Study Desk

I am signing this letter myself: PAUL. Don't forget that I am in jail. I pray that God will be kind to you.

From Paul, Silas, and Timothy. To the church in Thessalonica, the people of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that God will be kind to you and will bless you with peace!

We thank God for you and always mention you in our prayers. Each time we pray,

we tell God our Father about your faith and loving work and about your firm hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

My dear friends, God loves you, and we know he has chosen you to be his people.

And because of you, the Lord's message has spread everywhere in those regions. Now the news of your faith in God is known all over the world, and we don't have to say a thing about it.

Everyone is talking about how you welcomed us and how you turned away from idols to serve the true and living God.

They also tell how you are waiting for his Son Jesus to come from heaven. God raised him from death, and on the day of judgment Jesus will save us from God's anger.

As you remember, we had been mistreated and insulted at Philippi. But God gave us the courage to tell you the good news about him, even though many people caused us trouble.

God was pleased to trust us with his message. We didn't speak to please people, but to please God who knows our motives.

You also know that we didn't try to flatter anyone. God himself knows that what we did wasn't a cover-up for greed.

Both you and God are witnesses that we were pure and honest and innocent in our dealings with you followers of the Lord.

We begged, encouraged, and urged each of you to live in a way that would honor God. He is the one who chose you to share in his own kingdom and glory.

We always thank God that you believed the message we preached. It came from him, and it isn't something made up by humans. You accepted it as God's message, and now he is working in you.

Those Jews killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and they even chased us away. God doesn't like what they do and neither does anyone else.

They keep us from speaking his message to the Gentiles and from leading them to be saved. The Jews have always gone too far with their sins. Now God has finally become angry and will punish them.

How can we possibly thank God enough for all the happiness you have brought us?

We pray that God our Father and our Lord Jesus will let us visit you.

And when our Lord comes with all of his people, I pray that he will make your hearts pure and innocent in the sight of God the Father.

Finally, my dear friends, since you belong to the Lord Jesus, we beg and urge you to live as we taught you. Then you will please God. You are already living that way, but try even harder.