Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

1 I, Paul, am writing this letter. Silas and Timothy join me in writing.

We are sending this letter to you, the members of the church in Thessalonica. You belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

May grace and peace be given to you.

Paul Gives Thanks for the Thessalonians’ Faith

² We always thank God for all of you. We keep on praying for you. ³ We remember you when we pray to our God and Father. Your work is produced by your faith. Your service is the result of your love. Your strength to continue comes from your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ Brothers and sisters, you are loved by God. We know that he has chosen you. ⁵ Our good news didn’t come to you only in words. It came with power. It came with the Holy Spirit’s help. He gave us complete faith in what we were preaching. You know how we lived among you for your good. ⁶ We and the Lord were your examples. You followed us. You welcomed our message even when you were suffering terribly. You welcomed it with the joy the Holy Spirit gives. ⁷ So you became a model to all the believers in the lands of Macedonia and Achaia. ⁸ The Lord’s message rang out from you. That was true not only in Macedonia and Achaia. Your faith in God has also become known everywhere. So we don’t have to say anything about it. ⁹ The believers themselves report the kind of welcome you gave us. They tell about how you turned away from statues of gods. And you turned to serve the living and true God. ¹⁰ They tell about how you are waiting for his Son to come from heaven. God raised him from the dead. He is Jesus. He saves us from God’s anger, and his anger is sure to come.

Paul’s Work for God in Thessalonica

2 Brothers and sisters, you know that our visit to you produced results. ² You know what happened earlier in the city of Philippi. We suffered, and people treated us very badly there. But God gave us the boldness to tell you his good news. We preached to you even when people strongly opposed us. ³ The appeal we make is based on truth. It comes from a pure heart. We are not trying to trick you. ⁴ In fact, it is just the opposite. God has approved us to preach. He has trusted us with the good news. We aren’t trying to please people. We want to please God. He tests our hearts. ⁵ As you know, we never praised you if we didn’t mean it. We didn’t put on a mask to cover up any sinful desire. God is our witness that this is true. ⁶ We were not expecting people to praise us. We were not looking for praise from you or anyone else. Yet as Christ’s apostles, we could have used our authority over you. ⁷ Instead, we were like young children when we were with you.

As a mother feeds and cares for her little children, ⁸ we cared for you. We loved you so much. So we were happy to share with you God’s good news. We were also happy to share our lives with you. ⁹ Brothers and sisters, I am sure you remember how hard we worked. We labored night and day while we preached to you God’s good news. We didn’t want to cause you any expense. ¹⁰ You are witnesses of how we lived among you believers. God is also a witness that we were holy and godly and without blame. ¹¹ You know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. ¹² We gave you hope and strength. We comforted you. We really wanted you to live in a way that is worthy of God. He chooses you to enter his glorious kingdom.

¹³ We never stop thanking God for the way you received his word. You heard it from us. But you didn’t accept it as a human word. You accepted it for what it really is. It is God’s word. It is really at work in you who believe. ¹⁴ Brothers and sisters, you became like the members of God’s churches in Judea. They are believers in Christ Jesus, just as you are. Your own people made you suffer. You went through the same things the church members in Judea suffered from the Jews. ¹⁵ The Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets also forced us to leave. They do not please God. They are enemies of everyone. ¹⁶ They try to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles. These Jews don’t want the Gentiles to be saved. In this way, these Jews always increase their sins to the limit. God’s anger has come on them at last.

Paul Wants to See the Believers in Thessalonica

¹⁷ Brothers and sisters, we were separated from you for a short time. Apart from you, we were like children without parents. We were no longer with you in person. But we kept you in our thoughts. We really wanted to see you. So we tried very hard to do so. ¹⁸ We wanted to come to you. Again and again I, Paul, wanted to come. But Satan blocked our way. ¹⁹ What is our hope? What is our joy? When our Lord Jesus returns, what is the crown we will delight in? Isn’t it you? ²⁰ Yes, you are our glory and our joy.

3 We couldn’t wait any longer. So we thought it was best to be left by ourselves in Athens. ² We sent our brother Timothy to give you strength and hope in your faith. He works together with us in God’s service to spread the good news about Christ. ³ We sent him so that no one would be upset by times of testing. You know very well that we have to go through times of testing. ⁴ In fact, when we were with you, here is what we kept telling you. We were telling you that our enemies would make us suffer. As you know very well, it has turned out that way. ⁵ That’s the reason I sent someone to find out about your faith. I couldn’t wait any longer. I was afraid that Satan had tempted you in some way. Then our work among you would have been useless.

Timothy Brings a Good Report

⁶ But Timothy has come to us from you just now. He has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have happy memories of us. He has also said that you desire to see us, just as we desire to see you. ⁷ Brothers and sisters, in all our trouble and suffering your faith encouraged us. ⁸ Now we really live, because you are standing firm in the Lord. ⁹ How can we thank God enough for you? We thank God because of all the joy we have in his presence. We have this joy because of you. ¹⁰ Night and day we pray very hard that we will see you again. We want to give you what is missing in your faith.

¹¹ Now may a way be opened up for us to come to you. May our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus do this. ¹² May the Lord make your love grow. May it be like a rising flood. May your love for one another increase. May it also increase for everyone else. May it be just like our love for you. ¹³ May the Lord give you strength in your hearts. Then you will be holy and without blame in the sight of our God and Father. May that be true when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.