Greetings

1From:a Paul, Silvanus,b and Timothy.

To: The church of the Thessalonians in union with God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.c

2May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah,d be yours!

Endurance in Affliction

3Brothers, at all times we are obligated to thank God for you. It is right to do thise because your faith is growing all the time and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. 4As a result, we rejoice about you among God’s churches—about your endurance and faith through all the persecutions and afflictions you are experiencing. 5This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment and is intended to make you worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you are suffering. 6Certainly it is right for God to pay back those who afflict you with affliction, 7and to give us who are afflicted relief when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8in blazing fire. He will take revenge on those who do not know God and on those who refuse to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9Such people will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction by being separated from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious power 10when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be regarded with wonder on that day by all who have believed—including you, because you believed our testimony.

11With this in mind, we always pray for you, askingf that our God might make you worthy of his calling and that through his power he might help you accomplish every good desire and faithful action. 12That way the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus, the Messiah.g