Study Desk

And you have, in fact, behaved like this toward all the believers in all of Macedonia. So we beg you, our friends, to do even more.

Our friends, we want you to know the truth about those who have died, so that you will not be sad, as are those who have no hope.

We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him.

then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.

So then, encourage one another with these words.

So then, we should not be sleeping like the others; we should be awake and sober.

And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing.

Our friends, we must thank God at all times for you. It is right for us to do so, because your faith is growing so much and the love each of you has for the others is becoming greater.

not to be so easily confused in your thinking or upset by the claim that the Day of the Lord has come. Perhaps it is thought that we said this while prophesying or preaching, or that we wrote it in a letter.

He will oppose every so-called god or object of worship and will put himself above them all. He will even go in and sit down in God's Temple and claim to be God.

and use every kind of wicked deceit on those who will perish. They will perish because they did not welcome and love the truth so as to be saved.

And so God sends the power of error to work in them so that they believe what is false.

So then, our friends, stand firm and hold on to those truths which we taught you, both in our preaching and in our letter.

We did not accept anyone's support without paying for it. Instead, we worked and toiled; we kept working day and night so as not to be an expense to any of you.

It may be that some there will not obey the message we send you in this letter. If so, take note of them and have nothing to do with them, so that they will be ashamed.

They want to be teachers of God's law, but they do not understand their own words or the matters about which they speak with so much confidence.

even though in the past I spoke evil of him and persecuted and insulted him. But God was merciful to me because I did not yet have faith and so did not know what I was doing.

He must be mature in the faith, so that he will not swell up with pride and be condemned, as the Devil was.

He should be a man who is respected by the people outside the church, so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the Devil's trap.

Give them these instructions, so that no one will find fault with them.