New Testament Plan

¹You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain,

²but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.

³For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery,

⁴but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts.

⁵As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed;

⁶nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others,

⁷though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children.

⁸So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

⁹You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

¹⁰You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers.

¹¹As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children,

¹²urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

¹³We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.

¹⁴For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews,

¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone

¹⁶by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins; but God’s wrath has overtaken them at last.

¹⁷As for us, brothers and sisters, when, for a short time, we were made orphans by being separated from you — in person, not in heart — we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face.

¹⁸For we wanted to come to you — certainly I, Paul, wanted to again and again — but Satan blocked our way.

¹⁹For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?

²⁰Yes, you are our glory and joy!

¹Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we decided to be left alone in Athens;

²and we sent Timothy, our brother and co-worker for God in proclaiming the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you for the sake of your faith,

³so that no one would be shaken by these persecutions. Indeed, you yourselves know that this is what we are destined for.

⁴In fact, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer persecution; so it turned out, as you know.

⁵For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith; I was afraid that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labor had been in vain.

⁶But Timothy has just now come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love. He has told us also that you always remember us kindly and long to see us — just as we long to see you.

⁷For this reason, brothers and sisters, during all our distress and persecution we have been encouraged about you through your faith.

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

⁹How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you?

¹⁰Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever 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 make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you.

¹³And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

¹Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more.

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

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

⁴that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor,

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

⁶that no one wrong or exploit a brother or sister in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, just as we have already told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

⁷For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness.

⁸Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you.

⁹Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another;

¹⁰and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more,

¹¹to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you,

¹²so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one.

¹³But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.

¹⁵For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.

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

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

¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.