New Testament Plan

¹About the times and the seasons: Brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you.

²For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

³When they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

⁴But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark, for this day to surprise you like a thief.

⁵For you are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness.

⁶So then, let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled.

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

⁸But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation.

⁹For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

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

¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.

¹²Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you,

¹³and to regard them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.

¹⁴And we exhort you, brothers and sisters: warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

¹⁵See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.

¹⁶Rejoice always,

¹⁷pray constantly,

¹⁸give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

¹⁹Don’t stifle the Spirit.

²⁰Don’t despise prophecies,

²¹but test all things. Hold on to what is good.

²²Stay away from every kind of evil.

²³Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁴He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.

²⁵Brothers and sisters, pray for us also.

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

²⁷I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers and sisters.

²⁸The 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 to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, since your faith is flourishing and the love each one of you has for one another is increasing.

⁴Therefore, we ourselves boast about you among God’s churches — about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions that you are enduring.

⁵It is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment that you will be counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also are suffering,

⁶since it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you

⁷and to give relief to you who are afflicted, along with us. This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels,

⁸when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

⁹They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious strength

¹⁰on that day when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at by all those who have believed, because our testimony among you was believed.

¹¹In view of this, we always pray for you that our God will make you worthy of his calling, and by his power fulfill your every desire to do good and your work produced by faith,

¹²so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

¹Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him: We ask you, brothers and sisters,

²not to be easily upset or troubled, either by a prophecy or by a message or by a letter supposedly from us, alleging that the day of the Lord has come.

³Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

⁴He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s temple, proclaiming that he himself is God.

⁵Don’t you remember that when I was still with you I used to tell you about this?

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

⁷For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way,

⁸and then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and will bring him to nothing at the appearance of his coming.

⁹The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders,

¹⁰and with every wicked deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved.

¹¹For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie,

¹²so that all will be condemned  — those who did not believe the truth but delighted in unrighteousness.

¹³But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

¹⁴He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or what we wrote.

¹⁶May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace,

¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.