((following p46, p30))
Paulus and Silvanus and Timotheos
To the Thessalonikan assembly in Father God and Lord Anointed Jesus.
Hello and peace to you.
1:2 We always thank God about all of you, making a remembrance in our prayers, unceasingly remembering in the presence of our God and Father your deed of trust, and labor of love, and endurance of the hope of your Lord, Anointed Jesus.
Brothers beloved by God, we know your selection, because our message did not come to you in a message alone, but also in power and in holy breath and great confirmation, just as you know what we became among you on your account. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord by embracing the message in much affliction with joy and holy breath. And so, you became a type to all those who trust, in Makedonia and in Achaia.
For from you the Lord's message sounded forth not only in Makedonia and Achaia, but your trust toward God has gone out in every place. And so we have no need to say anything. For, regarding us, they are declaring what kind of introduction we had to you, and how you turned toward God from the idols, to be slaves to the living and true God and to rendure for his son from the heavens, whom he raised from among the dead: Jesus, the one who is rescuing us from the coming anger.
2:1 For you know, brothers that our introduction to you has not become worthless. On the contrary, after previously suffering and after being insulted, as you know, we gained the freedom of speech in our God to tell you the good message in much agony. For our advice was not from error, nor from uncleanliness, nor in deceit, but just as we were tested by God to be entrusted with the good message, so we speak, not to be pleasing people but God who tests our hearts.
5 For we never came to you either with a message of flattery or with a cloaked greed. A divine one is witness! Neither did we seek glory from people, not from you nor from others. Since we are envoys of the Anointed One, we are empowered to be a burden, but we became babies in your midst. Since we longed for you, we were well pleased to pass on to you--as a nursing mother cherishes her children--not only God's good message but also our lives, because you have become beloved to us.
9 For, brothers, you remember our labor and hardship. Working night and day, so as not to burden any of you, we heralded God's good message to you. You and God are witnesses of how godly and justly and blamelessly we happened to be while we were with you, the trusting ones. And you know how we were advising and comforting you as a father does for his children, and we were testifying so that you would walk in a manner worthy of God, the one who is calling you into his kingdom and glory.
13 And on this account also, we thank God unceasingly, because when you received God's message that you heard from us, you did not embrace it as a human message but just as it truly is--a divine message, which is also working in you who trust.
For, brothers, you became imitators of those assemblies of God that are in Judea in Anointed Jesus, because you suffered the same things also from your own countrymen, just as they also suffered at the hands of the Judeans, the ones who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us. Also, they are not pleasing to God and are in opposition to all people, forbidding us from speaking to the gentiles so that they would be saved, in order to always have their own sins filled up. But the anger has reached them in the end.
17 Now brothers, when we were torn away from you for a short season (physical presence, not heart), we tried more abundantly hard to see your faces, with much strong desire. And so, we wanted to come to you (indeed, I Paulus did) both once and also a second time, and the Enemy was hindering us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting in the face of our Lord Jesus in his presence? Isn't it indeed you? For you are our glory and joy.
3:1 So, when we could bear it no longer, we thought it good to be left alone in Athens. And we sent Timotheos, our brother and God's coworker in the good message of the Anointed One, to confirm you and to give advice on behalf of your trust, so that no one would be shaken during these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we were placed there for this reason.
For also, while we were going to you, we had previously told you that we were about to be afflicted, just as you also know it happened. On account of this, I also held out no longer and sent to know about your trust, lest somehow the tester might have tested you, and our labor might have become worthless.
But at the moment, Timotheos came to us from you and brought a good message to us about your trust and your love, and that you always have a good memory of us and long to see us, just as we also long for you. On account of this, brothers, we were comforted about you in all our affliction and agony, on account of your trust. So we are alive now because you are standing in the Lord.
For what gratitude are we able to give to God in return for all the joy which we are rejoicing in God's presence on account of you? Night and day we beg overabundantly to see your faces and to supply those things that are lacking in your trust. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way toward you, and may our Lord fill and make abundant your love for one another and for all, just as we also have for you. May these things happen to establish your hearts to be blameless in holiness in the face of our God and Father in the presence of our Lord Jesus with all of his holy ones. A-mein.
4:1 Therefore brothers, this is what remains: we are begging you and advising you in Lord Jesus, so that you would be more abundant in walking as you received from us how it is necessary for you to walk. For you know what charges we gave you through the Lord Jesus, for this is what God wants: that you be made holy; that you abstain from sexual sin, with each of you knowing how to possess his vessel in holiness and honor, not in the passion of strong desire like the gentiles who do not know God do also; that no one surpass his brother and defraud him in a business matter, because Yahweh is an avenger regarding all of these things, just as we told you before and fully testified. For God did not call us for uncleanliness but in holiness. Consequently, the one who puts this aside is setting aside not a human being but God, the one who gave his holy breath to you.
But concerning brotherly love, you have no need for us to write to you. For you yourselves were taught by God to love one another. For also, you do this same thing to all those brothers in the whole of Makedonia. Now, brothers, we advise you rather to be more abundant in it and to strive ambitiously to be quiet and to practice your own matters and to work with your own hands, just as we charged you, so that to those who are outside you would be walking in an orderly manner and would have no need of anything.
13 But brothers, we don't want you to be ignorant about those who have gone to sleep, so that you would not be sorrowful, like those remaining people who have no hope. For if we trust that Jesus died and rose, then we trust also that God will lead out with him those who fell asleep on account of Jesus. For we are telling you, in a statement of the Lord, that we who are living and who are left over until the Lord's presence will not reach more than those who have fallen asleep.
Because with a directive and with the voice of a chief messenger and with a trumpet, the Lord himself will descend from heaven, and those dead people who are in the Anointed One will be resurrected first. Afterwards, we who are living and who are left over will be snatched with them at the same time in clouds, into the air, to meet the Lord. And we will always be with the Lord in this way. And so, advise one another with these words.
5:1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to be written to. For you know yourselves accurately yourselves that as a thief comes in the night, so Yahweh's day is coming. When they say, "Here are peace and safety," then their sudden destruction will be standing, as labor pains come to the one who has a baby in her womb. And they will not escape.
But you, brothers, are not in darkness that the day should come upon you like a thief. So then, we should not sleep like those who remain. On the contrary, we should be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But we who belong to the day should be sober, armoring ourselves with the breastplate of trust and love and with our helmet being the hope of salvation. Because God did not set us here for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jes us, the one who died on our behalf, so that whether we are awake or sleeping, we would live together with him. So, advise one another and each one should build the other up, just as also you are doing.
12 Now brothers, we beg you to get to know those who are laboring among you and who are outstanding examples to you in the Lord and who are admonishing you. And we beg you to regard them with overabundant love on account of their work.
Now brothers, we advise you to admonish those who are chaotic, to console those who are weak-souled, to support those who are weak, to be longsuffering toward all. Watch so that no one should repay a bad thing from anyone with a bad thing. On the contrary, always pursue the good thing, both for one another and for all.
16 Always rejoice. Pray unceasingly. In everything give thanks, for this is what God wants for you in the Anointed One.
Do not quench the breath. Do not disregard prophesies, but examine all things. Cling to what is good; abstain from every kind of evil.
Now may the God of Peace himself make you wholly holy, and may your entirety--the spirit and the soul and the body--be preserved as blameless in the presence of our Lord, Anointed Jesus. The one who calls you is trustworthy; he will also do it.
Brothers, pray about us also. Greet all of the brothers with a holy kiss. I bind you by oath by the Lord to read the letter to all the holy brothers. The favor of our Lord, Anointed Jesus, be with you.
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