The First Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians

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- Chapter 1 -

(2 Thessalonians 1:1–4)

I, Paul, am writing this letter. Silas and Timothy are with me. We are sending this letter to you who are the group of believers in the city of Thessalonica who are joined to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May God be kind to you and give you peace.

We always thank God for you all when we mention you while we pray.

We continually remember that you work for God, who is our Father, because you trust in him and you earnestly help people because you love them. You have a solid confidence in the future, because you know our Lord Jesus Christ!

My fellow believers whom God loves, we also thank him because we know that he chose you to become his people.

We know that he chose you because when we told the good news to you, it was much more than words only. The Holy Spirit powerfully worked among you, and he strongly assured us that our message to you was true. In the same way, you know how we spoke and how we conducted ourselves when we were with you, in order that we might help you.

We have now heard that you are living like we live and are following our example. But more important, you are also living like our Lord lived. You received the message of God’s love with great joy that only comes from the Holy Spirit, even though you had to go through many trials and difficulties.

All the believers who are in the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia are learning how they should trust God just like you have learned and as you are trusting him.

Other people have heard you tell the message from the Lord Jesus. Then they also proclaimed the good news to people who live throughout Macedonia and Achaia. Not only that, but people who live in many faraway places have heard that you trust in God. So we do not need to tell people what God has done in your lives.

People who live far from you are telling others how warmly you welcomed us when we came to you. They also report that you stopped worshiping false gods and that now you worship and serve God who alone is the living God, and he is the real and only God.

They also tell us that now you wait expectantly for his Son to return to earth from heaven. You firmly believe that God caused him to live again after he died. You believe also that Jesus will rescue all of us, who trust in him, when God punishes all the people of the entire world.

(2 Thessalonians 1:1–4)

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:(a) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers,

remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

We know, brothers(b) loved by God, that you are chosen,

and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake.

You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,

so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia.

For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we need not to say anything.

For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God,

and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Footnotes

(a)1:1 “Christ” means “Anointed One”.

(b)1:4 The word for “brothers” here and where context allows may also be correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”