1Thessalonians 1:1-10
1 From Paul, Silas, and Timothy--- To the people of the church in
Thessalonica, who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: May
grace and peace be yours.
2 We always thank God for you all and always mention you in our prayers.
3 For we remember before our God and Father how you put your faith into
practice, how your love made you work so hard, and how your hope in
our Lord Jesus Christ is firm.
4 Our friends, we know that God loves you and has chosen you to be his
own.
5 For we brought the Good News to you, not with words only, but also with
power and the Holy Spirit, and with complete conviction of its truth. You
know how we lived when we were with you; it was for your own good.
6 You imitated us and the Lord; and even though you suffered much, you
received the message with the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit.
7 So you became an example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
8 For not only did the message about the Lord go out from you throughout
Macedonia and Achaia, but the news about your faith in God has gone
everywhere. There is nothing, then, that we need to say.
9 All those people speak about how you received us when we visited you,
and how you turned away from idols to God, to serve the true and living
God
10 and to wait for his Son to come from heaven---his Son Jesus, whom he
raised from death and who rescues us from God's anger that is coming.
1Thessalonians 2:1-20
1 Our friends, you yourselves know that our visit to you was not a failure.
2 You know how we had already been mistreated and insulted in Philippi
before we came to you in Thessalonica. And even though there was much
opposition, our God gave us courage to tell you the Good News that
comes from him.
3 Our appeal to you is not based on error or impure motives, nor do we try
to trick anyone.
4 Instead, we always speak as God wants us to, because he has judged us
worthy to be entrusted with the Good News. We do not try to please
people, but to please God, who tests our motives.
5 You know very well that we did not come to you with flattering talk, nor
did we use words to cover up greed---God is our witness!
6 We did not try to get praise from anyone, either from you or from others,
7 even though as apostles of Christ we could have made demands on you.
But we were gentle when we were with you, like a mother taking care of
her children.
8 Because of our love for you we were ready to share with you not only the
Good News from God but even our own lives. You were so dear to us!
9 Surely you remember, our friends, how we worked and toiled! We
worked day and night so that we would not be any trouble to you as we
preached to you the Good News from God.
10 You are our witnesses, and so is God, that our conduct toward you who
believe was pure, right, and without fault.
11 You know that we treated each one of you just as parents treat their own
children.
12 We encouraged you, we comforted you, and we kept urging you to live
the kind of life that pleases God, who calls you to share in his own
Kingdom and glory.
13 And there is another reason why we always give thanks to God. When
we brought you God's message, you heard it and accepted it, not as a
message from human beings but as God's message, which indeed it is.
For God is at work in you who believe.
14 Our friends, the same things happened to you that happened to the
churches of God in Judea, to the people there who belong to Christ
Jesus. You suffered the same persecutions from your own people that
they suffered from the Jews,
15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and persecuted us. How
displeasing they are to God! How hostile they are to everyone!
16 They even tried to stop us from preaching to the Gentiles the message
that would bring them salvation. In this way they have brought to
completion all the sins they have always committed. And now God's
anger has at last come down on them!
17 As for us, friends, when we were separated from you for a little while--not in our thoughts, of course, but only in body---how we missed you
and how hard we tried to see you again!
18 We wanted to return to you. I myself tried to go back more than once,
but Satan would not let us.
19 After all, it is you---you, no less than others!---who are our hope, our
joy, and our reason for boasting of our victory in the presence of our
Lord Jesus when he comes.
20 Indeed, you are our pride and our joy!
