(1 Thessalonians 1:1–10)
1
I, Paul, and Silas and Timothy are writing this letter to you in the city of Thessalonica, who are a group of believers joined to God our Father and to Jesus Christ our Lord.
2
We pray that God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord, will continue to act kindly toward you and that he will continue to give you peace.
3
Our fellow believers, we are always thanking God, and we should do this, because you are trusting in the Lord Jesus more and more, and because every one of you is loving each of the others more and more.
4
As a result, we keep proudly talking about you to the other groups of believers belonging to God. We tell them how you are being patient and how you continue trusting in the Lord Jesus, even though other people frequently cause you much trouble.
Christ’s Coming
5
Since you are enduring all that trouble, we clearly know that God will judge all people justly. In your case, he will declare to everyone that you are worthy for him to rule forever, because you are suffering as you trust in him.
6
God will certainly cause trouble for those people who are troubling you, because it is right for him to do so.
7
He also considers that it is right that he should reward you by bringing you through your hardships. He will do that for both you and us when our Lord Jesus shows himself to everyone when he returns from heaven with his powerful angels.
8
Then with blazing fire he will punish those people who are not loyal to him, those who refuse to accept the good news about our Lord Jesus.
9
Our Lord Jesus will drive them far from himself, where he will destroy them forever, far from where he rules with very great power.
10
The Lord Jesus will do this when he comes back from heaven at the time that God has decided. As a result, all we who are his people will praise him and marvel at him. And you will be there, too, because you believed what we solemnly told you.
11
In order that you might praise Jesus like this, we are also always praying for you. We pray that God will make you worthy to live in the new way he has called you to live. We pray also that he will make you able to do good in every way that you desire, and that since he is so powerful, he will also make you able to do every kind of good thing because you trust in him.
12
We pray this because we want you to praise our Lord Jesus, and we want him to honor you. This will happen because God, whom we worship, and our Lord Jesus Christ keep acting kindly toward you.
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