Paul’s First Letter to the Church in Thessalonica
This is the apostle Paul writing to the members of the church in Thessalonica, you who worship God the Father and his son Jesus Christ our Lord. My colleague Silas, who replaced Barnabas on the second missionary journey, is with me here in Corinth, as is Timothy, who joined us in Lystra. May God bless each of you with an awareness of his favor and a fresh experience of the calm delight his presence brings.
We continue to thank God our Father for each one of you. We talk to him about your faith, how it always expresses itself in action; about your love, how it involves you in the lives of others; and about your confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ, how steadfast it is.
One thing we know for sure, my friends, and that is that God loves you and has chosen you. We know this to be true because when we brought the gospel to you, you experienced it not as so many words, but as a powerful demonstration of the Holy Spirit. It brought deep conviction. What’s more, you watched how we conducted ourselves and came to realize that it was for your benefit that we were there. You began to imitate our life-style (which we learned from Lord), and although it was bound to arouse opposition, you accepted the message with a joy given by the Holy Spirit. So now you’ve become the example par excellence for believers everywhere in Greece. The message of God’s love has echoed forth from you, so wherever we go, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, we find that people have already heard about your faith in God. They tell us about how cordially you welcomed us, how you turned from the worship of false gods to serve the true and living God, and how you are now waiting for his Son Jesus to return from heaven—the one who was raised from the dead and will rescue us from the coming judgment.
Chapter 2
I’m sure that you would agree, my friends, that our visit to you was anything but a waste of time. You knew all about how we had suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi before coming to be with you. However, when we arrived there at Thessalonica, God gave us the boldness to preach the same message to you in spite of strong opposition from the crowds. We weren’t trying to trick you into believing something that would benefit us, but spoke as couriers entrusted by God to proclaim the gospel. Our aim was not to please people, but to please God for he is the one who examines the heart. As you know, we didn’t use flattery nor did we pretend to be your friends in order to get some financial benefit. God is our witness! We weren’t seeking praise from you or anyone else. Of course, as apostles of Christ, we could have made certain demands on you, but instead we were gentle. We were like a mother tenderly nursing her children. We cared so much for you that it was a pleasure to share not only God’s message, but our very selves as well. We loved you so much.
Remember how diligently we labored while there? We didn’t want to be a burden on you, so in addition to preaching the gospel, we took on other work and that kept us busy day and night. You can testify, as can God, that we lived among you in a devout, upright, and blameless manner. As you know, we treated each of you as a father would treat his own children. We exhorted you, encouraged you, and urged you to live in a manner worthy of the One who called you into his glorious kingdom.
Therefore we thank God that when you heard the message we brought from God, you accepted it not as a bit of secular philosophy, but as it truly is, the word of God. Even now it continues to work among you believers. Your situation, dear friends, is very much like that of the Christian believers in Judea who were persecuted by their own countrymen, the Jews (the very ones who had killed the prophets and the Lord Jesus). And now, in the same way, you are being persecuted by your own people. Such conduct does not please God and certainly works against the best interests of everyone. Those people are doing their best to keep us from preaching to the Gentiles and that makes them as sinful as it’s possible to be. But God’s anger has caught up with them at last!
As for us, dear friends, when we were separated for a short time, in body but never in affection, we became all the more eager to see you again, face to face. We genuinely wanted to come to you—I tried more than once—but in every case Satan thwarted our plans. When the Lord Jesus returns it will be people like you who will be our hope, our joy, our crown of honor. Yes, you are our pride and joy.
Chapter 3
So when we could bear it no longer we decided that Silas and I should remain in Athens and Timothy should go ahead to Thessalonica to bring strength and courage to your faith. He’s a dear brother, God’s helper in spreading the message of Christ. We were concerned that the persecution you recently faced might have upset your faith. You certainly know by now that following Christ inevitably involves hardship. Remember when we warned you that there would be persecution. That’s why, when I could bear it no longer, I sent Timothy to find out if you were still strong in the faith. I was afraid the Devil might have led you astray and that all our time and labor would have been in vain.
But Timothy has just returned with the report that your faith is strong and that your love for one another hasn’t changed a bit. He says you always talk about our time together with great affection and that you long to see us as much as we long to see you. So we’re greatly encouraged by your steadfastness as we continue to face all sorts of opposition here. That you are standing firm in the faith is like a great breath of fresh air. How can we ever thank God enough for you, for all the joy we experience in his presence because of you. Night and day we pray that God will let us be with you once again and provide anything that may be lacking in your faith.
May God our Father, along with Jesus our Lord, bring us together again. And may the Lord enrich your love for each other and for everyone else, just as our love for you does. In this way your hearts will be strengthened in holiness and be blameless before our God and Father on that great day when Christ returns with all his holy people.
Chapter 4
Before I finish this letter, dear friends, I have an important request to make of you. You’ll remember that we taught you how to live so as to be pleasing to God, and we’re so glad you are living that way. But now we urge you in the name of Jesus to commit yourselves to the Lord more passionately than ever. You know that the instructions we left with you carried the authority of the Lord Jesus.
It is God’s will that you separate yourselves from everything that is sinful. He doesn’t want you involved in immorality of any kind. Believers are to control their sexual drive and live in a pure and honorable fashion. You must not give in to lustful passion like the Gentiles who have no contact with God. As we warned you, no one should sin against his Christian brother by having sex with his wife. The Lord always evens the score for sins like that. God didn’t call us to live an immoral life, but to be holy. Whoever rejects my teaching at this point, is not rejecting something I made up, but that which carries the authority of God himself, the one who enables you by his Holy Spirit.
When it comes to brotherly love, there is no need for us to write about that because God himself has taught you how to love one another. Indeed, the love you show to believers throughout all Macedonia attests to that. Our only desire is that you will love them even more. Do your best to live a quiet life. Keep your nose out of other people’s business and take responsibility for your own livelihood, just as we told you. That’s how you earn the respect of non-believers and be dependent on no one.
Dear friends, I want you to know what has happened to your fellow believers who have died. That way you won’t grieve for them, as others do who have no hope. Since we believe that Christ died and rose again, we also believe that when Christ returns to heaven, God will see to it that the believers who have died will be taken with him. This is not something we made up; it comes straight from the Lord. We who are alive when Christ returns will not be caught up leaving behind those who have died in the Lord. This is what will happen. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a glorious cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God. Then those who have died believing in Christ will be the first to rise. Only after that will those of us who are still alive be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will all be with him forever. Therefore encourage one another with this great truth.
Chapter 5
There’s no