹¹ Now may God himself, our father, and our Lord Jesus, steer us on our way to you. ¹² And may the Lord make your love for one another, and for everybody, abound and overflow, just as ours does for you. ¹³ That way, your hearts will be strengthened and kept blameless in holiness before God our father when our Lord Jesus is present again with all his holy ones. Amen.