New Testament Plan

¹For you yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our visit with you was not without result.

²On the contrary, after we had previously suffered and were treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, we were emboldened by our God to speak the gospel of God to you in spite of great opposition.

³For our exhortation didn’t come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive.

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

⁵For we never used flattering speech, as you know, or had greedy motives  — God is our witness  —

⁶and we didn’t seek glory from people, either from you or from others.

⁷Although we could have been a burden as Christ’s apostles, instead we were gentle among you, as a nurse nurtures her own children.

⁸We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

⁹For you remember our labor and hardship, brothers and sisters. Working night and day so that we would not burden any of you, we preached God’s gospel to you.

¹⁰You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers.

¹¹As you know, like a father with his own children,

¹²we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to live worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

¹³This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe.

¹⁴For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, since you have also suffered the same things from people of your own country, just as they did from the Jews

¹⁵who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us. They displease God and are hostile to everyone,

¹⁶by keeping us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. As a result, they are constantly filling up their sins to the limit, and wrath has overtaken them at last.

¹⁷But as for us, brothers and sisters, after we were forced to leave you for a short time (in person, not in heart ), we greatly desired and made every effort to return and see you face to face.

¹⁸So we wanted to come to you — even I, Paul, time and again — but Satan hindered us.

¹⁹For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?

²⁰Indeed you are our glory and joy!

¹Therefore, when we could no longer stand it, we thought it was better to be left alone in Athens.

²And we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith,

³so that no one will be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.

⁴In fact, when we were with you, we told you in advance that we were going to experience affliction, and as you know, it happened.

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

⁶But now Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news about your faith and love. He reported that you always have good memories of us and that you long to see us, as we also long to see you.

⁷Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and affliction, we were encouraged about you through your faith.

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

⁹How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you,

¹⁰as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to 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 with love for one another and for everyone, just as we do for you.

¹³May he make your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Amen.

¹Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God — as you are doing  — do this even more.

²For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

³For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality,

⁴that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

⁵not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God.

⁶This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you.

⁷For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness.

⁸Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

⁹About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

¹⁰In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more,

¹¹to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

¹²so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.

¹³We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

¹⁵For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

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

¹⁷Then we who are still alive, who are left, 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 encourage one another with these words.