Study Desk

so that your hearts are strengthened in holiness to be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Finally then, brothers and sisters, we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how you must live and please God (as you are in fact living) that you do so more and more.

And indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more,

Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.

So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober.

He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep we will come to life together with him.

We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater.

He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seat in God's temple, displaying himself as God.

And so you know what holds him back, so that he will be revealed in his own time.

For the hidden power of lawlessness is already at work. However, the one who holds him back will do so until he is taken out of the way,

and with every kind of evil deception directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth so as to be saved.

Consequently God sends on them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.

And so all of them who have not believed the truth but have delighted in evil will be condemned.

He called you to this salvation through our gospel, so that you may possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and so provide their own food to eat.

But if anyone does not obey our message through this letter, take note of him and do not associate closely with him, so that he may be ashamed.

They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not understand what they are saying or the things they insist on so confidently.

But here is why I was treated with mercy: so that in me as the worst, Christ Jesus could demonstrate his utmost patience, as an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life.