Chronological Plan

¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

²We always give thanks to God for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers;

³constantly keeping in mind your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father,

⁴knowing, brothers and sisters, beloved by God, His choice of you;

⁵for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sakes.

⁶You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word during great affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

⁷so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

⁸For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place the news of your faith toward God has gone out, so that we have no need to say anything.

⁹For they themselves report about us as to the kind of reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God,

¹⁰and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come.

¹For you yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our reception among you was not in vain,

²but after we had already suffered and been treated abusively in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.

³For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit;

⁴but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not intending to please people, but to please God, who examines our hearts.

⁵For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is our witness—

⁶nor did we seek honor from people, either from you or from others, though we could have asserted our authority as apostles of Christ.

⁷But we proved to be gentle among you. As a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children,

⁸in the same way we had a fond affection for you and were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.

⁹For you recall, brothers and sisters, our labor and hardship: it was by working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, that we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

¹⁰You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly and rightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers;

¹¹just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children,

¹²so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

¹³For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of mere men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe.

¹⁴For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews,

¹⁵who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all people,

¹⁶hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always reach the limit of their sins. But wrath has come upon them fully.

¹⁷But we, brothers and sisters, having been orphaned from you by absence for a short while—in person, not in spirit—were all the more eager with great desire to see your face.

¹⁸For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, more than once—and Satan hindered us.

¹⁹For who is our hope, or joy or crown of pride, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? Or is it not indeed you?

²⁰For you are our glory and joy.

¹Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it best to be left behind, alone at Athens,

²and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you for the benefit of your faith,

³so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we have been destined for this.

⁴For even when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it happened, as you know.

⁵For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be for nothing.

⁶But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you,

⁷for this reason, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith;

⁸for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.

⁹For what thanks can we give to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice because of you before our God,

¹⁰as we keep praying most earnestly night and day that we may see your faces, and may complete what is lacking in your faith?

¹¹Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you;

¹²and may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you;

¹³so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.

¹Finally then, brothers and sisters, we request and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel even more.

²For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

³For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;

⁴that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

⁵not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

⁶and that no one violate the rights and take advantage of his brother or sister in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you previously and solemnly warned you.

⁷For God has not called us for impurity, but in sanctification.

⁸Therefore, the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

⁹Now as to the love of the brothers and sisters, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;

¹⁰for indeed you practice it toward all the brothers and sisters who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to excel even more,

¹¹and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we instructed you,

¹²so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.

¹³But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope.

¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.

¹⁵For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

¹⁶For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

¹⁷Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

¹⁸Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

¹Now as to the periods and times, brothers and sisters, you have no need of anything to be written to you.

²For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord is coming just like a thief in the night.

³While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

⁴But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, so that the day would overtake you like a thief;

⁵for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;

⁶so then, let’s not sleep as others do, but let’s be alert and sober.

⁷For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk, get drunk at night.

⁸But since we are of the day, let’s be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

⁹For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹⁰who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.

¹¹Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing.

¹²But we ask you, brothers and sisters, to recognize those who diligently labor among you and are in leadership over you in the Lord, and give you instruction,

¹³and that you regard them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.

¹⁴We urge you, brothers and sisters, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

¹⁵See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek what is good for one another and for all people.

¹⁶Rejoice always,

¹⁷pray without ceasing,

¹⁸in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

¹⁹Do not quench the Spirit,

²⁰do not utterly reject prophecies,

²¹but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good,

²²abstain from every form of evil.

²³Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁴Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will do it.

²⁵Brothers and sisters, pray for us.

²⁶Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.

²⁷I put you under oath by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.

²⁸May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is only fitting, because your faith is increasing abundantly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another grows ever greater.

⁴As a result, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.

⁵This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you indeed are suffering.

⁶For after all it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,

⁷and to give relief to you who are afflicted, along with us, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels

⁸in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

⁹These people will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,

¹⁰when He comes to be glorified among His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—because our testimony to you was believed.

¹¹To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will consider you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power,

¹²so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, in accordance with the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

¹Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, regarding the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,

²that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit, or a message, or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

³No one is to deceive you in any way! For it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,

⁴who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

⁵Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?

⁶And you know what restrains him now, so that he will be revealed in his time.

⁷For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is removed.

⁸Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will eliminate with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;

⁹that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders,

¹⁰and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not accept the love of the truth so as to be saved.

¹¹For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,

¹²in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

¹³But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

¹⁴It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.

¹⁶Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace,

¹⁷comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.

¹Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it was also with you;

²and that we will be rescued from troublesome and evil people; for not all have the faith.

³But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

⁴We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing, and will do, what we command.

⁵May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the perseverance of Christ.

⁶Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother or sister who leads a disorderly life and not one in accordance with the tradition which you received from us.

⁷For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined way among you,

⁸nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you;

⁹not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a role model for you, so that you would follow our example.

¹⁰For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.

¹¹For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies.

¹²Now we command and exhort such persons in the Lord Jesus Christ to work peacefully and eat their own bread.

¹³But as for you, brothers and sisters, do not grow weary of doing good.

¹⁴If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person so as not to associate with him, so that he will be put to shame.

¹⁵And yet do not regard that person as an enemy, but admonish that one as a brother or sister.

¹⁶Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all!

¹⁷I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter; this is the way I write.

¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.