Study Desk

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Timothy has come back from his visit with you and has told us about your faith and love. He also said that you always have happy memories of us and that you want to see us as much as we want to see 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.

So if you don't obey these rules, you are not really disobeying us. You are disobeying God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

and you already have shown your love for all of his people in Macedonia. But, my dear friends, we ask you to do even more.

Our Lord Jesus told us that when he comes, we won't go up to meet him ahead of his followers who have already died.

In the name of the Lord I beg you to read this letter to all his followers.

All of this shows that God judges fairly and that he is making you fit to share in his kingdom for which you are suffering.

but he will give you relief from your troubles. He will do the same for us, when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven with his powerful angels

and with a flaming fire. Our Lord Jesus will punish anyone who doesn't know God and won't obey his message.

Their punishment will be eternal destruction, and they will be kept far from the presence of our Lord and his glorious strength.

God chose you, and we keep praying that God will make you worthy of being his people. We pray for God's power to help you do all the good things that you hope to do and that your faith makes you want to do.

His mysterious power is already at work, but someone is holding him back. And the wicked one won't appear until that someone is out of the way.

Lost people will be fooled by his evil deeds. They could be saved, but they will refuse to love the truth and accept it.

My friends, the Lord loves you, and it is only natural for us to thank God for you. God chose you to be the first ones to be saved. His Spirit made you holy, and you put your faith in the truth.

God used our preaching as his way of inviting you to share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.